

Even when the All Drive alert system tells me a player is nearby, it isn’t a jarring event that changes my experience.

My single-player experience isn’t interrupted just because someone happened to connect to the session. Rivals isn’t the first game to utilize a free-roaming concept, but it’s the first one I’ve played where single-player and multiplayer are integrated so that they aren’t distinct modes. The only time it pulls you into a menu is when you enter your garage to make upgrades or bank rewards.

The pace always flows from one event or objective to the next without interruption. This sort of on-the-road system of starting modes, challenging human players, and completing single-player objectives in one active environment makes Rivals progression feel much more lively. Anything related to starting a driving event takes place on the road among the living, breathing, driving ecosystem, and anyone driving by can join almost every mode that involves multiple vehicles. In Need For Speed: Rivals, single-player and multiplayer modes are no longer options separated by a menu tree they coexist inside the active game. Three top investment pros open up about what it takes to get your video game funded.
