Tom Hasler spins out of control in Need for Speed: The Run.

Need for Speed: The Run is the latest instalment of EA’s annual cash cow Need for Speed series. Previous years have seen fresh approaches to the franchise, with last year's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit proving to be an excellent racer in it’s own right.

Unfortunately that quality just isn’t there in The Run which provides a very limited experience that is defined more by it’s frustrations than it’s merits.

What distinguishes The Run from it’s predecessors is it’s single player ‘story’ which sets you up as a street racer who needs to win a race across America to settle his debts with the mafia. The only problem is that the story, if you can even call it that, is utter shit. Almost nothing is explained, there isn’t any reason to care about what’s happening and cutscenes can seem to take a lifetime.

Fortunately the cinematic and quicktime events which focus on the story are relatively sporadic and don’t impinge on the game. The benefit of this story is that the game's racing areas are tied together into a cohesive theme of America’s open roads and cities, which the game manages to capture fairly well, leading to an eye-pleasing cruise from San Francisco to New York.

While the environments and even the people in The Run look fantastic, the one thing that seems to be lacking is the cars. While they are still reasonably shiny, it’s somewhat strange that the worst looking thing in a driving game is the vehicle you inhabit.

Those who get the PC version of the game will find themselves experiencing acute difficulties from the offset.

Firstly, the menus provide all their guidance under the assumption you are playing with an Xbox controller, despite the fact that control pads of any kind can’t be used on the PC. This means that often players will find themselves trying to figure out which buttons to press just to get started. Once the game starts however, things only get worse.

Despite being a driving game, the first thing you do in The Run, is a Quicktime event, which require you to mash buttons when prompted, the only problem is it prompts you to use controller buttons which have no equivalent on a keyboard. I myself was only able to overcome this issue after an hour with a combination of inputs from my keyboard and a PC game controller. Whist these aforementioned problems are mostly isolated to the PC version, the game still suffers from a host of other frustrations that make for an unpleasant experience.

The multiplayer suite, while offering decent variety, doesn’t offer any options for custom matches with friends, which is unforgivable for a arcade driving game. Furthermore, replaying races from the single-player requires the player to repeat the an entire set of races with a particular ‘stage’ rather than just selecting the level he wants to play, discouraging players from revisiting these levels to improve their score.

This is a shame as the driving is, as expected from a Need for Speed game, exhilarating. The handling is more arcade than simulation, favouring a less realistic more stylised interpretation of breaking, overtaking and even crashing, meaning you won’t be carefully navigating each turn but rather attacking the road with aggressive skids and drifts.

There is fun to be had with The Run, but given it’s limited scope and myriad of problems, last year's Hot Pursuit would likely be a better choice. The idea behind a race across America had promise, and there are moments in the game that feel genuinely special, but the lack of features, polish or even common sense make Need for Speed: The Run a massive disappointment overall.