need for speed It is a title that all gamers know, even by name. It’s such an old and recognizable franchise that it sows excitement every time a new game is announced.
Need for Speed Unbound it is, in fact, the 25th main installment in the franchise. With Criterion at the wheel and the still pretty impressive Frostbite graphics engine as its vehicle, the promise of an exclusively next-gen title is all the more exciting.… but the real question is: does it deliver what it promises?
Need For Speed Unbound is street art in motion
What stands out the most Need for Speed Unbound It is undoubtedly his artistic proposal, so I will take the liberty of addressing this section first for this occasion.
If you’ve seen any of the trailers, you’ll have noticed the graffiti-like effects that accompany the cars in this installment, along with the questionable decision to design the characters involved in this game with a cell-shade technique.
I must admit that this decision did not delight me at first. Although fortunately the design of the map of the fictional city Lakeshore and the cars are closer to the photorealism expected from the saga.
It’s a strange combination, an initial shock, a discomfort that wears off after a couple of hours. By the time you know all the mechanics of the game, you realize that this overlapping of styles works very well. In fact, these effects on drifts, accelerations and collisions can be turned off, but by the time I discovered this option, I no longer considered it necessary.
If there is a debatable part about this artistic direction, it is the character design, which follows stereotypes taken from the Fast & Furious movies and other similar works with a touch of caricature that did not quite fit.
If you can’t stand the heat…
The story of Need for Speed Unbound Don’t Take Many Risks: You’re a racer getting used to the world of illegal street racing in a city where the police act as an antagonist. The characters that participate are varied in appearance and personality, but frankly the dialogues are too many and very intrusive at various moments in a story that is not surprising and that could have opted for simplicity.
During your game time you will see yourself participating in daytime races that give you a level of heat that stays with you until late at night, when you can continue running for bigger prizes but with the police more attentive to your illegal activities and more. aggressive towards you with a high level of heat. A classic but tasty risk-reward system that works as a pretext to advance the story and give you profits that can allow you to buy new cars and tune them up.
put nitro
I must warn you one thing: Need for Speed Unbound It’s the hardest arcade game I’ve played in years. Staying first on the hardest difficulty is a task that requires total skill and concentration, the AI can get very aggressive, first place is never guaranteed (although it’s not required either, thankfully) and you can only retry a certain event once. limited number of times.
However, this difficulty is not frustrating as the only thing a bad race causes is a minor resource gain. Nothing serious, and actually a fresh idea in a genre that generally rewards excellence and perfectionism.
Nitros (or nitrous oxide) administration is undoubtedly your main concern in a fairly straightforward and easy-to-understand game. You can earn this resource that offers a temporary boost by doing tricks, overtaking, holding first position, and drifting around corners. And you can use it to maintain a privileged position. It is a simple mechanic on paper but it has turned out to be deeper than I would have imagined at first.
Drag racing with the buddies with Need For Speed
Need for Speed Unbound offers the possibility to play the open world of Lakeshore with your friends or strangers in a shared open world online mode, with a certain air of what is GTA Online for GTA V. However, I did not see much incentive outside of the excitement of compete against other players even from other platforms. Since the activities and rewards are very similar to what is found in the story mode.
A healthy and lasting online community will depend a lot on the support that is given to this mode and constant fresh content for at least a couple of years. For now the coin is in the air…
We also recommend: EA announces Need For Speed Unbound with everything and release date
A peek into the chest…
Let’s talk briefly about the technical aspect of the game that has pleasantly surprised me. Despite what can be criticized about the artistic aspect of the game, the reality is that the photo mode attests to how good Need for Speed Unbound looks. The city has believable lighting and the cars are detailed to a more than acceptable level. In motion, 60fps at true 4K resolution is a luxury few games provide, and on PS5 I was able to enjoy pretty much all the time I had with the game.
The physics of the title is acceptable if we take into account that this is not intended to be a realistic simulator, the trees disappear without a trace with collisions and there are no real consequences of a hard crash. With a wheel, the precision that good drifting requires in this game is somewhat difficult to get used to, but it is something that can be fully mastered with a few hours of dedication.
The audio performs very well too, and exhibits good use of high-end headphones. The roar of the engines and the sound of a living city mix very well with a soundtrack recharged towards hip-hop but with enough variety to please even the most veterans of the franchise.
Should you give Need For Speed Unbound a try?
Absolutely… This is undoubtedly the best installment of the saga in years. Criterion made a technically polished delivery, with fresh and interesting proposals and above all else: fun. Unbound defines an interesting course for a franchise that still has a lot to explore and that still has nothing left to owe with Unbound.
Here’s an arcade racing game that’s visually appealing and accessible to anyone, yet with a level of difficulty that’s appealing to the most passionate of the genre. It seems to me that Criterion now has an attractive window open that allows them to decide between continuing to explore new ideas in future installments of the series or developing what is seen here as the new direction of intellectual property. I assure you that either of the two routes seems to me the most exciting.
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We played Need For Speed Unbound on PS5 with a code provided by an Electronic Arts representative in our region.
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