Need for Speed Payback is the brand new entry in EA’s long running racing game series. It will be taking a leaf from out of GTA5‘s book, by allowing players to switch between three playable characters in the game’s open world setting.
The characters in question will be Tyler Morgan (The Racer), Mac (The Showman), and Jess (The Wheelman). And in a brand new interview with PlayStation Access, creative director William Ho explained exactly how the on the fly switching will work.
“You get to choose which races and events and missions that you want to enter,” Ho said. “So if you prefer drag race you can play more drag race as Tyler the racer. Then when you go and play a mission, ‘oh hey I’ve got to get these bank robbers away from this safe house’ so you switch over to Jess, then you go to a drift event and then it’s Mack. Each of these characters, they’re expressing what they want to accomplish, what their motivations are.”
Which sounds like each character will have their own areas of specialization and overlapping stories all contributing to the larger narrative. Personally, while I suppose it is good that they are pushing for an ambitious story, I also hope that, given that this is a racing game, there is an option for players to just skip past all of that and focus on the actual meat and bones of racing. We’ll find out, I suppose. Need for Speed Payback launches this November for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.