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Need for Speed™ Payback
Set in the underworld of Fortune Valley, you and your crew were divided by betrayal and reunited by revenge to take down The House, a nefarious cartel that rules the city’s casinos, criminals and cops. In this corrupt gambler’s paradise, the stakes are high and The House always wins.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.
What reviewers agree on
70 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“The car selection and driving mechanics are definitely the highlights for me handling feels smooth and satisfying. Graphically, the game looks great and holds up well. However, be warned that the story is quite short,…”
“The open-world activities are very similar to those in the Forza Horizon series. The game does have a storyline, but I can't say it's particularly impressive. We play as thieves who’ve been robbed, and we have to take…”
“good graphics. controller support is also good. i use steam based inputs for controller. works flawlessly. nice collection of cars. police chases are good.”
15 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Finally, a decent game with some kind of storyline and without all that nonsense right from the start. It’s fun to play when there’s a sense of progress.”
“I play on a pretty bad pc, but I still am able to get decent graphics and good fps. Also if you don't want to listen to me yap, I have a synopsized chart at the bottom. The story is probably the best in the entire…”
“Very fun game, with good driving mechanics and a decent story, but its a buggy mess, the game has frozen on me multiple times during races which makes me have to restart the game and the race and that gets very annoying…”
11 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“The car selection and driving mechanics are definitely the highlights for me handling feels smooth and satisfying. Graphically, the game looks great and holds up well. However, be warned that the story is quite short,…”
“good graphics. controller support is also good. i use steam based inputs for controller. works flawlessly. nice collection of cars. police chases are good.”
“I play on a pretty bad pc, but I still am able to get decent graphics and good fps. Also if you don't want to listen to me yap, I have a synopsized chart at the bottom. The story is probably the best in the entire…”
6 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“The car selection and driving mechanics are definitely the highlights for me handling feels smooth and satisfying. Graphically, the game looks great and holds up well. However, be warned that the story is quite short,…”
“good graphics. controller support is also good. i use steam based inputs for controller. works flawlessly. nice collection of cars. police chases are good.”
“Very fun game, with good driving mechanics and a decent story, but its a buggy mess, the game has frozen on me multiple times during races which makes me have to restart the game and the race and that gets very annoying…”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I play on a pretty bad pc, but I still am able to get decent graphics and good fps. Also if you don't want to listen to me yap, I have a synopsized chart at the bottom. The story is probably the best in the entire…”
“Although its likely my favourite need for speed game in the franchise, the handling on the cars on turns (specifically speaking about drifting) are very clunky. Other than that its great, good graphics, good cars,…”
“runs smoothly”
10 of the 103 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“The open-world activities are very similar to those in the Forza Horizon series. The game does have a storyline, but I can't say it's particularly impressive. We play as thieves who’ve been robbed, and we have to take…”
“cringe story, some minor bugs but the gameplay is superb and fun”
“Although its likely my favourite need for speed game in the franchise, the handling on the cars on turns (specifically speaking about drifting) are very clunky. Other than that its great, good graphics, good cars,…”
7 of the 103 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“The open-world activities are very similar to those in the Forza Horizon series. The game does have a storyline, but I can't say it's particularly impressive. We play as thieves who’ve been robbed, and we have to take…”
“Very good game, But Card system is annoying.”
“To be honest, even if the game is kind of a copy of Forza Horizon with the races and stuff you can do in the game, it is still fun. The only thing that I do not like is the upgrade system for your car... The graphics…”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“I tried, but this is so damn boring. The map is flat, empty, just deserts everywhere with barely any verticality, the roads are fricking huge, and the layout of the road is just too linient. All this combined, makes one…”
“This is such a "clean" NFS game it's hard to even recognize it as the same series, it's just one big nothingburger. Don't like the story focus here at all, it's like they forget that this is supposed to be a RACING game…”
“i mean its ok not the best need for speed im my oppinone”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Although its likely my favourite need for speed game in the franchise, the handling on the cars on turns (specifically speaking about drifting) are very clunky. Other than that its great, good graphics, good cars,…”
“Need for Speed Payback looks stunning, especially during those desert sunsets, even if the driving physics are unrealistic. It’s way too forgiving and plays more like a cheesy action movie than a serious racer, but if…”
“If you like cinematic car chases and the taste of Gorgonzola - this story line is for you. B Movie fare, lots of fun, looks good for an older game - but warning - handling - particularly drifting - is erm...…”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“What the hell happened to need for speed? This game seems to have customization figured out but the fact that engine and other vehicle upgrades have been replaced with race cards is one of saddest things I've seen in…”
“I liked this game. Up until EA made it impossible for me to log in and play the game. Since I can no longer login to their my EA account, this is just a sad waste of money.”
“This is no longer playable since being removed ny EA. When you going to stop fleecing us? And this was bought as a digital copy and not a "rental", so please provide game playable or full refund.”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 85.6% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“I have maintained the belief that storytelling needs to exist together with racing gameplay because multiple Need for Speed games demonstrate different ways to solve this problem. The Run developed into its current form as a racing game which now exists as an entirely different…”
— a player, Steam review · 73 hrs played“Need for Speed Payback – Review The Good Unlimited Garage Space A small but very welcome feature. You can collect as many cars as you want without worrying about storage limits, which fits perfectly with a game that encourages experimentation with different builds. Car Variety…”
— a player, Steam review · 71 hrs played“Need for Speed Payback wasn't my cup of tea from the very first trailers i saw. The "Fast and Furious" atmosphere, the bro-talk, and the stale dialogue heralded one of the weaker installments in the franchise years. And the first few minutes of the game i played only confirmed…”
— a player, Steam review · 73 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-11 13:28 UTC · history via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-07-25.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-07-24). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
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Set in the underworld of Fortune Valley, you and your crew were divided by betrayal and reunited by revenge to take down The House, a nefarious cartel that rules the city’s casinos, criminals and cops
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Racing, Sports, Strategy |
| Player tags | Racing · Open World · Multiplayer · Combat Racing · Controller · Sports · PvP · Sandbox · Arcade · Third Person · First-Person · Strategy (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · PvP · Online PvP · Co-op · Online Co-op · Steam Achievements |
| Languages | English * , French * , Spanish - Spain * , Italian * , German * , Japanese * , Polish * , Portuguese - Brazil, Russian * , Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese * |
| Achievements | 57 |
| Estimated owners | 1,000,000 – 2,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | https://www.ea.com/games/need-for-speed/need-for-speed-payback |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: 64-bit Windows 7 or later Processor: Intel i3 6300 @ 3.8GHz or AMD FX 8150 @ 3.6GHz with 4 hardware threads Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 750 Ti or AMD Radeon™ HD 7850 or equivalent DX11 compatible GPU with 2GB of memory DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 30 GB available space