Need for Speed: The Run - a story racer that actually works

How do you tell a story in a racer? How do you reconcile things like character development and dialogue with a formula that demands all your play time be spent inside a metal box on wheels? It's a question Need for Speed has been struggling to answer for a solid decade, clanging its bodywork against the Fast & Furious films in hopes some of that Diesel-powered charm will rub off.

Last year's spectacular Hot Pursuit was a major departure, redoubling the focus on velocity on the one hand, and breaking new ground for asynchronous multiplayer on the other. This year's The Run sees EA renewing its aborted love affair with Hollywood, contracting Michael Bay to direct the trailer and wheeling on Mad Men starlet Christina Hendricks as eye candy. A return for the worst? No, surprisingly enough. Thanks to a premise that keeps you firmly on the tarmac and execution that stands up to the pick of modern action releases, The Run could be the best Need for Speed yet.

Rather than a clumsy hybrid, Black Box has forged a delicate balance between exposition and driving that sees sweeping third- and first-person cutscenes blur craftily into and out of race events, the view circling to the rear of your speeding car as the final dialogue line fades. In theory, it's another tale of posturing gangsta boys and their toys, but the sillier clichés are gone, and the direction has bite. You're often plunged into a scenario as it happens - the game's leading man Jack gets a terse loading screen intro before his flight from the underworld commences.

The story The Run wants to tell isn't in the cutscenes, however, but on and around the road itself. Having slipped the mob's clutches, Jack is signed up by Hendricks' mysterious agent-of-interested-parties Sam to participate in an enormous race - a 200-car coast-to-coast jaunt with a 25 million dollar prize. Broken down into what are effectively time trial, group race and head-to-head events, the race takes you through every shade of geography the US of A is capable of - winding mountain valleys, featureless deserts and cluttered urban grids to name just three - and the payoff is a wide-eyed tourist mentality, an epic feel other, less tightly structured racers struggle to foster, however spectacular their trackside environs.

The soundtrack keeps pace with the changing scenery, swapping regional styles as you fling yourself into the continent's depths. Armed with a Ford Shelby QT5000 Super Snake - its handling helpfully branded "normal" by the newbie-friendly garage selection screen - we tackle an early group race event on Altamont Pass Road. A wicked country rock number chases us down a sandy off-road section, its laconic twang a perfect counterpoint to the whining horns and thundering engines.

The driving model is arcade-flavoured enough that dabbling Burnout fans won't feel estranged, but rides labelled "difficult" and above should keep simulation fetishists amused. The courses recall Hot Pursuit, offering one or two shortcuts of varying lengths for those hardy enough to weather the terrain. Inexpertly drafting two cars locked in a furious midstream wrestling match, we plough out to the right of a bridge support and find ourselves hurtling through scrubby woodlands, emerging back onto the road a solid 70 metres ahead. 10 seconds later we're part of a chrome herd stampeding down a freeway, kicking aside civilian drivers like sofa cushions.

It's an absolute blast, dancing from coherence to chaos in a heartbeat as you slingshot smoothly past deadlocks and straight into an oncoming lorry. Even our own ineptitude can't kill it. Players get five resets per race, automatically bumping you back to a checkpoint when you wander off-track (you can also manually reset if you're dissatisfied with your performance). Controversial as this may sound to self-respecting pro racers, the checkpoints are sufficiently far-flung that it's hard to feel coddled. You'll also reap more EXP per event if you hoard those resets, rather than splurging them all on the first corner.