E3 2011: Need for Speed: The Run Preview

Personally, one of E3 2011's biggest surprises came during the initial demo presentation of Need for Speed: The Run. This latest entry into the increasing confused franchise features sections in which you get out of the car and start running around on foot. Seriously, what the fuck? 

The section of The Run being shown off at E3 has a moment like this in which your car rolls over and you’re forced to remove yourself from it and hightail up a building's stairwell and along the rooftops in a bid to stay ahead of your pursuers, known only as ‘the mob’. However, rather than a ‘proper’ chunk of gameplay this section plays out like an interactive cut-scene, your interaction limited to quick-time event button prompts.

For example, you need to hit a button at the right moment to safely land a rooftop-to-rooftop leap before fighting a cop in a longer QTE sequence of timed presses and button mashing. During the cop sequence the action changes very slightly if you miss a button prompt, too many misses and you fail. Other than that though, there’s no way to alter the course of events.

Despite there not being all that much going on in terms of gameplay, this on-foot section performs its job of keeping you active throughout a scene that would otherwise have been entirely passive. However, there’s that old QTE problem of focusing on your button prompts and not properly concentrating on the on-screen action.

Apparently, these sections comprise only ten percent of the whole game, so anyone (like myself) worried that these moments are going to appear on a par with the racing should perhaps worry a little less. 

The premise of the game is that you’re taking part in a cross-country race from San Francisco to New York City. Although we’ve seen action that takes place in the urban sprawl of Chicago thus far, the games’ developers, EA Black Box, have said that we’ll be racing through other environments such as deserts, farmland and mountain ranges throughout the race. We’re told that the game packs over 300km of track which, we’re also told, is three times more than any other Need for Speed. It’s also the first time that the series will feature real world locations.

Black Box are staying tight-lipped regarding The Run’s story elements but the rough outline is that your character, Jack, is having problems with ‘the mob’ and that’s one of the reasons he’s in the cross-country race. Why entering the race can help solve his problems is as yet unknown.

There’s no doubting that this E3 demo is exciting, there’s not a second in which to relax or take your attention away from the screen. Starting with a race through the city against other ‘The Run’ contestants, running from the mob across rooftops, beating up a cop and stealing his car before trying to escape a helicopter, it’s a sure-fire contender for ‘Most Intense’ game of E3 2011. Whether that's a good thing or not is something i'm currently unsure about.

Said helicopter shows the usual lack of interest in protecting the public by firing its machine gun and rockets your way, exploding them all over downtown Chicago. You can go some way to avoiding the onslaught by trying as best you can to stay out of its spotlight. The demo ends with your police car upside on the railway tracks following a gas truck explosion, Jack escaping the wreck just before a train smashes into it (so long as you pass the obligatory QTE).

Visually it looks wonderful, presumably because it has been built using the same Frostbite 2 engine as Battlefield 3. The running scene packed that cinematic shine, explosions feel satisfyingly ‘meaty’ and the draw distance looks good. But, it’s the lighting that is perhaps most impressive. The glow from an exploded rocket, the red-blue flicker of police lights against the walls and ceiling of tunnels and the contrast between light and dark all combining to create a wonderful visual spectacle.

From what I could tell the E3 demo is pretty linear, although apparently tracks will feature alternate routes and short-cuts (as is the tradition for the ‘arcadey’ entries into the series).

The ‘Autolog’ system that was introduced in last year’s wonderful Need for Speed: Hot Pursuitreturns – in all honesty, if a racing game doesn’t feature some variation on Autolog then it’s missing a trick. Of course, the Autolog integration means you can compare your race times against friends and what not.

What’s troubling about Autolog in The Run’s case is that the constant high-action set-piece moments are sure to distract you from setting the fastest possible time. Black Box are going to have to balance things just right if they hope to incubate any form of serious competitive play.

The Run will feature other multiplayer elements but no details have been passed on to us as yet.

Terms like ‘Hollywood’ and ‘blockbuster’ are being thrown around by Black Box when talking about this game and it’s hard to argue against it looking suitably cinematic. However, this is the same studio responsible for the Undercover, Carbon and ProStreet editions of Need for Speed so (without trying to sound too cruel) I’m unwilling to get my hopes up too much until I’ve seen more of it.    

Need for Speed: The Run is due on 15 November, 2011 in the US and 18 November, 2011 in Europe for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PCs. Wii and 3DS editions are also in the works.