EA and Ghost Games Develop Cops in Need for Speed

Although the role of the police has been greatly reduced in this year’s upcoming Need for Speed game (you can no longer play as a cop, for instance), they still figure in the game- mostly to make your life miserable by giving chase to you and your racer pals. Marcus Nilsson,Executive Producer of the game with Ghost Games, spoke with The Examiner regarding how they’ll give chase, as well as other topics such as  how traffic affects the world.

“If you are in a high-tier car, the cops will have more roadblocks and if you’re in a lower-tier car, or a sleeper car, they might think that it’s not as strong,” Nilsson said, “You can basically trick the police that way.”

Police will also be dynamic in the game- Nilsson noted that cops will not necessarily be a constant presence, and could be in an area, or they could have gone for a bit if things have cooled off. The hope is that this will encourage players to not just stick to one part of the game world, and also let them pick and choose their own progression, suited to their style of play.

“There are not cops all over the world, there are sections of it,” said Nilsson, “If you want to avoid cops, you learn where to avoid them and when you trigger pursuit, it’s going to come up basically as stop to pay fine. If you feel like you don’t want to have another cop race, you can stop, pay the fine and the cops will then leave.”

Nilsson also discussed traffic, which will feature in the game. He explained that traffic will also depend on what time it is, as the streets get more realistically busy as the city comes to life.

“During night, if you have been in LA, it’s basically empty and then as morning kind of comes we’re going to start building up and you’re going to have slightly more cars at dusk,” said Nilsson.

All in all, this does sound like the perfect Need for Speed Undergroud 3 that I have wanted for almost ten years now, and in spite of my principled stance against always online gaming (which is a requirement in this game), I find myself softening to this game.

Need for Speed launches on PS4 and Xbox One next month, with a version for PC planned for some time early next year.