Many savings - little content

"Need for Speed ​​- The Run" sounded promising at first glance. The story is simple: Jack has problems with a few gangsters and must therefore in an illegal race from San Francisco to New York made in order to raise money. Having to drive to drive across the states and also dispense from time to time on its mobile support promised to be varied. But what the developers have delivered here was but of rather a bit boring.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically, the game is rather inconspicuous. Jack travels through deserts, cities, mountains, fields and more. The landscapes are so implemented varied, but more is not offered here. By comparison, "Need for Speed ​​- Underground" shone 9 years ago with top graphics. The reflections of the city lights on the cars back then really blew me away. In "The Run" in vain for such a feeling. The graphic implementation is rather average.
The often ingenious music selection has identified in past games a part of the charm of the game series. In "The Run" soundwise some was saved on budget. The tracks are inconspicuous and has already after the first 3 routes the feeling that everything repeats.

Race and fun

Disappointing was also what the developers have since done with the cars. The great thing about Need for Speed ​​and what it has separated from other racing games, the option was to tune the cars to their own ideas. Colors, vinyls, spoilers, bumpers - you could just compile everything according to your wishes. The falls simply in "The Run" away. There is no garage which can be accessed before the races there to edit his car. Instead, one has to rely on besides the road to find a gas station where one can replace his car. To the extent that fits well into the story, but here the frustration is just beginning. For more than select another car and choose from a maximum of 3 different preset "packs" to alter the appearance is not indoors. Moreover, nowhere visible what changes is bringing these packs with them. No information about changed or altered handling acceleration. Because it is blind access and hoping that the name of the pack (Styling Pack 1, Aeropack ...) suggests the actual performance change.
Although the developers have saved in the car, but it added a new feature to the game. In some sections of the game Jack loses his set of wheels and must walk in front of the police and / or gangsters flee. In theory, that sounds nice, but in practice it was not well implemented. It involves exactly 4 points of the game. Same run and control the character? Wrong! It involves QuickTime events where a few quick, on display aufscheinende, little buttons must be pressed. In this form, the whole undemanding and unexciting.
The race itself are varied due to the many different landscapes at first glance. After a few races but we notice that the 3 different types of races are very similar. In the 1st race type it comes to overtake all opponents and get the first finishing line. The 2nd race type is a race against the clock, because you have to have passed all the checkpoints before time runs out. On top of the 3rd race type, where you have to have overtaken an opponent before time runs out. Really variety as the well-known drift or drag race in vain.
In the race itself quickly comes to frustration. If you come off the track, the car will return to the last checkpoint resets and you lose a try. The problem is that the range over which one may stray from the route without anything happens too often is much too small. Often it involves only one car width. In addition, this area also varies within a track and it is a gamble so if nothing happens, or if you lose a try if you cut a curve closely.

Scope

The game may, depending on how often you need to repeat a track, are already playing in 4h. This is below average and far too little. In the main game, however, you can unlock challenges that extend the game time to a few hours. These challenges, however, it is only to already known routes from the main game, which you have to go with certain cars.
The real time that you spend in front of the XBox is however much higher than these few hours. Not because the replayability is high, but because the load times are eternally long.