'Need for Speed Payback' Review Roundup: New 'NFS' Fails to Impress

"Need for Speed Payback" launched for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the PC on Friday, Nov. 10, and Ghost Games has done a great job in adding action sequences that would not be out of place in a "Fast & Furious" movie. Everything else about the game, though, looks bland, drab and tired in comparison.

In a disturbing trend with today's new crop of games, this latest "NFS" installment published by Electronic Arts has a focus on grinding and a steep progression system that takes away enjoyment from the game. The rest of the package is not very appealing, either, as Gamespot sums up in their review roundup.

Gamespot itself gave "Need for Speed Payback" a dreary five out of ten, with their review blasting the game for its drab design that's not helped by the slow and grinding progression mechanics.

IGN agrees with the score for a handful of other reasons. For their reviewer, it was the "overwrought and insidious upgrade system, its dreadful dialogue, and its superficial action sequences" that did it in.

A Polygon review also goes at length about how the poor AI tuning and the lack of rewards make the story missions a slog. With multiple currencies and loot boxes at play here, "Need for Speed Payback" looks to be tuned to reward players who spend money and not so much those who can ace a story event on their first try.

"Need for Speed Payback" is currently at a dismal 67 at the review aggregation site Metacritic, both for its Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions. User scores are even less generous than the critics towards the game, which earned a 6.0 average over a majority of negative reviews by players.

"Need for Speed Payback" has been out since Friday, Nov. 10, for those looking to give this arcade racing title a try.