The Need for Speed franchise is full of heavy hitters like NFS: Most Wanted, but there are also plenty of duds like Payback and weird entries like Nitro. But few titles are as polarizing as the Need for Speed 2015 reboot. EA marketed the game as one that would stick to the franchise’s roots and be similar to its predecessors, but diehard fans of the franchise know how that played out.
In many ways, this game completely ditched the foundation of its predecessor, Rivals, in an attempt to create a story-focused tuner game. It wasn’t exactly the worst idea, as that’s what many believe Need for Speed should be about in the first place. There was a fair bit of hype around this one, but it launched to a mixed reception.
Yet, a decade later, many look back at the game with a look of nostalgia and argue that the criticism it received was not completely deserved. Let’s look at what the game had to offer and decide if it is an underwhelming mess or an underrated work of art.
Mixed Critical Reception
As the Need for Speed franchise has always been about serious racing, EA promised the fans that it would stick to its roots, and while this title takes a fair shot at that attempt, it does miss the mark in many ways.
You would expect a Need for Speed game to have brilliant driving mechanics and technical driving; however, one of the most noticeable flaws of the game is its handling model. The “brake-to-drift” system caused a lot of commotion in the community, as many players found it to be very inconsistent. More on that later.
The second biggest reason for the hate it received was its always-online requirement, which meant that the game couldn’t be paused even when you’re not playing multiplayer. Not everyone in the world has an always stable connection to the internet, but your 2015 performance depended on server stability.
The fans also mocked the main storyline of the game as the live-action cutscenes were admittedly a bit of a cringe-fest. I’m all for a train wreck, but the bigger problem with this title is the lack of stakes. The characters aren’t memorable, and a lot of them get annoying fast. The use of first-person cinematics and internet slang (which has aged poorly) also contributed to the hate.
With that said, the whole celebration of car culture wasn’t bad. It featured real-life automotive icons like Ken Block, Akira Nakai, and Magnus Walker, appealing to many car enthusiasts, and gave the story a touch of realism.
Visuals & Vibe
The visuals and graphics of the game were something that are still praised to this day by fans, which proves that they were outstanding for their time.
Need for Speed (2015) is regarded by many players as one of the best-looking games in the franchise, especially for its time. It had photorealistic graphics like stunning reflections and puddle effects due to the constant rain and wet roads. The environment is brilliantly divided between the dark city and intensely bright, artificial light sources. This, combined with the wet roads, gives the game an atmosphere like no other.
A feature that stood out to many players was its permanent night and rain. The game is set to always have wet surfaces and nighttime, which was done deliberately to create a dark underground vibe. I usually turn off motion blur in most games, but the implementation in this one feels oddly cinematic. And to enhance the cinematic feel even more, the music selection is nitpicked to feature a highly curated, rebellious nighttime vibe.
But what’s the point of having all that glamor when the world is empty? While the map looks massive, nearly half is completely unexplorable, which makes it feel like the game is more focused on graphics than actual gameplay. The AI is also quite useless during the police chases, as they don’t pose much of a challenge, despite the series already nailing the formula with the original Most Wanted back in 2005.
Car Roster & Tuning
If there’s one thing Need for Speed (2015) deserves credit for, it’s bringing back deep car customization. After years of stripped-down tuning systems, this reboot felt like a real callback to the Underground and Most Wanted days. You could finally build your dream car again. Swap out body kits, tweak performance parts, and even fine-tune your handling preferences. It captured that raw garage culture vibe that’s been missing from the series for years.
The game leaned heavily toward JDM and tuner culture, with cars like the RX-7 Spirit R and BMW M3 E46 giving players plenty of nostalgic street-racing appeal. It was also one of the first times the series let you actually adjust your car’s handling bias between grip and drift — a cool idea that gave you control over how your car behaved.
That said, the tuning system wasn’t perfect. For all the attention to customization, the car roster was fairly limited, and the five-car garage cap made it frustrating to experiment. Not every car got the same love, either. Some had tons of visual parts to swap out, while others, especially the high-end exotics, barely had anything customizable at all. So while Need for Speed (2015) did nail the spirit of customization, it struggled to deliver it consistently across its lineup.
Handling And Comparing To Later Entries
To this day, the biggest flaw of this game is its handling system. It isn’t necessarily bad, but players found it to be inconsistent, and the “drift-to-break” system was poor for grip builds. The races had sharp 90-degree turns, but due to the overly assisted handling, it made it frustrating to race precisely and make quick turns. Grip builds are useless, as drifting is the fastest way around corners.
The handling and physics were improved later on in the franchise with the release of NFS Heat and NFS Unbound. In NFS Heat, you had better control over your vehicle, whether you built a grip or a drift car, while the arcade style still stayed the same. NFS Unbound is known as one of the most technical in this aspect of the game, giving players even more options for tuning and the option to turn off “break-to-drift”.
If we compare the visual aspect of the games, NFS Heat retained a similar art style to Need for Speed (2015) but introduced a day/night cycle too. NFS Unbound, on the other hand, took a huge turn and made the art style more animated and goofy, which gave it a comic-book aesthetic. The biggest win both of these games have over the 2015 reboot is substance and style. So I don’t completely hate it, but similar to some of the more polarizing EA games, this one does feel soulless.
