Classic Era: The Need for Speed | Porsche Unleashed
Black Box Era: Underground (1 and 2) | Most Wanted (2005) | Carbon (Main Version | Own the City) | ProStreet | Undercover
Autolog Era: Shift (Shift PSP version and Shift 2: Unleashed) | Nitro | The Run | Rivals
2014 film adaptation
Ghost Games Era: (2015) | Payback | Heat
New Criterion Era: Unbound
The characters of the Need for Speed game Need for Speed Rivals.
Just two characters, each from opposite sides, is what defines this game.
Each side has different skills, techniques, and motivations that make one another clash. No face or backstory was needed to best describe these two Rivals.
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Zephyr
Click here to see the car Zephyr uses in the later stages of the game.
Car: McLaren P1, Ferrari Enzo, player's choice (Racer vehicles only), SPOILER CAR*
Voiced by: Charles Hegarty
"Every man has his limit, and the only way to find it is to go past it."
A prolific and capable street racer of Redview County who loves to start a coup d'etat against the Redview County Police Department via live internet video streaming. For a cause, Zephyr uses these to make Redview County their own playground.
- Anarchy Is Chaos: Zephyr's cause is to gain freedom from the RCPD... so he can take on illegal street racing around the county.
- Evil Versus Evil: The RCPD doesn't go any better on Zephyr; his arch-rival F-8 is also a Villain Protagonist from the cop side.
- Hero Stole My Bike: More like "Anarchist Stole My Car". As F-8 becomes a trendy "racer", Zephyr retaliates by stealing an unused Koenigsegg Agera R police car and resprays it in his own livery.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: He uploads his street racing videos online as if he treats it like a "reality show", and tries to incriminate how corrupt the RVPD were.
- La Résistance: He is the one leading against the RCPD's Government Conspiracies, by creating chaos in Redview County. It failed.
- No One Could Survive That!: The ending of the Racer career has Zephyr getting crashed by a police officer, with the press covering the crash even assuming Zephyr's death, but afterwards his monologue is heard and his car is heard starting up again, implying that he survived the crash.
- Order Versus Chaos: The Chaos to F-8's Order.
- Player Character: They play the role of the Racer's side.
- Propaganda Machine: Zephyr uses the nod of internet video streaming to exploit their actions against the RCPD's Government Conspiracy.
- Suddenly Voiced: Being the second Player Character (alongside The Rival F-8) to ever talk, first being Jack Rourke of The Run.
- Uncertain Doom: After being crashed by a police officer in the final event of the Racer career, his monologue is heard and his car is heard starting up again, implying that he survived the crash. Since the player can't see him, however, it's unclear whether he survived the crash unscathed or if he suffered any injuries that might kill him afterwards.
- Villain Protagonist: He is an illegal street racer causing untold amounts of chaos in Redview County.
F-8
Click here to see the car F- 8 uses in the later stages of the game.
Car: Player's choice (Cop vehicles only), SPOILER CAR*
Affiliation: Redview County Police Department, FBI Vehicle Response Team
Voiced by: Joseph May
"And when show of force isn't enough to maintain order, sometimes you have to settle for the real thing."
A notorious Rabid Cop of Redview County Police Department who is hell-bent on stopping illegal street racing in Redview County by any means necessary.
- Affably Evil: Despite being a Rabid Cop and a Villain Protagonist, he's quite calm and collected.
- Dressing as the Enemy: F-8 goes rogue when he starts to don an impounded Ferrari Enzo and poses as a racer. His purpose was only to take out racers whilst under the disguise.
- Evil Versus Evil: F-8 is a Rabid Cop from the notorious RCPD pitted against a bunch of street racers, led by the anarchistic Zephyr.
- He Who Fights Monsters: The epilogue cutscene for the Cop Career implies that he becomes a street racer himself after his dismissal.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He managed to take down Zephyr for good, but he ended up being fired from the RCPD for his use of police brutality.
- Knight Templar: He wants to stop street racing in his county and is perfectly willing to resort to reckless means to take racers down.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: F-8, the Villain Protagonist, manages to take down Zephyr, but he ended up being fired from the RCPD for his use of police brutality. Furthermore, F-8's campaign to end street racing from the inside ends up becoming moot when he decides to become a street racer for real after his firing, in the style of Zephyr.
- Order Versus Chaos: The Order to Zephyr's Chaos.
- Player Character: For the role of Cop side, he is this.
- Rabid Cop: Deconstructed. F-8 constantly uses Car Fu and Police Brutality to stop the street racers, and as such, he got fired from RCPD.
- The Rival: To Zephyr.
- Turn in Your Badge: In the end, his reckless and heavy-handed tactics cause him to get fired from the RCPD.
- Vigilante Man: F-8 goes rogue when he disguises himself as a racer and takes down as many racers as possible while under his new facade.
- Villain Protagonist: Being a Rabid Cop and all, F-8 would even give Fortune Valley Police Department and Danny Shaw in later Ghost Games titles a run for their money, except here he is the protagonist for Cop career mode.
