Ultimate Edition: : it's becoming an all too often occurrence for a game developer company to shut down servers to games. This one stung a little different in particular since not only does it shut off the services to online play, but it also shut off access to play this game completely. This was a game that was in my backlog for awhile now but just never got around to it, so seeing it delisted and it given a 3 month server shutdown notice was a little frustrating. Luckily, the internet exists so I was able to get a physical release of it for cheap, and not only that, but I was able to get the ultimate edition with all the dlc.
The game is pretty fun. I like how they try and wrap a gritty story to the game, even though some of it seemed super corny and didn't work. You play as a guy named Alex who is recruited by the FBI to find, infiltrate, convict your brothers killer. By doing this, you compete in races, supply runs, takedowns, timed challenges, ya know, classic fast and furious chennanigans. Now, while I think ultimately the plot itself is forgettable, I think it does help the game out alot, especially getting me invested in the loads and loads of driving I did in this game. The main campaign takes quite a bit to complete, especially if you plan on doing side stuff too like finding landmarks, discovering data stations, unlocking parts to a vehicle you can unlock, upgrade your vehicle by doing skill challenges, really there is alot to do. I'd say for the most part i had a solid time, usually discovering all the landmarks before going to a new region and trying to find all the data stations/car parts. I will say; I did do a few of the crate missions, but they seemed a bit grindy and ngl, wasn't going to grind for a vehicle that I probably would never use. Now, with the gameplay, I found the driving to be really fun, especially visiting and seeing recognizable landmarks throughout the game. The developers did a pretty good job making a condensed USA, with a huge map to explore. Midwest/East Coast were a blast, these 2 regions are the 2 that I spent my time on getting used to the game and its mechanics, while also seeing just how much area there is to this map. Going down south was dope too, especially visiting Miami. Got me excited for GTA 6 ngl. Now, going west was a bit of a slog, as most of this area is desert, mountains, and just really nothing. I enjoyed visiting the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas though, especially Vegas. Going to the west coast, it was really anything truly special but still neat. Definitely dug visiting more cities in Cali than just LA, and going to Seattle was neat too.
Now before finishing all the dlc, I decided to grind the game a bit, getting achievements like finish the coast to coast faction mission and the landmark tour faction mission. Now, in order to get these achievements, you gotta play with at least one other player. Me not having any friends that wanted to play this game, I had to scour the lands trying to find someone who would play them with me. I eventually found someone to play coast to coast with, and man that was an intense race, albeit fun. The landmark tour mission was a different story; now I found someone to play with and everything (shoot we had a full crew!) and I'd say I was about 75%-80% done with the race when the game crashed. Not a big deal right? Wrong.... The race takes about 3+ hours to complete, and this was a wasted 2+ hours. Luckily, the guy helped me out a couple days later and I was able to fully finish the mission, but man it was annoying. A few other achievements like escape the police 100 times, multiple achievements for getting platinum in races, drive 200 laps around a specific racetrack, the list goes on. I think the last 2 I really grinded for was getting a 10k daily income, and getting platinums in every skill challenge in all 5 regions. Oh and get 5,000 miles in one vehicle.... Which literally took me the entire time of me playing this game to get, plus some. Speaking of the dlc, the wilds end dlc was definitely intriguing, but I feel like it was a severely missed opportunity. Mostly because they introduce awesome vehicles like monster trucks, drag racing, drift kits, motorcycles, but then do nothing with it except these events called summits that yes, are cool at first, but only have one kind thing to do with these vehicles. For example, monster trucks only have these stunt obstacle courses that basically mimic each other and all you do is either do stunts or collect point tiles. It's... well boring after you've done 2-3 summits already, so by time I was done with this game, I really didn't use the monster truck at all. Same with the motorcycle, my ford focus drifter, ect. Now the second dlc, Calling All Units, was a better direction, as not only did it add actual missions with story, but it added a cool feature where you can play as cops and engage players who are being chased by cops. I used it a few times just to mess around and found out it was kind fun, but it does lose its novelty pretty quick. I did enjoy the missions, although I thought it was too short. In all, this game wasn't half bad. I found out that it exceeded my expectations in certain aspects, but the grindy aspect to it definitely hurt my viewpoint of the game, as it doesn't care about the players time at all. After 125 hours, reaching lvl 58 (with a vehicle lvl at 1441) I called it quits. The game definitely is engaging, with decent music to choose from in its radio menu, fun and easy-to-learn driving mechanics, engaging map/world layout, and just all round addicting gameplay. Ultimately because the game goes offline soon, I don't recommend it, and because of that, I'm docking a half star from my rating, but I still don't regret binge playing this.
