Need For Speed Unbound’s Multiplayer, Lakeshore Online, Has Its Own Separate Progression

This week’s Need For Speed Unbound info drop is likely the last, as the release date creeps on closer.

The racing game by Criterion Games have released some fresh new gameplay trailer that shows how you enter a race (by going to a meetup), and snippets of what’s called a Speed Race. Nothing too crazy.

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But you know what’s crazy? The multiplayer mode. It even has its own name, Lakeshore Online.

Unlike past Need For Speed games, Need For Speed Unbound has spun off its multiplayer mode into its own separate thing. Lakeshore Online does not share the same progression from the single-player campaign. So you will start out with a starter car even if you finished the campaign already.

You’ll create an online character (which seems to also be separate from the single-player mode), a starter car and then customise your banner, which lets you snap a photo of your character posing with your car.

From there, you can join Freeroam. A Freeroam server can have 16 players at a time, and cross-play is enabled by default (but you can opt-out). You can party up as a gang of four players and take part in races together- including private races with no randos. Races can have 8 cars max.

Like in single-player, you join races by driving to meetups, and from there can select a playlist of races to compete in. There are single-tier races where you just need a car of the same tier, and there are mixed-tier races where you need to use different tiers of cars. A loaner car is available should you not have the right car for a race.

While progression is separate, there are unlocks that carry over to Lakeshore Online. Completing the Qualifiers and the Grand, completing Delivery missions and other events in the campaign will give you unlocks in Lakeshore Online. Also, collectibles can be collected in both single-player mode an multiplayer and that progress is shared. However, the bank reward will only be awarded to the account of the current mode only. So weirdly, you might want to hold of collecting collectible collectibles in single-player if you want an edge money-wise when you begin Lakeshore Online.

What’s fascinating from the blog post revealing Lakeshore Online is what’s not available at launch. Right now, the world is locked to day time in Freeroam (races can still happen at variable time and weather). Pinkslip bets or sidebets are not available yet, and so are the new Takeover events.

This implies there’s more to come via post-launch updates. Back when it was announced, NFS Unbound was mentioned to have post-launch updates, but given the track record of past games it’s hard to be excited about it. Maybe Unbound will do more than the previous titles have added after the game releases, but let’s wait and see for now.

Need For Speed Unbound will be out on December 2 on the PS5, PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, EA App) and Xbox Series X|S.

Source: Need For Speed