So, I've been playing for a while, and while I'm nowhere near the end (my car is still less than half of the maximum performance level), I have been having immense fun.
The handling feels good, albeit with a bit of tuning and fiddling with settings. For instance, drifting is controlled by the gas by default, instead of the brakes. Which causes a bit of confusion when first starting to drive, causing me to hit the barriers quite often because the car wouldn't turn the way I wanted it to.
The barriers are another thing. Instead of solid walls, the barriers indicating the track are destroyable - but they slow you down. I've lost several races, where I take the corner too tight, hit the barriers, which drop my speed, allowing the car behind me to pass.
Racing itself is great. Hard enough to be difficult to get first place, but still doable - as long as your car is powerful enough.
The customization is insane, as usual. Tons of parts (which were already hinted at with the NFS Studio app), and the amount of things you can pull off using the wrap editor is awesome. The only downside I have found is that there is no possibility to slant things, which is a bummer.
The switching between day and night was one of the major things which would make or break this game. And it's not implemented the way I would have liked. You have to return to your garage to switch, which takes a lot of momentum out of your game. On the other hand, though, returning to your garage gives you a change to upgrade your car, before heading out again.
Nighttime is the most beautiful part of the game. It looks amazing. They gave the game a bit of an outrun vibe, and at night it really shines. I like just driving around at night, looking at the city.
Until the cops arrive.
And holy fuck, the cops are insane. At heat level 1, they're easy to deal with. Ram them around a bit, and they die pretty fast. Reach level 2 though, and while they still die pretty fast, they won't hesitate to do the same to you. They also become a lot harder to get rid of, as suddenly the amount of pursuing cars increase from 2 to 5, and good lucking getting rid of all of them at once. Each increasing level brings out more insane cars, and more aggression. I made it to level 4 before they completely smash me into oblivion.
Your car has a health bar, and if it's gone, you're busted, and lose a chunk of cash. You can repair your car using gas stations, but the catch is that you only get 3 repairs every time you go out at night.
All combined makes police chases a fun activity at level 1 or 2, but a frantic dash for freedom at levels 3 and up. It really amps up the difficulty curve, and it's for the better. Some of my best NFS:MW memories were of insane cop chases, and this brings back those memories.
So yeah. Great game.