NFS Unbound Review – Taking Flight

After 3 years of waiting, Need For Speed fans has finally gotten a game that captures the essence of the nuance of their older title routes and looks back on what makes NFS the most fun arcade game on the market. 

NFS Unbound is quite a fun romp that returnee developer, Criterion Games, has fine-tuned to be as enjoyable as possible while looking mostly unique within their realistic rivals.

So has it delivered on the hype? I can safely say that they have.

Presentation

Bringing you straight to the Chicago-like city of Lakeshore, the graphics on this one looks incredible and a big step up from Heat, with this being the first racing title to be fully on Current Gen hardware. 

And its dedication to being locked 60fps on all four platforms is one of the reasons why Criterion’s return has been well awaited (they did help make Star Wars Squadron as smooth as well, on old-Gen!). This coupled with the very bold comic-book art style (not anime, btw), and stylistic fairings on the cars, makes it the most snappy racer for quite some time.

Sound designs are mostly from Heat, so you will have the harsh-metallic or loud-ish exhaust noise for most cars but one of the neato things about Unbound is the diverse range of soundtrack selections that are mostly rap but are also from most continents of the world. 

So besides “Takeout Boss” A$AP Rocky’s beats, you can even listen to a selection of Rap from the likes of Hindi, Korean, and more in-game or even while tweaking your rides in the garage.

Gameplay

Criterion took a more interesting approach to this edition of the long-running series, which we rightly have to mention the amazing prologue that sets the tone of the game amazingly well.

The racing still follows the day and night races cycle but adds this new layer of intrigue with an old school mechanic that hasn’t seen the light of day, which are calendar days event (unofficially last seen within a different racing series, which was the Juiced series) and driver bets (which are more fleshed out that it’s appearance from Payback). 

And this coincides with its finale races at the end of the week, with players having enough cash to enter and beat that week’s boss to qualify for the grand finale. It is a gameplay loop of racing, and survival enough to get towards the end makes it quite addicting to play.

The car’s handling feels like quite an interesting take on both Heat’s and the recently remastered Hot Pursuit 2010, with more emphasis on Grip and Drifting to make the cars feel very enjoyable to drive, like an example is the Lotus being hella nimble Muscles like the Crown Vic feeling heavy but very grippy when you reach the sweet spot. 

We also got to mention the AI balancing that makes the racing feel more alive than in the past four games. The racers now feel more realistic about how the cars in their respective class would feel. And the police, while also quite harder during the Max heat chases, don’t feel like a pushover when compared to the final Ghost entry.

So to recap, these few basic changes have made the game far superior than Heat, and knowing Criterion, they can make the DLCs give a better icing on this sweet cake

Content

Car list-wise, it’s a pretty good mix of cars that are carry-overs from Heat and such, with new noticeable newbies like the infamous Ford Crown Victoria (which can be modified to a ridiculous amount) and newer cars like the Lamborghini Countach LPI-800 or Nissan Z Concept.  While I do Criterion would add more than 143 cars though but that’s a personal preference.

Customization is pretty much what you expect, with the added ability to remove bumpers to show off your front or rear exposed if that’s your thing. There are some new parts but are, once again, carry-overs from Heat which is fine by me. And you can also customize those fairings on the car as well when you unlock them along the way. 

All in all, this is quite an enjoyable romp of around 20 hours from start to beginning, with a pretty good staying power for years to come if Criterion treats it right. 

Personal Enjoyment

There was a thought in me that was doubtful of the chances for the latest Need For Speed. Announced and released quite late in the year usually doesn’t bode well for a title released by EA but weirder things have happened before.

Really it’s the joy of driving cars that are fully riced up for a day out, tweaking it just enough to do races that get increasingly harder, all the while trying to not lose it all when the eventual Police arrive and takes you down. 

It’s what makes it enjoyable to myself and many others in ways that resonate with the older fanbase whilst making it quite engaging to newer folks joining in on the hype. 

Verdict

There’s nothing more to say, but Need For Speed is back. The mixture of old and new makes for an enjoyable experience where racing is fun and frantic, plus the cop-chases are intense again. It truly is the return of a cult classic in the most appropriate of ways.

Played on Xbox Series S, Review copy provided by EA.

NFS Unbound

There’s nothing more to say, but Need For Speed is back.

• Presentation 9.5

• Gameplay 9.5

• Content 9.5

• Personal Enjoyment 9.5