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Rivals features gameplay somewhat similar to the earlier Hot Pursuit, with exotic cars and high-speed police chases.[5] Players take on the role of a Racer or a Cop, with each side of the law offering its own set of challenges, risks and rewards.[6] Rivals features eleven upgradeable gadgets such as EMPs, shockwaves and the ability to call in roadblocks.[5] The game takes place in a fictional location known as Redview County. It's an open world and features over 100 miles (160 km) of open road, larger than that of 2012's Most Wanted, but on the same size as Criterion's Hot Pursuit.[7] The open world features a similar set-up to Most Wanted, with several jumps, speed traps and unlockable cars, as well as shortcuts that are not shown on the map.[8][9]

Rivals features a full career progression for both Cop and Racer. When playing as a Cop, there are three types of career that can be followed - patrol, enforcer, and undercover.[10] Progression is by means of Speedlists for Racer and Assignments for Cop, which are sets of objectives which involve dangerous driving, maneuvers, and race standings. When the player completes a set of objectives, the player levels up and unlocks new content, and is presented with another set of objectives to choose from.[11] The Autolog system, a competition-between-friends system, was developed by Criterion for Hot Pursuit lets an Assignment or Speedlist to other players' times and posts them to a Speed Wall for local and global leaderboards.[11]

Rivals features a new social system called the AllDrive, which allows players to seamlessly transition from playing alone, to playing with friends, described as "destroying the line between single player and multiplayer". This allows players to in engage co-op gameplay as well as play against each other.[6] The game also features a dynamic weather system, which makes "the world feel alive in a much bigger sense than any other Need for Speed game."[5]

Rivals also takes on some gameplay styles of earlier Underground titles in the franchise with cues on aesthetic vehicle personalization, as paint jobs, decals, rims and license plates and liveries can be modified, as well as vehicle performance, and various Pursuit Tech gadgets.[8][12] With the exception for the Aston Martin Vanquish (and many DLC vehicles), all vehicles are only available in either racer or police variant.[13] Ferrari officially returns to the franchise in full glory for the first time in eleven years since 2002's Hot Pursuit 2 (although they previously appeared in 2009's Shift as Xbox 360-exclusive downloadable content), with the F12berlinetta, 458 Spider, 458 Italia, FF, Enzo, and 599 GTO being the Ferrari vehicles featured in Rivals.[14]

Plot[edit]
There are two storylines that the player can choose to play by: the Racer storyline and the Cop storyline. Upon completion of a certain number of sets of goals, the storyline moves forward, earning the player new cars in the process.

Racer[edit]
The player assumes the role of Zephyr, a veteran street racer. Well known for his publicity stunts, Zephyr regularly uploads street racing videos as his point of argument that his fellow racers in Redview Country should also be free.

Upon his posting of a video of his car outrunning cops, a number of other racers also begin to post their own videos of themselves outrunning police cars. The police force begins to challenge the racers, and in the process, Officer John McManis, one of their pursuit drivers, is injured after a racer wrecked his car. After this incident, the police begin to use excessive force on racers.

However, accusations of such force come to public attention, and the entire police force is sidelined while the FBI bring in their VRT, or Vehicle Response Team, consisting of ex-special forces and ex-street racers.

The VRT, however, are no better than the police force at stopping racers, thanks largely to Zephyr and other racers. The VRT only manage to endanger the public, and on the midst of this, new street racers show up, including one by the name of F-8, or Fate, who is seen in the news reports driving an Enzo Ferrari. F-8 intentionally wrecks other racers, and eventually Zephyr realizes that F-8 is a cop in disguise as a street racer, going out to intimidate racers. Not long after, Zephyr steals a decommissioned Koenigsegg Agera R police car, rebrands it with Zephyr-based graffiti, and proceeds to wreck cops with that car.

As a result of that incident, Zephyr is seen as a Robin Hood-esque character, with public sympathy shifting towards the racers. Later, the police are cleared of their excessive force charges, and return to the streets. In a public address, Zephyr sets a number of locations as places where cops and racers can face off against each other. He also organizes a Grand Tour, a race spanning most of Redview County.

Near the end of the Tour, however, as Zephyr is about to win, a police blockade forms, and he crashes into the blockade at high speed, flipping and damaging his car. A flash news report is broadcast not long after, with initial TV reports showing his car smoking heavily, and paramedics rushing to the scene.

This is not before the cinematic cutscene suddenly cuts to Zephyr, who is revealed to have survived the crash. While briefly awake, he repeats the dialogue he states in the intro of the game, "I am the reality show, the 15 minutes you'll never have." He then starts his damaged car's engine, leaving the player to guess as to what happens next...

Cop[edit]
The player goes to his training to be a member of Redview County Police Department. After he completes his training, he is now a member of the police force.

One day, the RCNN (Redview County News Network) broadcast a flash news report, in which a video of street racing was trending online. Also, dozens of racers began to upload copycat videos similar to the featured video, and it was revealed that street racing became viral around the county and they seek notoriety. Because of that, the public accuses the police of intimidation, and they hold several rallies and marches against RCPD. Days later, the Mayor of the county went to the general hospital of Redview to visit RCPD officer John McManis, who recovered from multiple injuries while on patrol.

Because of sense of intimidation, the US Department of Justice has been summoned to investigate the cases. All officers have been placed on restricted duty and are accused of gross misconduct. With no agency available to serve the streets, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Vehicle Response Team, or VRT, has been called in to substitute RCPD while under investigation.

While under restricted force, the player thinks that if they want to win, they need new rules. Since the racers operate outside the law, the player decides to go rogue and infiltrate the racers, by means of impersonation. He uses an impounded Enzo Ferrari fitted with Pursuit Tech to wreck some racers as an officer, while at the same time acting as a racer. He also creates his own alias: F-8, also known as Fate. He uses his tactics to apprehend the racers while pretending to be their opponent in their racing, without blowing cover.

F-8 becomes popular online after several news reports of him wreaking havoc. As a result, violence breaks more and more. Because of that, the restricted officers have been called to be recruited to VRT. However, the VRT only accept skilled and aggressive drivers, and they do not accept many cops, because they only bring chaos instead of bringing peace. F-8 decides to join VRT, and a test is given to him. After passing the test, he is accepted into the VRT. The United States taxpayer invests millions of dollars to F-8, and expects that it will be well spent.

His mission at the VRT begins: to disrupt the network of the racers. The VRT have identified three known associates of a street racer named Zephyr via radio signal decryption. The three use encrypted radios that ping during communication. Because of the three, locations of Zephyr are vague, so F-8 needs to seize the communications in order to clear the signals.

After that, the radio signals are now clear, and they are able to decrypt Zephyr's radio signal. At the signal, a message from Zephyr says that he wants all racers to band together to protect themselves from their enemies. The VRT tell F-8 that he is the only one who can take him down. He then hunts Zephyr and takes him down.

However, F-8's car is totaled during the pursuit. He is in critical condition, feared to be killed in a high-speed collision with Zephyr. Even though his name was not mentioned, the sources of the news state that F-8 has been terminated from the force for his reckless actions.

In the aftermath, as it looks like the street racing epidemic is over, F-8, now a street racer, having just taken Zephyr's position as the top racer in Redview County, uploads a video, issuing a challenge to all race