Recs.
Updated
Specs
Pros
Pro Fantastic graphics
The game looks quite good. All races take place at night or dusk/dawn, making for great lighting on the tracks with good reflective lighting as well as wet roads that look quite sharp. There are also little jaggies to be found when using anti-aliasing, which makes for a very smooth looking game as well. Everything about the graphics speaks to the polish that the game is trying to display, and it exceeds any expectations on the graphics front overall.
Pro Open world multiplayer street racing
Need for Speed is an online game. This means that you're automatically assigned to a server where a few other players are playing as well. Players can invite each other for challenges and pick a race to compete with each other in, or they can simply run into each other in the city and start an ad hoc race that the game automatically draws out for them right where they are. Players can invite their friends on Origin to their server to play together as well.
Pro Cheesy Need for Speed cutscene acting
While to the uninitiated, the acting in Need for Speed may come across as bad, this is actually done on purpose. The actors in Need for Speed are professional actors (the more perceptive players may have noticed that the character of Amy is played by an actress from Game of Thrones), but are directed to act in a cheesy way as a tribute to older Need for Speed titles like the original Need for Speed Most Wanted, the Underground series and Need for Speed Carbon. As such, it's enjoyable and funny to watch.
Pro Excellent performance customization
This reboot of the Need for Speed franchise, one of the biggest franchises in gaming, features a lot of options in terms of upgrading your cars' parts to improve performance. Besides that, there are sliders to tune your car's settings so you can optimally benefit from your car depending on which sort of races you intend to participate in. This can range from tire pressure to spoiler downforce, to sway bar stiffness, to car height, etc.
Pro Visual customization
Apart from performance customization, Need for Speed games often come with a high degree of visual customization. This latest installment of the franchise probably has the best system there's ever been in a Need for Speed game for visual customization. This contains both aftermarket exterior parts such as hoods, spoilers, sideskirts, rims or exhaust pipes to name a few, as well as paints, decals and entire wraps shared by players in an online library. The only downside here is that some cars cannot be fully customized. The Ferrari 458 is a car that can hardly be visually customized. This more than likely has to do with legal restrictions by Ferrari itself.
Cons
Con Too much rubberbanding
When racing against AI opponents the cars will often use a technique called "rubberbanding" where in it is impossible to lap cars no matter how fast you are going as once you start getting too far ahead, the cars behind you will speed up unnaturally in order to keep the race more difficult. This can be frustrating an immersion breaking as it is very unrealistic as well annoying that the game does not up the difficulty through the AI with a more natural and believable way of driving.
Con Online only
The game forces a constant internet connection for the game, meaning those that would like to play offline due to not having good or constant internet can not play the game. This also means there is no pause menu, so even when racing solo, there will be no way to stop the action for say when the doorbell rings or a phone call comes in.
Con Rather boring police pursuits
Need for Speed does not manage to equal its 2005 predecessor Need for Speed Most Wanted in terms of police pursuits. There are no creative ways to outrun the police other than simply being faster. As such it's very hard not to lose police cars in the lower 'heat' tiers in order to meet the game's objectives in terms of pursuit duration.
Con No Steam controller support
As with many EA titles, Need for Speed does not support the Steam controller. It does support the Xbox controller, but even then most people don't manage to emulate the Steam controller in such a way that it works for Need for Speed. One should keep in mind that EA chose to compete with Steam rather than working together, so it's not really a surprise.