How Need For Speed Payback Rekindled My Love of Racing Games
As a kid, I loved racing games of all shapes and sizes. One of the first I can recall playing with my little brother was ATV Offroad Fury for the PlayStation 2. I loved flooring the gas and jumping over hills in that game and finding ways to crash in the worst way possible. Later on, I played LEGO Racers on my dad’s computer, then LEGO Racers 2 for the PlayStation 2, and later got into the Mario Kart series on my Nintendo DS, Wii, and most recently, my Switch. Power-ups in those games made the races that much more interesting and gave me the feeling that I could somewhat control the outcome of the race, and that if you’re in first place right now you might not be in the next couple seconds.
When puberty hit, my tastes in video games changed. I wanted to play more first person action/adventure and shooter video games, like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and I slowly drifted (pun intended) away from racing games. They didn’t seem nearly as fun to me with no story or action behind them, and it remained like that until a day in late November of 2018.
Black Friday happened recently, and the PlayStation Store was having a massive sale on all kinds of video games. I picked up a $25 PlayStation store gift card, thinking “I’ll take a gamble, let’s see what they have”. The Deluxe Edition of Need For Speed Payback was on sale for $14.99. I looked at the star rating of it on the store, saw a promotional video, and decided to buy it. After all, it came out in 2017, and I wanted to try my luck at a genre I hadn’t played as much as I’d used to.
Payback gave me a new twist on games that I had previously been subconsciously looking for — the cars you race in the game are real cars from real brands, and you can customize them to suit your needs. After winning a few races early on in the game, I bought a classic 1960’s Ford Mustang and proceeded to make it my Off-Road Vehicle of choice (There are 5 different kinds of cars you can own and use in 5 kinds of races — Race, Off-Road, Drag, Drift, and Runner). I found a fun decal of a neon green zombie woman licking ice cream, slapped it on the car and painted it mint green, even putting the zombie’s tongue on the Mustang’s rear logo. It was like I had created my very own Hot Wheels car.
The power-ups in this game are much more meaningful than in the other games that I’ve played in the past, coming in the form of tiered upgrades from a variety of different fictional manufacturers that raise your car’s performance. They can improve the level of Nitrous Boost your car can hold, the horsepower, 0–60 MPH speed, braking power, and even jump time when you’re feeling like an adrenaline junkie.
It’s amazing how quickly I got into racing my Mustang, and how during each race before it starts you’re prompted with a customized bet, like “Stay in 1st place for at least 1 minute and win the race” or get so many points while drifting and win. Bets added a level of risk and reward I’d previously never seen in a racing game and presented me with a choice — do I risk $2k of my own money for the chance of getting a $8k reward added onto my reward for winning the race, or do I decline the bet and just take my winnings and go?
Personalization is what these other games have been missing. Sure, you can choose your ATV or car in those, but they’ve been predetermined and there’s a lack of a customization screen outside of a limited color choice, some wheels and if you wanted a motorcycle or not. Now, I have the choice to color my cars whatever I want, put fun decals on them, and upgrade their parts over time to create the best car to suit my play-style. I’ve really gotten the hang of Off-Road races (for the most part), and I can’t wait to get the car out on the dirt again in Need For Speed Payback.
