Need for Speed Unbound review: the racing series’ best new game in years

Wagering and racing action need for speed unbound As familiar as it may be, this game is a breath of fresh air for racing fans.

what surprised me the most need for speed unbound, but tweaking the game’s economy and progression has allowed me to do what I’ve always wanted to do in this franchise: spend real time with one car, build it, and worry about missing out. there is no. Go for the fancy cars that you always unlock (or are available at dealers around the world for slightly less).

Plus, I feel like I’m actually racing instead of trying to get a cinematic 1st place finish in every event just to advance to the next one.The basic gameplay loop of Need for Speed ​​Unbound Almost unchanged from 2019 Need for Speed ​​Heat, in its day-night cycle, players raced in sanctioned events during the day, but increased their “reps” with nighttime activities, attracting the attention of the police. Only the person in charge.

but, unbound, the ascent to the top of the cash pile proceeds much more slowly. Night races are paid for in cash only, and if the police chase and catch you, you can lose everything after the race. plug. unbound It operates a direct cash economy and its highest paid races have buy-ins. This means the progression will be steeper (this is especially true when spending money on the game’s new customization options). A cash buy-in to a core event presents itself as a risk versus reward issue (although you’ll typically only lose money if you finish last, or close to it). However, even with low payouts, there are usually at least two meetups with no-cash buy-ins.

The internal grind of having a ‘free’ race is obvious, but I really appreciate having it available as it’s a much safer alternative to opting to fight the police Need for Speed ​​UnboundLakeshore open world (think Chicago). Cops, especially outnumbered, can definitely be very formidable on the streets. No matter how hard you make square turns or emergency braking U-turns, it’s nearly impossible to block your line of sight.

Luckily, the minimap shows the police locations, so you can drive past the side streets or back off if you’re following them on the highway before they spot you. If spotted, cooldown to full chase is very short. Most of the time you have to blow full throttle. Knowing your route back to the highway is key to surviving the man and keeping your cash because you’ve accumulated a ton of nitrite from the pranks that get you there. And when he has a five-figure amount on his dashboard, he becomes very desperate to keep it. This will inevitably bring reinforcements and make tracking even more difficult.

What you do with that money is much more natural and not subject to repeated dopamine hits of unlocking as much as possible. The first big priced option wasn’t for my next car when I came back to .It was a very nice tuner package for the car I was currently driving.

Ironically, I was hoping to save some cash for another car and win more races. The 1988 Lamborghini I chose during the character creation stage was truly a role-playing choice. After half a dozen events, I realized I wanted the muscle and drift of a 1969 Dodge Charger for point-to-point racing in suburbia featuring lots of switchbacks and corner cuts.

Image: Criterion Games/Electronic Arts

But if you regret your first car choice, Need for Speed ​​UnboundThe story pass of will eliminate such anxieties at once. It becomes clear that your disgruntled friend at the garage where you work has an idea of ​​its own. they take off in your car, unboundThe story unfolds along the usual log arc of interpersonal revenge, using a major street racing event as the overall goal of the story mode.

This is where Criterion’s less is more approach can help. unboundpacing, hence its long-term enjoyment. In the past, the franchise has typically made a point of beating everyone at every event due to its heavy-handed storyline that tries to imitate action movies, like the Need for Speed ​​past (especially her 2017s). Payback) often affected progression to the next event, so always had to swap vehicle types to finish first.of Need for Speed ​​Unboundyou may be honing for your buy-in for the next big race, but you can deal with not actually winning.

After being robbed of the A+ starter car, it got mowed down in an AI field, so that’s a good thing. unbound‘s more flexible post-race results mean you can build connections with a select few vehicles based on more criteria than ‘first chance’. It is also worth noting that there is no rewind function ( heat) and only a limited number of restarts per event. So I had to ask myself if that 4th place finish was really worth fixing (or if that ugly head-on collision with a minivan was really worth starting over).

All this is just to emphasize that it has a very enjoyable gameplay. Need for Speed ​​Unboundand “anime Need for Speed” isn’t the only thing players have seen in the game’s sparse hype before launch. unbound‘s unorthodox visual style is what most helps set the game apart from past entries, but what I was ready to resent was the lack of solid, complementary design rather than the point of the game as a whole. I was surprised that I was chosen.

Image: Criterion Games/Electronic Arts

The world of cars and racing is all photorealistic, but the drivers are animated characters. And every stunt they perform arrives emphasizing street art, such as neon-colored highlights on the rim, high-speed lines popping out of the hood, and a pair of graffiti-style wings when popping off an overpass. There are out animations, wheel effects, and post-race victory poses for the drivers (I especially appreciate the close-up view of the drivers in their customized outfits through the windshield at the end of the event). I thought all of this would interfere with the visual information that racing games need to present in order to drive fast and cool, but that’s not the case.

That’s not to say the handling is more intuitive than past Need for Speed ​​games. increase. Also, if you hit the nitro anywhere but on a straight, all the steering disappears.

handling is Forza Horizon 4for example, with an emphasis on pedal-to-metal speed and nitro boosts, you end up wrecking a lot of property. they always make it.

Image: Criterion Games/Electronic Arts

For such a venerable name in racing video games (remember the 2014 movie about this franchise starring Aaron Paul?), Need for Speed ​​really hit the skids in the last five years. . unbound It’s as much a relief as it is a joy — showing that there’s still a lot of fun in the open-world racer format if the studio were to try to think of some of the little things differently instead of revolutionizing the game. The entire shebang.

heata solid game that built a devoted audience probably didn’t feel its fairest shake in public opinion after it launched three years ago.Electronic Arts has reorganized its action racing development accordingly. did. unbound It arrives with the same lack of charm, the same faded cachet, but it’s so much more fun and worth spending time racing and running away from the law that the game feels like a racing comeback Player of the Year .

Need for Speed ​​Unbound launched on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on November 29th. The game was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a pre-release download code provided by Electronic Arts. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.