The Fast and Furious franchise is one of the top-grossing series in the world despite old school fans complaining that it strayed away from it’s street racing roots and gone downhill since Paul Walker died. That hasn’t stopped some video games being made with the latest being Fast & Furious Crossroads. I’ve heard some pretty negative things about it immediately after launch and thought to myself “It can’t be that bad can it? After all, it was made by a studio with a great track record when it comes to racing games.” Let’s just say that it instantly started off in a very bad way.
Since I decided to use a physical Playstation 4 copy I had to install the game which clocked in at 40GB. After it installed I was able to start playing the prologue featuring Letty and Dominic chasing down some bad guys introducing you to the controls. Once the prologue was finished I got kicked back to the main menu. It was at this point that I realized that the game pulled a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 meaning that the disc only contains the prologue and literally everything else has to be downloaded online. This update (which also contained a graphic overhaul) clocked in at another 20GB.
The game itself plays out like a movie that dearly wants to be a video game. When I say that I’m not talking about long or interactive cutscenes. I’m talking about a script that comes across as rejected in movie format and was quickly picked up by a video game publisher since it had the name Fast and Furious in the title. It also didn’t help that I managed to beat the campaign in about 5 hours.
There are some positives though. For example, it does contain some Easter eggs that long-time fans of the series might appreciate. It introduces two new characters who previously were part of Suki’s (the girl in 2 Fast 2 Furious with the Pink S2000) crew back in Miami and even The Racer’s Edge makes a small appearance. Also Tyrese Gibson makes an appearance to voice his own lines along with both Michelle Rodriguez and Vin Diesel.
There is a very clear reason why ratings on Steam and from players in general have been negative. It’s kinda sad because there were elements from other great franchises like Spy Hunter and Burnout that were incorporated, but not used anywhere close to their full potential. It also really sucks that it was developed by Slightly Mad Studios, the company behind Project Cars. Everything about this game comes across as boring and a completion time that rivals that if Playstation 2-era shooting games is not a good look. Avoid it if you haven’t already.
