Unpopular opinion: NFS 2015 was the closest we have been to going back to the roots of the franchise.
As a long term Need for Speed fan (NFSHS) and also having played all of their latest installments of this decade, I decided to give 2015 a second chance after finishing Unbound and oh boy were I surprised. The ambience? Perfect. The cars? Yeah, not many but good selections. Characters? Pretty basic most of the time but they have their moments, specially Spike. And also one thing i noticed was the sense of progression i felt and had with this game that i didn't feel as much in Unbound, Payback or Heat, why? Because the grind is compensating in this game, like when you finally have the money to buy a turbo/supercharger to turn your ride into a proper rocketship, while in the three newest you have to spend a entire eternity to buy a single car just to tune it, all over again, with the same painstaking process, and every car slowly turns obsolete as it's almost impossible to finish the game with a single car from early game because engine changes cost a liver and guess what? Upgrade it all over again. Meanwhile in 2015 I finished most of the story with the Honda they give as your first car, just by making the right build.
Also another important thing is the ambience, makes you really feel like you're knee deep in the street racing scene, while also having rivals to get to and defeat, all of that combined with the sheer level of performance customization made me really feel like a kid playing the original Underground NFSs on my PS2.
In resume: It has its flaws and they're not few (looking at you crab-walking), cop chases are also lacking, but in the soul of the project I felt it was the closest we have ever been to a new need for speed underground. With that being said, U2 and MW still rule.
As a long term Need for Speed fan (NFSHS) and also having played all of their latest installments of this decade, I decided to give 2015 a second chance after finishing Unbound and oh boy were I surprised. The ambience? Perfect. The cars? Yeah, not many but good selections. Characters? Pretty basic most of the time but they have their moments, specially Spike. And also one thing i noticed was the sense of progression i felt and had with this game that i didn't feel as much in Unbound, Payback or Heat, why? Because the grind is compensating in this game, like when you finally have the money to buy a turbo/supercharger to turn your ride into a proper rocketship, while in the three newest you have to spend a entire eternity to buy a single car just to tune it, all over again, with the same painstaking process, and every car slowly turns obsolete as it's almost impossible to finish the game with a single car from early game because engine changes cost a liver and guess what? Upgrade it all over again. Meanwhile in 2015 I finished most of the story with the Honda they give as your first car, just by making the right build.
Also another important thing is the ambience, makes you really feel like you're knee deep in the street racing scene, while also having rivals to get to and defeat, all of that combined with the sheer level of performance customization made me really feel like a kid playing the original Underground NFSs on my PS2.
In resume: It has its flaws and they're not few (looking at you crab-walking), cop chases are also lacking, but in the soul of the project I felt it was the closest we have ever been to a new need for speed underground. With that being said, U2 and MW still rule.