Need for Speed™ No Limits
Racing
The core gameplay involves competing in various illegal street races to earn reputation and money. Players start out driving slower cars and must win races to purchase faster high-end supercars. Races take place on winding city streets, highways, and other locations. The objective is to finish first against up to 7 rival drivers. Races have a fixed route marked by checkpoints. Missing a checkpoint results in a time penalty.
Steering is handled automatically. You control your car by:
You can also:
The controls are simple and intuitive. Tilt or touch offers the most responsive control. Virtual steering can feel a bit imprecise.
Campaign – Multi-part story mode where you complete races to progress. Races gradually increase in difficulty. The campaign serves as the main progression system.
Car Series – Special event series for specific cars. Complete races using that car to earn blueprints and rewards.
Special Events – Limited-time events where you compete to win rare cars. Very challenging.
Multiplayer – Asynchronous multiplayer where you race against ghost times of other players for rewards. Daily and weekly competitions.
Tuner Trials – Special races that reward upgrade materials for your cars. Play these to maximize your cars’ performance.
You can customize your cars with various visual upgrades like paint colors, body kits, wheels, and more. These are purchased using in-game cash. Performance upgrades improve your car’s stats. You install upgraded Engine, Turbo, Gearbox, Wheels, ECU, and Nitro parts. These are acquired from races, events, and the part store. Higher rarity parts offer greater improvements. You also collect blueprints to stage up your cars from stock to 5-star max. Staging increases base stats. Combine parts and staging to maximize performance.
Need for Speed No Limits features very impressive graphics that look nearly console-quality. The environments are richly detailed with great lighting, shadows, weather effects, and textures. The licensed cars look phenomenal. Each vehicle has been carefully modeled inside and out. You can view cars closely in your garage. They have working lights, opening doors, detailed interiors, and more. Visual effects like smoke, tire marks, sparks, and debris look fantastic. Special visual filters add style during nitrous usage and slow motion moments. The game has dynamic time of day and vivid night racing. The frame rate is consistently smooth across all devices thanks to adjustable graphics settings. Loading times are reasonably fast as well. It’s a great looking mobile racing game. The audio design is excellent. Each car emits realistic engine and exhaust notes. You can hear the roar of engines, tire squeals, crashes, and more. The soundtrack features energetic electronic music that fits the street racing vibe.
Progression is tied to your Rep level, which increases by earning reputation points from races. Higher Rep levels unlock new cars, events, and features. The main campaign spans across multiple chapters. Completing chapter races raises your Rep. The campaign gradually increases in difficulty and introduces new race types. Special Events offer rare exclusive cars as rewards. These are very challenging since your cars are usually under-powered. You may need to replay races and upgrade your car to meet the high PR (performance rating) requirements. Multiplayer and Tuner Trials offer valuable rewards for upgrading your cars. Completing Car Series is needed to stage up certain cars. In summary, you need to optimize your upgrades, manage resources, and improve your driving skills to progress quickly. Patience and persistence are required.
As a free-to-play mobile game, Need for Speed No Limits contains various forms of monetization. These include:
The game is extremely aggressive with its monetization during later stages. Fuel limits race attempts. Upgrades take hours or days to complete. Special events have steep PR walls and stringent time limits. These force players to spend gold if they want a chance at winning exclusive cars. While it’s possible to progress without spending money, advancement becomes very slow and grindy after the first 10-20 hours. You’ll reach bottlenecks that pressure you to spend gold or real money. This can be frustrating for non-paying players.
Need for Speed No Limits offers an exciting street racing experience on mobile with great graphics and gameplay. The wide selection of real licensed cars, deep customization, and variety of events provide hours of entertainment. However, the aggressive monetization system significantly hinders enjoyment in the later game. The excessive grind, wait timers, fuel limits, and steep event requirements try to coerce players into spending money. Initial impressions are excellent thanks to the polish, production values, and gameplay depth. But the extreme free-to-play mechanics wear you down over time. This contrasts poorly with the premium pricing of the console Need for Speed titles. In the end, Need for Speed No Limits is a fun but flawed game. Look past the aggressive monetization tactics and you’ll find an engaging mobile racer. But the excessive pressure to spend money prevents it from reaching its full potential.
Graphics – 5/5
Audio – 5/5
Gameplay – 4/5
Content – 4/5
Monetization – 2/5
Overall – 4/5
Need for Speed No Limits excels in presentation and core racing gameplay, but the overbearing free-to-play elements bog down the experience.
Asphalt 9 Legends – Another high-quality mobile arcade racer with great graphics and licensed cars. Less aggressive monetization.
Real Racing 3 – More realistic driving physics and controls. Ton of content and cars. Still fairly aggressive monetization.
CSR Racing 2 – Drag racing focused but has other race types too. Decent graphics and customization.
Nitro Nation Drag & Drift – Specializes in drag and drift racing. Large car roster and customization. Light monetization.
Horizon Chase – Retro arcade racer with colorful stylized graphics. Simple controls and mechanics.
Need for Speed No Limits offers console-quality production values with intense street racing gameplay. The wide selection of real licensed cars, deep customization, and variety of events provide hours of entertainment. However, the aggressive monetization system significantly hinders enjoyment in the later game due to excessive grind, wait timers, fuel limits, and steep event requirements designed to coerce players into spending money. Initial impressions are great thanks to the polish and gameplay depth, but the extreme free-to-play mechanics wear you down over time. Look past the aggressive tactics and you’ll find an engaging mobile racer, but the excessive pressure to spend money prevents it from reaching its full potential.
Racing
Racing
Racing