It has been a while since Criterion Games worked on one of the biggest racing game franchise, Need For Speed and they have done justice to the game except for one thing. After a year-long delay, the new NFS game finally arrived to wow us with its amazing visuals and overall art style. Criterion Games' last NFS game was actually Need For Speed: Most Wanted back in 2012, where it got a lot of good reviews back then. It was one of the peaks of the franchise where it also got remastered because of its great gameplay and overall concept for NFS. After 10 years, will Criterion Games once again make a mold breaking game for the NFS franchise? Let's find out.

NFS Unbound Review: What is Need For Speed Unbound

Need For Speed: Unbound is the next installation of the ever popular racing game franchise, Need For Speed. The Need For Speed series generally centers around illicit street racing and tasks players have to complete in order to unlock better and faster cars. There are a lot of various types of races to be played while evading the police in their pursuit to shut down all racers in their quest for high speed glory. In this new release of the racing game franchise, you are to take on weekly qualifiers to reach The Grand, Lakeshore's ultimate street racing challenge. You need to pack your garage with speed demons, decorated to the nines, and light up the streets with it, leaving your opponents to dust. Lastly, show your style off with different customizations, and listen to vibrant global soundtrack that would keep you pumped up for every race.

Need For Speed is now back to its former peak creators before, Criterion Games. Criterion has taken the franchise rights from Ghost Games after the addicting Need for Speed Heat in 2019. Originally planned for 2021, Unbound was pushed back a year to allow Criterion to help with Battlefield 2042. Was it worth the delay of 1 year to release a great game? The answer would be yes and no.

Gameplay

Like any NFS game, Need For Speed: Unbound centers on the player controlling a 3rd person perspective vehicle to race against time, other racers, and complete tasks to unlock more to fine tune the best car you can possibly own. There is also a mode where you can customize and remodel your vehicle to your liking to still look stylish on the race. In this game, money is king. The more money you make, the more you can unlock more cars and parts but it's not that easy to make money as you think. Even if you haul a big amount within the day in the game, you still have to evade the cops and turn in your earnings at your garage. If by chance you get arrested by the cops while holding all your money, you will lose all of them, your time, and effort. The game is all about No Risk, No Reward so you better watch out and get a little risk in your life. There are 3 game modes you can choose from however you want to play your game. Relaxed, Challenging, Intense. It is up to you how you want to experience the game in each of the difficulty.

What excels in Style might have lacked in substance. The different storyline and art style makes it feel like a new game but that's actually the biggest difference between NFS Unbound and its former installment, NFS Heat. Outside of that, the game feel like they cloned on how to play NFS Heat. They also have this repetitive formula where you start with a pretty long prologue to set up everything, giving you a network and an antagonist for your journey, NFS Unbound is not much different. You will also find yourself grinding out the dollars in the early game to win and buy more cars and parts, to have a better competitive car. It's the same exact thing NFS fans know so well but it might be tiresome for some because of its repetitive nature.

NFS: Unbound might be able to appeal to the younger crowd or the next generation, but it might not be as enjoyable as it could be for fans who have played the game 20 years in the making. The game could be better, like how it defined what it is now, back when NFS Most Wanted was released.

Story

The story revolves around two friends that were unable to stop a robbery at a family auto-shop. They are now given the opportunity to make their mark on the streets to earn rep and make their way to entering the Grand and reclaim the stolen custom car. You, as the player to control the friends' destiny, is tasked to take risks to get attention to get into the Grand by taking on the Lakeshore Police Department or placing bets on rivals. Although it is up to the player on how you want to make your mark on the streets, the more attention you earn, the more you are at risk of getting heat.

You as the player has 4 weeks total to gain entry to the ultimate street racing event. Within every Saturday of each week, there is a Qualifier event that the player can enter but this requires the player to buy-in using their earned money during the week. Each day has 2 opportunities for the player to earn the cash required for the buy-in as well as a chance to improve their vehicles. Those two opportunities are split into daytime session and a night-time session, giving the player a total of twelve sessions to earn before each qualifier. With all of the completed sessions, the earned or lost cash is tracked to compare the requirements of the weekly Qualifiers. Each session will define each reward opportunity, challenge, and even police attention. As part of the player's path, they'll also meet A$AP Rocky, a prominent rapper and fashion icon, for a chance to take him on head-to-head to a test of skill and style.

The story and the gameplay resounds each other having the player do day to day tasks to earn street creds into working their way up to the ultimate street racing event. The game definitely gives off a racing movie vibe given the story and timeline of how it will unfold in the end. Winning the Grand would make you king of the streets.

Graphics

Need For Speed: Unbound has taken a different direction in terms of their art style and we are loving every single aspect of it. While the map and overall landscape itself is similar to Need For Speed: Heat's Palm City, Lakeshore City is more realistic and feels more alive. The city, rural area, and even the huge highways are beaming with life through their pedestrians, traffic, and overall structure of its environment, even its nature.

The visual effects in game is also an interesting take giving it a more street-art inspired vibe where drag racing came to be. Some might even say anime-ish for the art because this is the first NFS game to have a cartoonish approach for the game. You get to feel the boost of Nitro, the burning rubber of tires while drifting, and the fast acceleration due to its visual effects making your car more alive than before.

Music and Sound Design

There's also the soundtrack that would also personify the splashing art style of street art. From the sound effects of each vehicle racing, to even the BGM of the game itself is resounded with the style of NFS: Unbound. This is a fresh take on the franchise as most of the time, the music and sound design would center on fast paced, car chase music that would always point to its name sake, Need For Speed. This recent installment however takes on style to a different level, giving the game more life that would make you groove to the music while playing the game. This is one aspect you don't want to miss as you might want to add their OSTs to your playlist.

Accessibility

Need For Speed: Unbound has a lot of accessibility options you can change, such as difficulty, hud settings, audio and visual graphics, controls, and camera works to have a better experience for your game. Even with its mid to high requirement for a smooth gameplay, there is an option to lower them to still enjoy the game with a normal rig.

Verdict

Bottomline, Need For Speed: Unbound is a great and addicting installment for the NFS franchise with its new take on its visual effects however when there is an upgrade on Style, there is a lack on Substance. The game still feels like any NFS 10 years ago. If you are a fan of the NFS franchise, I would say the game is definitely worth the $69.99 for its different take on its art style as well as its interesting storyline. Hopefully there will be updates and patches on the gameplay that would actually break the mold of the NFS game since it has just been released. Maybe adding a different game mode, which would make street racing even more interesting.

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