Need for Speed Payback has a very Fast & Furious-like story, revealed in a new trailer
Do you like your car-focused media to be speed and angry? Do you like it when the racers are up against The Man? Do you like Vin Diesel? Well, there's no Vin Diesel in Need for Speed Payback, but the rest of a brand new trailer makes the game look a lot like a spinoff of the The Fast & The Furious series.
It's almost uncanny in how the trailer takes so much from The Fast & The Furious' typical story beats. There's one guy who has been betrayed by a group bigger than him, he likes cars, and he wants to get revenge on that group while The Man (aka the police) is trying to stop him. He puts together a crew of drivers, and the rest seems to just write itself.
You'll play as Tyler Morgan, Jessica Miller, and Sean McAlister to earn respect in the local area, Fortune Valley, and eventually complete missions to undermine The House, a cartel that rules the city, including the local police force. Distracting the police with drag races and proving your driving skills looks like the main goal, with main story missions putting together bigger set pieces.
Along the way, you'll meet people like Ravindra Chaudhry, who will act as the crew's mechanic, Lina Navarro, a representative for The House, and The Gambler, who runs the local casinos. They're part of the main story, but otherwise progression looks to be linked to a series of league that you'll have to compete in, eventually besting its boss. Each league has its own name, like Riot Club or Graveyard Shift, with bosses like a guy who claims his name, Udo, stands for "Unidentified Driving Object."
The set pieces aren't shown off in the trailer too much, but are on the official Need for Speed Payback website, one of which involves driving a super car up the back of a truck to launch it over a bridge, and pedestrians, "under the nose of The Gambler." Is The Gambler not going to notice his flashy new cars 50 feet in the air after getting launched off a truck?
Need for Speed Payback Where to buy
More of the game's leagues are being announced next week. Need for Speed Payback is coming out on November 10.