Need for Speed Payback will get an update sometime this year that will add an Online Free Roam mode. In it, players can freely drive around in the game world without starting an event. Currently this is only possible before a race starts.
The Need for Speed account on Twitter announces the arrival of the new game mode in a very short time message. It only says that the mode is coming and it will be this year. It is not clear when Online Free Roam will become available. In an answer to a question say the developers that the mode will be available to all players for free.
A similar game mode was already in the Need for Speed reboot from 2015. Need for Speed Payback, the game that came out in November last year, however, lacks the option to drive freely online. Now that publisher EA and developer Ghost Games are still adding the mode, they seem to admit that leaving it out was the wrong decision.
The game did not receive high marks from reviewers upon release. The average score on Metacritic is about 60 points. Soon after the game’s release, microtransactions and loot boxes were modified in the game, making it easier to unlock new cars.