The eclectic roster of cars is only a fraction of what’s on offer in, say, Forza Horizon 2, but it has a little something for most gearheads. The cars glisten with beaded water droplets and the streets gleam, a shiny tapestry of mirror-like asphalt. These transitions seem to be baked into parts of the environment so they can actually happen multiple times over the course of a single race.

However, the sudden, jarring transitions from the dead of night, to pre-dawn, and then back to night again are horribly ill-conceived.

Need for Speed also sounds nearly as good as it looks the throaty burble of performance-tuned engines is well-realised and the crackle of exhaust overrun and the ker-chunk of slamming gears is similarly respectable. The cars glisten with beaded water droplets and the streets gleam, a shiny tapestry of mirror-like asphalt reflecting artificial light from all angles.

There are dark and gritty instances where it feels a little like the whole thing has been shot on Michael Mann’s iPhone, but racing at speed through the soaked streets here (particularly in bumper cam) is really something else. It is immediately extremely pretty, though. However, the single-player component is over too soon, the multiplayer underdelivers, the cut-scene dialogue often had me wincing, and the game is stung by the side-effects of being online-only. It looks incredible, sounds fantastic, and while the handling is still standard arcade fare developer Ghost Games has added a welcome dose of nuance by letting us tune our cars for either grip or drift. It is, at least, a more clearly distinct game than the last few NFS instalments were from one another.

After a year off, Need for Speed has the series coasting back over familiar turf, resurrecting the spirit of 20’s successful Underground games.

Need for speed 2015 pc ign