Need For Speed World is a free online version of the popular racing game franchise. It's a massively multiplayer open world game (MMO), so you will be able to join in with many other players from around the globe, with RPG style leveling up and improved cars to unlock. You can add new friends to enter contests or compete against each other.

A huge open world to explore

To start playing Need For Speed World, you need a user account. Once you have it, simply create a driver profile and choose your first car from an initial small, and not very exciting, selection. Just like any other role playing game, you’ll have to start completing races to get experience points. As you start leveling up, you’ll find better cars to buy.

Players can move freely in Need For Speed World. If you take a break, you can explore this huge world and study new courses or pursuits, but you can also join the integrated chat module to add friends. The entire time, you're only a mouse click away from entering online and offline races. These can be multi or single player, and you can even get into police chases.

The game is free, but not the extras.

Need For Speed World is free, but you'll have to pay for any extras. The game has an integrated game shop where you can, for example, purchase car insurance to protect your vehicle, rent a more powerful car for a specific race, or buy power-ups for the one you already have.

An intuitive game

Need For Speed World is quite intuitive, but the arcade-style handling also means that it's not especially accurate or realistic. You can take turns at full speed or gentle drift, and you can boost your car to push stubborn opponents around. Although there won't be any visible damage on the car, you'll need a pit stop from time to time.

Nice graphics without bumps and bruises

Graphically, there’s nothing bad about Need For Speed World. The cars are shiny and always show their best side: damage will never show up, so you won’t see any dents, scratches or torn fenders. Sound effects and music are similar to those you find on any game in the Need for Speed franchise.

In brief: solid online racing with a few flaws

Need For Speed World hasn't reinvented the genre of racing games, but it's definitely entered a new territory in racing MMOG. The gameplay is solid and its arcade style means that it's easy to start playing, perfect for less experienced players.

On a negative note, other players in free mode are only shown as ghosts, and you can drive through them. There is very little player interaction and the MMO community feeling is hardly noticeable, but in spite of these small glitches, if you're a racing game enthusiast, you should definitely dive into the Need For Speed World universe.