Need for Speed Payback is a racing game with an open-world setting, the twenty-third game in the popular Need for Speed franchise. Like the previous games in the series, it focuses on high-speed driving action in the underground world of street racing. Choose from one of three main characters and drive any of a wide range of cars in five specialised classes around the game environment, carrying out action-movie-inspired heist sequences.

Live fast on the mean streets

If you played Need for Speed, the 2015 reboot of the franchise, most of what you encounter in Need for Speed Payback will be pretty familiar. However, this game does make some significant changes from its predecessor. Most significantly, the single-player mode no longer requires a connection to the internet, an element of the previous game that left many players frustrated. The setting also now has a day-night cycle, rather than existing in perpetual night. The named characters, each with their own particular strengths, are another departure from the formula: the sense of being part of a team is definitely reminiscent of the later films in the Fast and the Furious series, which are clearly a big influence on Need for Speed Payback.

Payback can be a lot of fun

If you like the fast-paced driving action of the Need for Speed series, Need for Speed Payback adds some exciting new elements to the formula.