Need For Speed Unbound Review – Turning A Tight Corner

Since its inception nearly three decades ago, Need for Speed’s best entries have combined style and substance to produce thrilling homages to the street racing scene. Need for Speed Unbound feels like the ultimate realization of that philosophy, creating one of the franchise’s best in years.

Feeling great in the driver’s chair of any one of the 150 vehicles in Need for Speed Unbound is a wonderful feeling. A McLaren can go straight in an incredible speed, but a Mitsubishi can do a great corner drift. Drifting and drafting are great ways to fill up your boost gauge. This creates a pleasing rhythm as you move from one action to another.

Distinct visual effects permeate nearly every moment of Need for Speed Unbound, making it one of the most stylish racing games I’ve played. Although the cars and the city still have their photoshopped appearances from the previous games, characters are animated cel-shaded cartoons. While these two styles seem to clash, they are actually complementary and create an interesting combination. The styling of Unbound is further enhanced by street art-inspired accents that you can add to your car while drifting, boosting, or jumping off ramps. Although I enjoyed the bright neon smoke in tight corners, the tag that comes up when you have a full boost sometimes blocked my view of critical parts of the race.

There are many events to pick from when you venture out onto the streets of Lakeshore. You can take part in linear races, lap-based circuits, head-to-head contests, and drifting events – not to mention the various collectibles and challenges scattered throughout the city. All of them present challenges but Takeover is my favourite. This puts you in tight courses and rewards for drifting and boosting.

Need for Speed Unbound’s single-player story centers on a betrayal and subsequent rise up of the city’s underground racing scene. The story’s overarching theme is not difficult to miss, but the constant banter between characters only adds to their annoying personalities. Each race repeats the same cliche lines, and open-world exploration often is interrupted by annoying calls from your manager or radio programs featuring cartoonish politicians. After the initial few hours of playing, I decided to stop listening to the dialog in the menu. However, I actively enjoyed hearing from Rydell, the owner of the garage and father figure to your created character, as his conversations deliver some truly earnest moments despite this game’s brash style.

Unbound uses cop chases to enhance the Need for Speed formula. Every chase and event you take part in raises your heat. Higher heat means more determined police officers who have better vehicles. As heat level 1 rose, I found myself leaving the base police cruisers behind. But as the heat levels increased and more powerful cops emerged, tension began to creep into my body, so I tightened my grip on my controller.

It can be difficult to make it to safety in high heat. I have had to redirect my route several times to prevent a long chase. Though I usually escaped, the danger of knowing that any money I earned in that session would be lost if I’m apprehended creates adrenaline-fueled affairs. Although I wanted to run away from the situation the first time, it was hard to imagine the thrill of an escape with high stakes.

Unfortunately, cop chases are absent from the game’s online suite. This wouldn’t be such a letdown if I could reliably find full events. The online race system is a bit more complicated than the offline. You are thrown into an instance at Lakeshore with fifteen other players, who appear to be more interested in the local area than racing. Once you’re in a race, the servers are stable, and the crossplay works well, but I was disappointed my garage progress in story didn’t carry over, leaving me ill-prepared for my early races. Although I was able to catch up quickly thanks to the generous rewards system, I still missed out on the upgrades vehicles I had grown accustomed to from the story.

Need for Speed Unbound seems like the foundation for what this series can do. Competing across the title’s many events is a blast, and I love the juxtaposed visual aesthetics. Though some elements left me wanting, Unbound is as much fun as I’ve had with a Need for Speed title in years.