Ghost fixed a lot of problems and they did a great job with the structure for this game. It beats Horizon in this regard, easily. They combined the classic open world structure with Rivals' risk/reward system and cop chases that aren't broken up when you go in and out of events. The map is also good. The customization is great, you can even customize your character and all the clothing optinos are unlocked from the get go, no lootbox or MTX bullshit (and there's shit tons of clothing items too. Small touch, but much appreciated). The story isn't even that terrible. The cutscenes are surprisingly good and the dialogue isn't a complete cheesefest like in Payback. Hell, the cop chatter is actually great.
Oh, and they also have added semi-coop to the campaign. You can play all races together, except for story missions. But even when you do play a story mission, the party won't get broken up. It's a damn good system.
BUT.... while they undoubtedly improved the handling it's still easily the biggest weak point of the game. And unfortunately handling is everything in a racing game. It's basically Payback but slightly more technical as cars don't just drift on their own, when you jank the steering wheel left or right, you actually need to double tap gas or rely on classic brake to drift depending on which option you choose. But, the car still generally behaves like in Payback. And while you can, once again, tune your car to be grippy, it just... once again, like in NFS15 feels way too static and glued to the road. Cars just don't feel dynamic in Ghost's NFS games, they either full on drift or just glue to the surface.
The drifty handling only ever worked in HP2010 for me because the entire game was deisgned around it. Massive straight highways, most of the corners were long & winding, no sharp turns or urban areas. Even MW12 which was made by Criterion already felt held back by that handling model because there were way too many sharp turns, just made it un-fun.
6-7/10 is what I'd give it. It's fun overall and given how few arcade racers we get nowadays, it definitely has its place.
