Recent reviews by Kaji

Unlike other users, I won't compare this to Grand Theft Auto or complain about it not working on a Mac. Instead, here's why you should consider this game despite the mixed reviews.

+The driving is pretty solid with a controller. It's a driving game, don't go using a KB+M.
+The SHIFT system is just plain badass. Losing a race? Just throw a bus at them.
+The story is very cliche, but hell it's fun to notice the gradual mentions.
+Some missions can be really difficult, but the only time I actually ended up mentally handicapped was when I forgot I could use SHIFT. So the difficulty curve is, so far, fair at 5 hours in.
+The game lasts about 9 hours, so it's got some meat to it without dragging on and on. There are a ton of stuff that could take you a solid 20 hours to do though, like stunts and dares.
+The cars look and sound bloody amazing. It's from 2011, but I had to make sure this game would run smoothly! Sure enough it does. Optimized well even for it's age.
+There are a few abilities you can unlock as you play through the game, and a few upgrades if you want to make things interesting.
+The garages are pretty neat, giving you the option to buy multiple garages to increase your income over time. You can buy new cars from lisenced manufacturers. Audi, Nissan, RUF, and Ford to name a few. Take your pick.
+The music is definitely good. Fitting given the atmosphere.

-Barriers. Trying to pass through them is fine and won't actually do any real harm, but you're locked out of areas of the city until you progress. Only takes a couple hours though, but it's still not a good thing.
-The story is locked behind a number of side missions most of the time, even though this is explained in the story early on it still feels like a poor development choice.

Overall I'd say it's a solid choice if you're a Wheelman like Tanner, but don't forget this is a DRIVING game. You won't be hopping out of your car any time soon. Not that it's a bad thing. Being behind the wheel is a much better place anyway.

Lives up to to the title.

How could someone make a game in 2011 that felt 10 years old? No, seriously.

I didn't get the hype.
I played the game.
I got the hype.

Simple.

When your game suffers from severe input lag, frame drops that don't pause the game when the music transitions to next track, and when even running the game at 640x480 doesn't give you a perfectly solid 60fps on a side-scroller game where frame-drops are the norm, you've got a problem.

And another problem is that this steaming pile of ♥♥♥♥ somehow has very positive reviews.

I paid less than a dollar for this, and for the first time in my life I legitimately feel like I underpaid for a game. All of the different mechanics to make you feel like a real gunslinger - dodging bullets in slow-motion, bullet time, ADS with a pair of revolvers, the duels, and the reflex QTEs. Everything just adds up.

My only real complaint is subjective, even. There just doesn't seem to be enough weapon variety, even if I am typically sticking to my revolvers and rifle. But that's okay. They work, and do they work well. The fact your weapons upgrade through your talent system is weird, but I can accept it.

I don't think I've ever had as much fun with a shooter since I played Borderlands, Ubisoft and Techland? Do this again. A MASSIVE improvement over Bound in Blood (Which still was an A+ title for the record).

Ignite was a fairly terrible racing game, with terrible controls, terrible support, and overall terrible terribleness. I would recommend Ignite over this garbage. No wonder it got mediocre reviews back in the day.

-FR cars are too common, and they spin out very easily. Sometimes just turning.
-Every single race is a 3 race series instead. Not only do you need to pay cash, you also need to have impressed enough people to get in. 2 forms of currency to race in a racing game. And not enough ways to earn Respect Points.
-The final series is locked behind a grand total of 77,000 Respect Points. That's nearly every series done perfectly. 250 points sounds easy, especially when you max out a Skyline... But consider the following: Every single race except for "Nitro Xtreme" will only get you to about 75,000 points. With all 18 girlfriends unlocked, too. This means to unlock the final series, you need to have completed the previous 6 races almost flawlessly. Which is damn near impossible.

2/10. Tops. And I'm being generous. What a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ waste of my time.

"Where the ♥♥♥♥ is the bell?? It didn't spawn?? Great."

+Decent visuals, allowing you to choose color or black and white
+Atmospheric
+No quest markers or hand-holding for progression

+/-All the dialogue is in text rather than voiced over
+/- Ultimately very short, about 4-5 hours

-Mediocre progression. Weapons scale poorly until the second half of the game where they become damn near god-like in a matter of minutes
-The story isn't that great, and is furthered knocked down by the terrible ending
-The combat is very poorly done, and stealth doesn't work as well as it should, even with the proper equipment
-A few bugs, one of which can force you to restart or mess with files to reload an older save
-No save slots, almost entirely auto-save driven

4/10, would request a refund if it were possible.

Absolutely wonderful. I'm not even done the game, but having played with cars in Tier 3, I can safely say that this game is an absolute blast especially with friends.

+Fantastic graphics.
+Well optimized. (I have it maxed out at 45-55fps without much fluctuation, so it's smooth!)
+Lacking rubberband AI. They're just fast and don't really make mistakes.
+No more need for a useless teammate!
+Nice, arcade style racing. Oversteering never felt so satisfying.
+Soundtrack is pretty bumpin'.
+Your steering doesn't lock up at high speeds like some OTHER "racing games".

+/-A big change from the more simulation oriented GRID 1
+/-Lots of DLC cars.
+/- Not too many tracks. Enough to be satisfying, and allow racers to learn the tracks.
+/-Crashes are sometimes fun to watch when you screw up.

-The difficulty can be a pain. Again, the AI makes virtually no mistakes.
-AI cars are heavy, making it damn near impossible to wreck them for personal gain.

Wow, I'm actually impressed with this game. I sold the Overskill skin I got from Payday 2 and bought this. Worth every penny.

+Sharp visuals, and performs well.
+Pretty good audio quality.
+High difficulty curve, just like the old days.
+5-6 hours. Not too long, not too short.
+Classic styled gameplay. Not a brown military shooter,

-The weapon system takes some getting used to. By the end of the game I was still stumbling over the 2 sets of weapons.
-The upgrade system isn't too powerful outside of the weapon upgrades.

Bloody hell this game was a rush, if a bit painful at times. Still worth it though. A much better choice over the available Need For Speed options available on Steam.

+The vehicles have decent arcade-styled handling. So you can get very aggressive with turns.
+The graphics are still sharp 7 years later.
+The AI is brutal and relentless.
+Performs well on older rigs.

-The music got boring pretty quickly. Fairly generic choices.
-The higher difficulties seem to get a speed boost, so the game encourages to "do well enough" as opposed to actually win.