The game is pretty fun. I like how they try and wrap a gritty story to the game, even though some of it seemed super corny and didn't work. You play as a guy named Alex who is recruited by the FBI to find, infiltrate, convict your brothers killer. By doing this, you compete in races, supply runs, takedowns, timed challenges, ya know, classic fast and furious chennanigans. Now, while I think ultimately the plot itself is forgettable, I think it does help the game out alot, especially getting me invested in the loads and loads of driving I did in this game. The main campaign takes quite a bit to complete, especially if you plan on doing side stuff too like finding landmarks, discovering data stations, unlocking parts to a vehicle you can unlock, upgrade your vehicle by doing skill challenges, really there is alot to do. I'd say for the most part i had a solid time, usually discovering all the landmarks before going to a new region and trying to find all the data stations/car parts. I will say; I did do a few of the crate missions, but they seemed a bit grindy and ngl, wasn't going to grind for a vehicle that I probably would never use. Now, with the gameplay, I found the driving to be really fun, especially visiting and seeing recognizable landmarks throughout the game. The developers did a pretty good job making a condensed USA, with a huge map to explore. Midwest/East Coast were a blast, these 2 regions are the 2 that I spent my time on getting used to the game and its mechanics, while also seeing just how much area there is to this map. Going down south was dope too, especially visiting Miami. Got me excited for GTA 6 ngl. Now, going west was a bit of a slog, as most of this area is desert, mountains, and just really nothing. I enjoyed visiting the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas though, especially Vegas. Going to the west coast, it was really anything truly special but still neat. Definitely dug visiting more cities in Cali than just LA, and going to Seattle was neat too.
Now before finishing all the dlc, I decided to grind the game a bit, getting achievements like finish the coast to coast faction mission and the landmark tour faction mission. Now, in order to get these achievements, you gotta play with at least one other player. Me not having any friends that wanted to play this game, I had to scour the lands trying to find someone who would play them with me. I eventually found someone to play coast to coast with, and man that was an intense race, albeit fun. The landmark tour mission was a different story; now I found someone to play with and everything (shoot we had a full crew!) and I'd say I was about 75%-80% done with the race when the game crashed. Not a big deal right? Wrong.... The race takes about 3+ hours to complete, and this was a wasted 2+ hours. Luckily, the guy helped me out a couple days later and I was able to fully finish the mission, but man it was annoying. A few other achievements like escape the police 100 times, multiple achievements for getting platinum in races, drive 200 laps around a specific racetrack, the list goes on. I think the last 2 I really grinded for was getting a 10k daily income, and getting platinums in every skill challenge in all 5 regions. Oh and get 5,000 miles in one vehicle.... Which literally took me the entire time of me playing this game to get, plus some. Speaking of the dlc, the wilds end dlc was definitely intriguing, but I feel like it was a severely missed opportunity. Mostly because they introduce awesome vehicles like monster trucks, drag racing, drift kits, motorcycles, but then do nothing with it except these events called summits that yes, are cool at first, but only have one kind thing to do with these vehicles. For example, monster trucks only have these stunt obstacle courses that basically mimic each other and all you do is either do stunts or collect point tiles. It's... well boring after you've done 2-3 summits already, so by time I was done with this game, I really didn't use the monster truck at all. Same with the motorcycle, my ford focus drifter, ect. Now the second dlc, Calling All Units, was a better direction, as not only did it add actual missions with story, but it added a cool feature where you can play as cops and engage players who are being chased by cops. I used it a few times just to mess around and found out it was kind fun, but it does lose its novelty pretty quick. I did enjoy the missions, although I thought it was too short. In all, this game wasn't half bad. I found out that it exceeded my expectations in certain aspects, but the grindy aspect to it definitely hurt my viewpoint of the game, as it doesn't care about the players time at all. After 125 hours, reaching lvl 58 (with a vehicle lvl at 1441) I called it quits. The game definitely is engaging, with decent music to choose from in its radio menu, fun and easy-to-learn driving mechanics, engaging map/world layout, and just all round addicting gameplay. Ultimately because the game goes offline soon, I don't recommend it, and because of that, I'm docking a half star from my rating, but I still don't regret binge playing this.
