The one where Hot Pursuit gains a plot and becomes an open-world Blood Sport.
Need for Speed Rivals is a 2013 racing video game developed in collaboration between Ghost Games and Criterion Games, and published by Electronic Arts. The twentieth installment in the Need for Speed series, it is the debut title for Ghost Games, who would establish itself as the primary developer of the series for all subsequent non-mobile installments up until 2020, during the entire eighth generation. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One in November 2013, and is the final Need for Speed game for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.
An open-world successor to the Hot Pursuit titles, players take on the role of a Racer or Cop, with each side of the law offering its own play style. If the player chooses to start as a racer, they take on the role of a street racer who eventually becomes the best racer in Redview County, under the nickname of Zephyr. If the player chooses to start as a cop, they take on the role of a newly initiated police officer.
The Racers of Redview Country have become more public in their criminal acts, and have become more dangerous, committing more acts of damage to property as they wreak havoc on the streets. The Redview County Police Department (RCPD) respond by increasing their punitive measures and attempts to bust Racers and bring them to justice, resulting in public backlash. Later on, an officer named John McManis is injured as a result of attempting to keep up with the Racers. Public outcry swings back in support of McManis and the RCPD, and the officer swears revenge on racers. However, a further increase in police intimidation and accusations of "excessive force" results in the officer being placed under probationary suspension, with the FBI Vehicle Response Team (VRT) being brought in as replacements. Zephyr continues to evade justice and continues to race despite the new tougher law enforcement.
Angered by the lack of action against Zephyr's crimes, the officer decides to go rogue as a vigilante under the name F-8 (pronounced "Fate"), commandeering an impounded Ferrari Enzo and taking racers down under the disguise of a fellow racer. Zephyr sees that F-8 really is a cop and retaliates, stealing an unused police Koenigsegg Agera and respraying it in his own livery, before causing chaos on the streets of Redview.
As a result of Zephyr's actions with the Agera, the mayor of Redview County puts all police back on active duty, as well as keeping the VRT. F-8 gives up his vigilante persona, receiving an invitation to join the VRT instead of returning to regular duty. The increase in police activity, as well as civil unrest due to claims of police brutality while busting racers, causes Zephyr to openly challenge F-8 and the rest of the RCPD, claiming they are the ones who cause the damage in the community and that it would be better if the Racers were allowed to race unimpeded. From here, the ending splits into two, depending on whether the player took the role of a Racer or a Cop.
Need for Speed Rivals features examples of:
- Arch-Enemy: "Zephyr" and "F-8" (pronounced "Fate"), the racer and the cop the player plays as respectively. May also count as Evil Versus Evil since both are Villain Protagonists on different sides.
- Balance, Speed, Strength Trio: In the Cop storyline, you can choose every mission by choosing one of the three kinds of police vehicles: Patrol, Enforcer, and Undercover. The former has the highest acceleration, the middle has more strength and durability, and the latter has the max control, being these three cars the speed (Patrol), the strength (Enforcer), and the balance (Undercover).
- Brand X: The game features a YouTube-like social media called MyRedview, in which Zephyr uploads all of his street racing videos that garnered thousands, if not millions of views worldwide.
- Broken Bridge: The game does this at the beginning of the game during the tutorial missions. After those are completed, however, the whole of Redview County can be accessed.
- The Bus Came Back: Ferrari cars. In perhaps the biggest example across the Need for Speed franchise, after appearing in all but Porsche Unleashed in the First Era, due to licensing issues, Ferrari missed the entire Second Era, and appeared only as a console-exclusive DLC pack in Shift before returning in full force in this game.
- Call-Back: Many of the Vanity License Plate designs are for locations from previous games, including Olympic City (Underground), Bayview (Underground 2), Rockport (Most Wanted 2005 and World), Palmont City (Carbon and World), Tri-City Bay (Undercover), Seacrest County (Hot Pursuit 2010), and Fairhaven City (Most Wanted 2012). They have been reused for all subsequent titles beginning from the Showcase Update of the 2015 reboot.
- Critical Existence Failure: The damage modeling usually means that cars on the verge of being wrecked look the part - but they're still perfectly capable of driving like new until that last sliver of health is gone. In addition, it is possible to get caught in a pileup at a roadblock with other drivers, leading to some hilarious, spectacular moments as one watches cars suddenly become wrecked by a fender bender.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to most of the series, Rivals is on the very serious, bleak side, with two sides of the law being Evil Versus Evil, and this is the only game where The Bad Guy Wins.
- Excuse Plot: While the game's plots since Underground are just there to get you on the road at extremely high speeds, usually being introduced at the beginning and quickly forgotten until the end (and sometimes not even then), the entire story of Rivals is perhaps the worst offender in the franchise. The plot, which seems to be about some kind of one-on-one war between a recently-recruited cop with the call sign "F-8" and a rising street racer named "Zephyr", really only seems to exist to give the characters some philosophical monologues.
