Having an unimpressive single-player segment is actually fine if the game has great multiplayer to cover for it, and racing games are a genre where that is often the case. The Run almost succeeds here, offering online play that lets players compete on various segments of the story mode. Recycling those tracks is actually a good thing, as they’re very well designed and suit a variety of racing styles. When everything works right, you’ll have up to eight players zooming around at the same time and having a blast. Players are given a decent variety of cars to start with, and you’ll unlock more over time through a series of race goals (pass X number of people in a certain way, for example) and general good performance, much like how you acquire new gear in Battlefield 3. While I am not fond of that system because it requires players to ’grind’ to get better gear, I can’t deny it has some value in bringing them back for repeated sessions; it may be a decent idea here.
If online play sounds fun, rest assured it is when it actually does what it’s supposed to. In ideal circumstances, with all players on great connections, everything I just described is absolutely true and it’s very enjoyable. However, it is more likely that you’ll run into any of several technical problems. I’ve had the online play ’hard-lock’ my system once (but was unable to reproduce this reliably, so it doesn’t seem to be a frequent issue), but also had the annoying retry/rewind system come up. Going just a little bit off the track often results in you being dumped several seconds back, just like in story mode. This is actually rather inconsistent, since some tracks do allow you to veer off-course some while others are extremely strict.
Worse, the game world you see and what is actually true can be very different things, something The Run tries to rectify by teleporting objects that fall out of sync with your version of events. You can be avoiding a pile-up wreck in the right lane by veering left, only to suddenly have a car disappear from its spot on the right curb and immediately materialize in the left lane to collide with you. These sort of things don’t always happen, especially if everyone has a good connection, but it happens often enough to be a problem and is a very jarring way to handle network latency in a racing game. Your best bet is to find people you know provide a good play experience and stick with them, but that is a lot of headache to go to for a race that can easily go awry.
As far as recommending Need For Speed: The Run goes, that’s going to depend on how interested you are in the online play and how willing you are to find people with good connections to avoid the worst of the ’lag teleports.’ If your interest lies in a single-player racing experience, $60 USD is far too steep for something that will last you only a few hours. On the other hand, competing with others over Xbox Live is an enjoyable mix of racing with Battlefield 3 style content unlocking. If the idea of arcade-style racing appeals to you, and you can find good people to consistently and regularly play with, then I can recommend The Run in that admittedly very niche circumstance. For everyone else, The Run is not truly a bad game, but I have trouble recommending something that is merely decent when there are tons of great choices available at the same cost.
