Need for Speed: The Run is one of the most unique racing games I've ever played, and I regret not giving it more attention when it first released. Although it's a racing game, it's structured more like a single-player action-adventure. Every race is something like a level or mission, with its own scripted events and checkpoints. Instead of advancing in the ranks, you're progressing through the story until you reach and beat the final boss.

While this does make the game more linear than your standard racing game, it's not like the racing genre is about non-linearity. And, for what it is, this game still has quite a lot of it. You are forced to make a lot of difficult choices, because:

1. Every track features a bunch of shortcuts, most of which are much tougher to drive through, but will reward your skill.
2. You get to earn more nitro by driving more recklessly, incentivizing you to take more risks.
3. Every car has a noticeably different handling, and you're risking losing the race by selecting a car that you haven't tried, and it being a poor choice for this particular track or just hard to handle in general.

Risk in general is the main theme here. I've never seen another racing game that conveys the sense of speed quite as well as this one. The steering is rather tight, which means you have to watch the road really carefully, as often you'll only have milliseconds to react to the suddenly appearing obstacles on the road. But it's these little moments that make up the heart of this game. With realistic (for an arcade racer) physics and a cinematic camera, dodging other cars and objects on the road becomes extremely rewarding. I'd say half the times it's sheer luck. And the experience is enhanced when you're going through set-pieces like falling rocks or avalanches and succeeding on your first try. These things just keep getting crazier as you progress through the game. I don't really wanna mention examples because it's kinda spoiling it. These events are so fun to encounter when you don't expect them, you should really experience it for yourself. Every track surprises you with something new and creative. You also get chased by cops, and the collision physics here are the best in the series, which makes ramming cops a joy. They can ram you too, which makes them simultaneously more of a threat than in the previous games, adding suspense to an already adrenaline-pumping situation. I don't think I've ever played another racing game that made me exclaim "WHOAH!" "WTF!" and "JESUS CHRIST!" as often as this game did. Just the amount of raw emotion I got from it is unparalleled.

I think I could've given this game a perfect rating, if it wasn't for such a focus on its mediocre, underdeveloped story and some technical flaws that I'll get to.

The premise of NFS: The Run is that you're a street racer who owes money to the mafia or something like that (I honestly don't remember), and you join this mega-race called The Run, which spans the entire US from coast to coast. There is a story here, and that's kinda all I can say about it. Occasionally there are QTE-scenes, which are okay, but they don't really add much to the game. By the end of the game, I felt like the developers meant the story to be more important than it came off as to me. Because they implemented these "characters," which you only really learn a little bit about from like a paragraph of text during a loading screen before the levels where you have to race them. It's usually stuff like "Jake used to be a criminal, but then he fell in love with a girl and they wanna start a family, so he bet all his money on this race." And it's like "okay, Jake, I guess I'm gonna ruin your dream now." Then at the end you get this cutscene of just him meeting with the woman that got him into the race, and she says "Okay, here's the key to the box with the money. Also, do you wanna do another race?" This ending is so anti-climactic, it would actually be better to not have an ending. Personally, with a story this weak, I'd probably go for a more action-packed cutscene than this, or make the final race end with some kinda grand set-piece that transitions into the credits.

It does somewhat compensate for a poor story with the diversity of visuals. They stick closer to a realistic look than a stylized one, but there is some stylization. Some tracks look pretty mediocre, but others can be really gorgeous, especially towards the end, as you start reaching the East coast. The level in Philadelphia has strong Halloween vibes. Also, what I like about this concept is that you get to drive through locations that resemble previous games in the series. And, I feel like the devs were aware of it and intentionally designed them in a familiar fashion. Because this game has some cars from the previous games (with vinyls and all), such Nissan Skyline from Underground, Nissan 370z (substituting for 350z) from Underground 2, BMW M3 GTR from Most Wanted, Audi R8 from Carbon, and others (including cars belonging to other characters). There is a challenge mode, which includes Underground, Carbon, and Most Wanted-themed challenges. They're kinda lackluster because they don't really do much other than putting specific in cars in specific locations, not even slapping a color filter on top, but it's still such a nostalgia bomb.

And you can play through the main campaign using these cars, except not every car is available in every level. And car-selection process here is one of my biggest problems with this game. For some reason they don't let you select your car before each stage, instead forcing you to drive into this gas station (why not a garage?) in the middle of the race, breaking up the flow of the game, and letting your opponents get ahead. That is, if you manage to spot it in time and risk turning towards it when you're driving at an insane speed and hyper-focusing on the oncoming traffic. Plus, after you've selected the car, you have to gain speed again, letting the opponents get even further away. The game is very simple in concept, which kinda makes every little flaw stand out more. And stuff like this can be very frustrating in a game as suspenseful as this.

There isn't really any customization here aside from some cars having an extra pre-made setup, and sometimes letting you choose an extra color. You can't really customize your experience much either. For example, there is no music selection anymore, and you can't even regulate sound levels, which is really annoying. Because I feel like this game's soundtrack is quite good, but sometimes I could barely hear the music behind the sound of engine and effects. Also sometimes the game would randomly default my control settings, forcing me to spend another extra 5 minutes quitting back to the main menu and resetting them.

In conclusion, I feel like this game had the potential of being a masterpiece, but a few issues held it back. It takes a very simple concept and executes it really well, but the simpler the concept is, the more perfection you kinda expect from it, and this game still has a way to go towards perfection. If it had a genuinely good story or no story at all, perhaps it would've left a better impression. As it is though, NFS: The Run delivers a unique action-packed racing experience, but falls short of achieving true greatness.