Games
Creative director William Ho reveals why the new Need For Speed is ditching realism to give gamers their own action movie fantasy.
In the last few years, racing games have largely come in two very different models – your serious sim racer or the open world, cross-country drive-a-thon. These two much-used blueprints have recently given gamers both the stunning arcade hijinks of Forza Horizon 3 and the petrol-head-pleasing Project Cars, keeping fans of digital driving pretty spoiled for choice. Yet, when it comes to the more casual racing fan, there’s one type of game that’s been sorely missing – your action-packed, car-flipping Hollywood racer.
Thankfully, Need For Speed creator Ghost Games has seen the gap in the market. For the franchise's 2017 entry, the team have decided to take some inspiration from the glitz and glamour of the big screen with huge car crashes and a Fast and Furious-style heist story.
We spoke with Payback’s creative director William Ho to find out why racing fans should start getting excited about Need For Speed again.
Payback is a revenge story
Payback is doing away with the live-action cinematics of the last game and taking the story in-engine as the game aims to put players inside an action-packed car chase movie.
Here, wannabe racers will be put in the boots of not one but three different characters, as players get to finally live out their Fast and Furious fantasies from behind a controller.
It is a much higher quality of storytelling this time around
“It became really apparent early on that we really wanted to do an action movie fantasy” reveals Ho, with a grin. “In the last Need for Speed we had live-action cutscenes, which could only happen in certain places because we only had so many sets. Now it’s all in-engine cutscenes, and we feel that it is a much higher quality of storytelling this time around.”
So what kind of story can players expect from Payback? Well, it looks like the clue is in the name. “Payback is, of course, a revenge story," states Ho. “We have this crew of three friends who are trying to make their way in the city of Silver Rock. They’re really just taking jobs and trying to make ends meet, but then they cross paths with this evil cartel called The House. They control all the casinos, they control the smaller gangs, the cops… Basically, The House fix everything in the city for their own profit, so there’s this constant tension between [The House] and our heroes.”
While we’re eager to know what exactly makes this a revenge story, Ho remains tight-lipped. “Early in the game something bad happens to our crew, but I’m not going to spoil it!”
Heist missions are crazy action-packed spectacles
While Payback’s story sounds interesting, we were curious to see how this high-adrenaline tale of gang warfare would actually work in a Need For Speed game. Enter the game’s slick-looking heist missions.
Ho gave us a taste of the wonderfully over-the-top action that players can expect, showing us a heist where the gang track down one of The House’s convoy in a bid to steal a supercar they’re transporting. With The House quickly cottoning on to the trio’s ambush, the cartel’s convoy focuses its attention on our heroes – with its muscle cars trying to force us off the road.
As the player swerves into one of the pursuing gang cars, time suddenly slows, showing the gang car spinning off into the dirt before back-flipping and igniting into flames. It’s all wonderfully ridiculous, and Ho claims that this kind of satisfying spectacle will be fairly prominent throughout Payback’s story.
You’re going to see really dynamic, exciting Hollywood-type moments
“As you progress through the story there are these blockbuster action pieces. Highway Heist is one of them, where all three characters come together and you play as multiple characters to collaborate."
As you’d expect from ambitious adrenaline-packed heists, things don’t always go according to plan: “[The trio] have plans to achieve their goals, but those plans go sideways a lot, just like in any good action movie. You’re going to see really dynamic, exciting Hollywood-type moments with vehicles in terms of how they watch each other’s backs.”
Three racers, three different play styles
In a nod to GTA V, Need For Speed Payback is giving players control of all three of the game’s main characters.
Ho explains how it works: “[The way players] progress is through our three characters: Tyler, Jess and Mac – our racer, wheelman and showman respectively. They all have their own different driving styles and they handle different types of events in the open world. So you’ll switch to different characters to find different types of events depending on how you want to play at a given time.
This doesn't mean players will be getting out of ther cars though. "You never have to stop and get out of a car and get in another car," says Ho. "We really want these guys to be coordinating these efforts. So you’ll be driving along as Tyler in one car, and all of a sudden, we can transition you to another character in another car in action movie fashion."
Payback features offline single player, plus multiplayer
You asked, and it looks like the developers listened. After the frustrating online only single-player mode in the last game, Ghost Games has opted to make the single-player and head-to-head multiplayer two entirely separate experiences. Ho tells us that the single-player game world will still feature online leaderboard integration though.
Our single player campaign is playable offline, but actually it’s way better connected
“Our single player campaign is playable offline, but actually it’s way better connected [than the last game]. When you go online, all of the racers, all of our missions, all of our activities in the open world, they’re competitive, and they’ve all got leaderboards.”
For players who are more into their real-time competitive racing, Ho explains that Payback will let you go straight in and get that online fix.
“If you just want to go on and race against friends, we’ll match you in what we call a Speedlist. A Speedlist is a series of events – you play through them one after the other, bam, bam, bam, and so you get into that rhythm.
"I’m sure you’ve experienced this online where you go through hour one, hour two, hour four, with the same guys. Well, we’ve got these point standings that accumulate, and it’s going to foster rivalries. Just pause the game and go direct to Speedlists – you don’t have to navigate to it in the game world. People who want to play competitively tend to want to get into it right away.”
More car variety and deeper customization
Another big complaint about 2015’s Need For Speed was that all the cars felt exactly the same. This year, Ghost Games are attempting to fix that by giving racers not only more cars, but more ways to make them feel like their own.
“We want people to enjoy a wide swathe of cars, and so now we have different reasons to choose different cars,” says Ho. “Certain cars are suited to different architecture and the different car classes that we have. So we have race car classes – we have drift, drag, offroad, and one called runner for Jess that's for stealthily driving through the city and avoiding cops.
"You can then choose that class and unlock the matching parts that you want to equip. But it’s not just about equipping the most expensive part, it’s about equipping a loadout that you want to dial in the car through your performance and your style, and that will help you to achieve your current goal."
Ho also reveals that players will be able to upgrade their car on the fly, saving them the time spent constantly travelling between missions and garages
“We’ve added what we call live tuning, so we’ve taken all those sliders that are really obscure and pulled them out so that when you’re free roaming you just hit a button, bring up some sliders and feel the difference – you can dial your car as you’re exploring the world.”
