Tomorrow marks the release of the first Need For Speed game in two years, Payback. But rather than just take an emphasis on street racing action, this new entry follows a mad road to revenge, as a team of superstar racers take on The House in Fortune Valley, a Las Vegas-style town where the stakes are always high and the racing action is always ferocious.
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To get a better idea of what players can expect from this new entry, we had a chance to sit down with Payback creative director Will Ho, asking about the story as well as what players can expect from single player and multiplayer components. Let’s hit the road!
Digging Into the Story and Characters
First off, what can you tell us about the story in Need For Speed: Payback? It definitely seems a little Fast and Furious oriented, with players fighting against a big system.
The story is, at its core, a revenge story with racing, heists, and a bit of mystery thrown in. The main characters, Tyler, Jess, and Mac just want to drive to make their way in Silver Rock. But The House, a shadowy cartel, controls everything for power and profit. It’s a classic setup of David vs. Goliath. Action movies have this theme, Need for Speed games have it, and so does Need for Speed Payback.
Will you be able to play as various characters in the story, or will it focus on just the one behind the wheel?
The single-player campaign contains threads that focus you on one character at a time. But you get to choose which character’s specialty you fancy in the moment. Wanna drag race? Tyler’s your man. Feel like delivering packages while battling cops. You do that as Jess. Or you can choose to head for the hills for off-roading as Mac. Then you play as all three characters in blockbuster missions, helping them work together as a crew.
Multiplayer and Trouble
Will it tie in with multiplayer somehow, or will that be a separate entity from the story?
Many fans told us they really wanted to focus on either single-player or multiplayer at any given time. So we let you play through the entire campaign offline (but it’s better online with the 100+ leaderboards for you to compete on). And when you want to go racing against friends and the world, you jump directly to our multiplayer Speedlists mode. Any Race and Off-road cars you acquire, customize, and upgrade in single-player are used in multiplayer. But gameplay-wise, each side is true to what it wants to be without compromise.
Tell us about some of the more compelling characters within the game. Will we also get a hearty introduction to whomever the villains are?
To play off Tyler, Jess, and Mac, we have three other major players in our story. Rav is the world-weary mentor and mechanic for the crew. He reluctantly jumps back in the fray. Then there is Marcus “The Gambler” Weir. He’s a bit of a wildcard, being friend and foe to our heroes at different points of the story. And finally, there is Lina “The Fixer” Moretti. She shares a common history with Tyler but aims for a very different future with The House at her back.
Replay Value Galore
How long would you say the story mode lasts in the game? Does it have any replayability factors, like alternate storylines?
We find players take between 15 and 25 hours to go from intro to climax in the single-player campaign. It all depends on what you choose to do between the main races and missions. Customizing and upgrading your car is easy to do but you can easily fall into a rabbit hole while tinkering in the garage. There are secondary events and activities in the open world to tempt you: Roaming Racers, Bait Crates, Speed Runs, Drift Zones, Collectibles and more. Also, you can replay most campaign missions to post top scores and compete with friends via Autolog. There’s so much to do!
Finally, aside from Payback, do you have any favorite moments from story modes in previous Need For Speed games?
I really enjoy hearing from fans what they remember fondly about past Need for Speed games. People ask me why we have story in our games. It’s because players actually remember them!
Personally, I loved the epic cop chase at the end of Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005). We have something similarly epic at the end of Need for Speed Payback, but with new twists. I hope you enjoy it.
Need For Speed Payback releases tomorrow for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
