I am an oldskool gamer and very fond of my memories from the 90's with NFSclassics like NFS1, the insane arcade game NFSII, High Stakes (which was essentially NFS 3.5) and especially NFS Porsche 2000.
After that, the series became rubbish. NFS Porsche 2000 had a perfect balance between arcade and realism and I would have allowed a little more arcade. But along came Walker and Diesel and their movies about streetracing and the whole world wanted games with tuned riceboy cars, dragraces, nitros and drifting. And EA put in into their NFS games. That's pretty much when I said goodbye to NFS.
Having a few hours of sparetime, I bought this one on Steam (on offer) and I must say, it's quite fun. I am playing it with a gamepad and of course, it is an arcade game. And the nitros and drifting crap are still there. But it looks stunningly beautiful and the gameplay is nice. It is very satifying to bust a racer or to outrun (or destroy) the cops. The crashes look cool. I play it on 3 monitors which adds to the immersion in the game. Cool!
But there are letdowns as well. You level up gaining some sort of bounty which unlocks cars, instead of earning money and buying them. This unlocking is SO fast that you get rewards after every race, even if you don't win. This way, you can choose from dozens of cars even after half an hour of gameplay.
Earlier installments let you invest in a cheap car, get used to it and eventually, let you buy that 911 you've been saving your bucks for. I like getting attached to a car, upgrading it, getting to know it and getting really good at driving it. And almost feeling sorry when you level up to a new series with faster cars.
In this game, the rewards don't feel rewarding because there are so many of them. And the game doesn't let you get used to a car for a couple of races, but the different events all require different cars. Not that the handling is a world apart between them - but still. Maybe the game rewards you so much, to keep you from losing interest. Perhaps that's the way to treat the new generation of gamers, I don't know.
And instead of adding 12 Lamborghinis (which all look the same) they should have included some Ferraris (where are they?) and some less-exotic cars like BMW M5, Audi S8, Mercedes, etc.
I think if they keep the series on this level of outlandishness, and don't make it more bizarre - they are on the right track. Apart from some weird choices it's a fun, actionpacked game.