It feels great to see a decent arcade racing game come to PlayStation again. These days, gas heads generally prefer a more realistic driving experience, so they don’t show up too often. The series has been hit or miss for a long time, but I’m happy to say that the latest iteration, Need for Speed Unbound, is the winner.
Establish a memorable identity from the moment you start the game. Between the varied blends of hip-hop and electronic music and the flourishes of cartoonish, graffiti-like visuals, Unbound has a truly unique sense of style. It’s not for everyone, but we love presentations. It brings much-needed personality and flair to a series struggling to rediscover its voice.
The visual effects are a little different than the realistic open world and vehicles, but without them the game feels a little mundane. Boosting, sweeping drifts, and catching big air off big ramps doesn’t feel so good without sketchy graffiti and colorful tire smoke. I feel great. This trick doesn’t work very well for human characters. Some of his NPCs look great, others don’t. Still, aside from a few story cutscenes, you won’t see a lot of cutscenes anyway.
Speaking of stories, the stories here are just set dressing. Playing as the up-and-coming street he racer, the prologue ends with your so-called friend left high and dry without a ride. Years later, you rediscover his underground racing world only to find that your former buddy is tearing up the tarmac with a car he stole from you. To get your revenge, you’ll have to take it all back by qualifying for The Grand, the city’s biggest street racing event. The writing is trying a little too hard, but again, this story is just an excuse to tune up a cool car and take it out on the road.
And that’s where the game shines. The Unbound has the best handling model in Need for Speed games in a long time. It builds on what Heat brings to the table, but with clearly noticeable differences. The car is generally more responsive and much easier to maintain juicy drifts. improve.
It’s important to note that handling varies from vehicle to vehicle, but it’s also highly customizable. By default, tapping gas or brake will start drifting, but you can turn them off completely if you prefer. can. The latter is usually better for securing faster lap times in races, but the former is more effective in drift events and takeover challenges where style is everything. We like the ability to pull off big power slides. Drifting slows you down, but it feels great when you slide correctly. The bottom line is that Unbound hits a nice balance by catering to all arcade racing sensibilities.
Singleplayer adapts to your pace, no matter what or how you drive. Prologue offers a pretty good car for his first hour or so, but much less choice after that. The fact that things are structured means that you have a hard time even getting ahead for a little while, which can give the game a slightly odd impression of being extremely difficult. However, if your car is decorated with better parts, you can easily raise your rank.
Like its predecessor, Unbound divides day and night into separate entities, but treats them differently. have a chance to. However, every event gives you some heat and shows how aggressively the police will go after you if they find you. Driving after dark is very dangerous.
A series of interesting design choices mean the campaign will have you thinking a lot. He has five days in-game to prepare for the big qualifying event on Saturday. This requires a car within a certain tier, as well as cash for an entry fee. Oh, and most of the regular events of the week also have a buy-in cost. Because of this, you can’t always spend all your cash to upgrade your car or enhance it with in-depth customization options.
It is a balancing act. You need money to upgrade your vehicle and participate in each qualifier, but to earn money you have to participate in races on weekdays and these will be hot water along with the police. The more money you make, the harder it will be to dodge the police and deposit your cash in the bank. If you can forgive the clichés, it’s a real risk versus reward system that should consider all options.
Online, on the other hand, is a little lackluster. Feel free to race with up to 15 players for as long as you like without police on the streets. This requires a separate garage from offline mode. However, aside from various playlists, there’s little else to do. It’s pretty empty. Sure, there are billboards to smash, collectibles to find, and mini-challenges like speed traps scattered here and there, but they hardly matter. The lack of fast travel can also be frustrating, especially if you just want to attend events.
Conclusion
Despite one or two minor gripes, Need for Speed Unbound is a great arcade racer that finally got the series off the ground. The versatile handling is great, and the single player offers a very engaging campaign, allowing you to battle cops and other racers on equal footing. The topical cartoon effects manage to bring some flair to the experience, and everything runs wonderfully in his 4K and 60 frames per second. Minute-by-minute action makes this game worth a try, if you can tolerate a slightly underwhelming background and minimal online mode.
