Since their inception nearly three decades ago, Need for Speed’s best entries have combined style and content to create a thrilling homage to the street racing scene. Need for Speed Unbound is like the ultimate realization of that philosophy, creating one of the series’ best films in years.
The feeling of sliding into the driver’s seat of nearly 150 cars in Need for Speed Unbound is amazing. Plunging straight into a McLaren feels amazingly fast, but cornering in a Mitsubishi feels just as great. Actions like drifting and stretching fill your speed gauge, creating a satisfying rhythm in the moment-to-moment race as you move from one move to the next.
Distinctive visual effects pervade nearly every moment of Need for Speed Unbound, making it one of the most stylish racing games I’ve ever played. Although the city and vehicles maintain the same realistic look as previous games, the characters are cartoonishly shaded. These two contrasting styles may sound like they would clash, but they work in tandem to create a refreshing blend. Unbound continues its approach to stylization by adding street art-inspired flourishes to the car as you drift, accelerate, and jump off ramps. I appreciate the neon smoke in a tight angle, but the card that pops up when your boost is full sometimes blocks my view during key moments of the race.
As you head to the open streets of the fictional city of Lakeshore, you have plenty of events to choose from. You can participate in linear races, lap-based races, head-to-head competitions, and drift events – not to mention the various collectibles and challenges scattered throughout the city. Each of these events presents fun challenges, but my favorite is Takeover, which puts you on a tight track and rewards you as you drift, accelerate, ramp, and descend hit the target.
Need for Speed Unbound’s single-player storyline focuses on betrayal and then the rise of the city’s underground racing scene. While the overarching story is easy to overlook, the constant conversation between the characters highlights their irritating personalities. Competitors repeat cryptic dialogue during each race, while open-world exploration is often interrupted by calls from your annoying manager or caricatured radio segments greedy politician. After the first few hours, I declined the menu dialogue. Still, I enjoyed listening to Rydell, the garage owner and father of your character, as his conversations offer moments of real seriousness despite his rough style. this game.
Police chases have long been a key element of the Need for Speed formula, and Unbound deploys them effectively. Every event and chase you participate in increases your heat levels for that day, with higher heat levels making police officers more restless with better vehicles at their disposal. I usually leave the basic model of the police cruiser in the dust at temperature one, but as the temperature rises and the police fire up more capable vehicles, tension creeps through my body as I grip your controller tighter.
Returning to the safe house of high temperatures can be very difficult; I often reroute my path to avoid starting a lengthy chase. While I usually escape, the danger of knowing that any money I make in that session will be lost if I get caught creates adrenaline-fueled incidents. Although the few times I was caught made me want to leave in frustration, the joy of a dangerous escape is hard to match.
Unfortunately, police chases are not available in the online part of the game. This wouldn’t be a disappointment if I could reliably find the full facts. However, since the online side only puts you in a version of Lakeshore with 15 other players who seem to be more interested in city exploration than racing, the online races themselves are often sparsely populated. After you join a race, the servers are stable and crossplay works fine, but I was disappointed that my garage progress in the story didn’t continue, leaving me unprepared for his first races. Thankfully, the generous rewards system helped me catch up quickly, but I missed the upgrade vehicles I was familiar with in the story.
Need for Speed Unbound is like a basic entry for the direction the series might start from here. Competing across the title’s multiple events is a blast, and I love the juxtaposition visual aesthetic. While some elements make me want to, Unbound is just as enjoyable as I’ve had with Need for Speed for years.