- Face–Heel Turn: The Villain Protagonist Rabid Cop "F-8", after having nearly-killed "Zephyr" and took down many other racers, got expelled from Police for use excesive brutality as it's implied "Zephyr" was dead because of him. Then, "F-8" reappears again taking the place of "Zephyr" as the new top racer in Redview County. Given that "F-8" was already a villainous Rabid Cop in the first place, that would be more of a Heel–Heel Turn.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: The Racers are technically breaking the law, are doing property damage up in the hundred-thousands of dollars, and have even almost killed a cop, but they're doing this because they feel the RCPD is turning Redview into a Police State. The RCPD is also shown as morally grey, as they are not above using below-the-belt tactics to curb the criminal activity in the county and keep their citizens safe and sound.
- He Who Fights Monsters: How F-8's police career ends, though only in terms of cutscenes as you're still on the force post-story.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Koenigsegg One:1, a free DLC car, is only unlocked after finishing the last level of SpeedLists in either the Racer or Cop careers. It is also by far the fastest car in the game, able to outrun even the RCPD's fastest interceptor units with relative ease.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: Villain Protagonist example: The ending of cop career reveals that Rabid Cop F-8 got fired for his reckless actions and excessive force, despite having managed to take down Zephyr.
- Minimalist Cast: Rivals only features 2 characters; Zephyr and F-8. Unless you also count Officer John McManis.
- Mission-Pack Sequel: Rivals's gameplay is basically identical to that of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2010 (also developed by Criterion), only with an open world and a story mode.
- The Most Wanted: The game is about racers and cops in which you have to choose a side. If you're a racer, you compete to become the most wanted and get famous. On the other hand, if you're a cop, you've to chase racers until you get with the top racer, the most wanted on the police list, and receive the help of the FBI even when your character becomes a Rabid Cop and eventually becoming in what you tried to stop.
- No One Could Survive That!: Zephyr finishes his last event in a high-speed collision with a police roadblock. He seems to have been critically wounded, but then his car's engine starts...
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The protagonists of the Racer and Cop storylines conceal their true identity under their alias; Zephyr and F-8 respectively.
- Order Versus Chaos: The game mostly tends to boil down as an Evil Versus Evil example, with the notorious RCPD representing order and the illegal street racers representing chaos.
- Outside-the-Box Tactic: Starting a Hot Pursuit event as a Cop forces a shortcut scene where the racers speed on by before you're allowed to drive and catch up to them... However, if you take the time to block the entire road off with spike strips, the racers will pass over them in that same scene, losing their tires and taking damage like normal, making the event much easier. Demonstrated here
. - Police Brutality: F-8 starts out as a Rabid Cop, but his increasingly brutal ways result in him being fired at the end of the cop career.
- Product Placement: The Ford Motor Company is everywhere in the game (to Sigil Spam levels); there is a racer hideout with the Ford logo on the walls as well as advertisements for the Mustang to the left and right of it, three of the game's twenty-five achievements are tied to Ford cars, the Mustang from the then-unreleased film is one of Zephyr's vehicles, and the first DLC car added to the game was the 2015 Ford Mustang via a free update.
- The Rival: Well, it is named Rivals for a reason. The game's plot centers on the rivalry between Zephyr and F-8.
- Scenery Porn: Rivals on Windows PCs, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One manages to outdo the lush scenery of Hot Pursuit (2010) by using the Frostbite 3 engine.
- Serious Business: The police here continue the theme started in Hot Pursuit (2010) of having dedicated speed enforcement units with tricked-out cars to pursue street racers.
- Slap-on-the-Wrist Nuke: Spike Strips? EMP? Nah, only a metal wound.
- Songs in the Key of Panic: The music used more intense variance depending on your status or the music slowed down but remained tense if you or your suspects were escaping.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: At the end of the game, F-8's underhanded and brutal tactics cause him to be fired from the RCDP.
- A Taste of Power: One of the later Speedlists/Assignments will give you the keys to an end-game car from the opposite side of the law (the Enzo Ferrari for Cops and the Koenigsegg Agera R for Racers) with fully-leveled preset Pursuit Tech.
- Vanity License Plate: The game allows players to change the actual plate designs. Said designs show locations of past games in the series. They would be reused for all of Ghost Games's later entries.
- Villain Protagonist: Both Zephyr and F-8. Especially F-8, who is so vile as an officer that RCPD kicked him out after the cop career story.
- Weaponized Car: The game takes the concept of pursuit weapons like EMPs and spike strip shooters introduced in Hot Pursuit (2010) further with its Pursuit Tech system. All six weapons from 2010 make a return (spike strips are Cop-only this time around), alongside electrostatic fields (allowing both sides to block EMP lock and zap anything that touches them), omnidirectional pulses for racers and forward pulses for cops, and stun mines for racers.
- Wide-Open Sandbox: Unlike Hot Pursuit (2010), players actually drive around this game's county to do races and pursuits. Players can also do special jumps and speed traps like in Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012), as well as speed zones like in Forza Horizon.
