Played from – to: (2023-12-21 – 2024-01-01) – PC controller.
‣ 7/10 – They truly had the need for speed.
‣ Thoughts: Although I think NFS: Unbound is a superior game to Heat in almost every way, I somehow had less fun with it in the end of the day. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found many aspects to be great fun, but the campaign part heavily overstayed its welcome due to some poor design choices.
At first, I found the weekly system to be a brilliant reason to be careful with your cash and cautions with your heat, but it quickly became evident that there is no need for that. Making enough for your vehicle upgrades and qualifiers wasn’t difficult and only took a few days without any real grinding. At the end the weeks simply became a repetitive task of doing a few top paying races and just getting over it for a little bit more story. Fundamentally NFS: Unbound provides a nice mix of different races to attempt and fun side hustles to complete, but all of them become boring when you are simply forced into repeating them against your own will. I think a simple day skip option could’ve helped with the pace of the story a lot.
Speaking more about the story I surprisingly loved it. Yes, it has cringy dialogue, odd characters, and a goofy protagonist, but underneath all that there is a deep and interesting story about confused racers, betrayal, and greed. The dialogue desperately tries to cling onto the vibes of the game which I would call gen Z. Funnily enough it does succeed and feels realistic but at times the cringe’o meter is too much. Besides that, it also lacks cutscenes. I know this might be a very stupid complaint but in the case of Unbound they could’ve shown more conversations happening in a simple cutscene instead of thrown at you through a radio. Reasons for that being the detailed character customization and look of the game. People look flashy, stylish, and just pleasant to the eye and it is a shame we barely get to see them outside their vehicles throughout 15-20 hours.
Lastly, I want to mention the speed in Need for Speed… The visuals and the art style of the game combined with fancy smoke effects make racing feel thrilling and exciting, which is what you want. The cars feel fast, the hype is real, and you are just constantly in it, but gods does it become difficult to drive the faster you become. Pile stupid traffic, insane cop spawn rates and just unfair bullshit on top and some races become a rage fest. Which is also fueled by great rivals that you just want to run off the road from pure anger and you have yourself a fun Need for Speed game that almost reminds me of the good old days.
‣ 7/10 – They truly had the need for speed.
‣ Thoughts: Although I think NFS: Unbound is a superior game to Heat in almost every way, I somehow had less fun with it in the end of the day. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found many aspects to be great fun, but the campaign part heavily overstayed its welcome due to some poor design choices.
At first, I found the weekly system to be a brilliant reason to be careful with your cash and cautions with your heat, but it quickly became evident that there is no need for that. Making enough for your vehicle upgrades and qualifiers wasn’t difficult and only took a few days without any real grinding. At the end the weeks simply became a repetitive task of doing a few top paying races and just getting over it for a little bit more story. Fundamentally NFS: Unbound provides a nice mix of different races to attempt and fun side hustles to complete, but all of them become boring when you are simply forced into repeating them against your own will. I think a simple day skip option could’ve helped with the pace of the story a lot.
Speaking more about the story I surprisingly loved it. Yes, it has cringy dialogue, odd characters, and a goofy protagonist, but underneath all that there is a deep and interesting story about confused racers, betrayal, and greed. The dialogue desperately tries to cling onto the vibes of the game which I would call gen Z. Funnily enough it does succeed and feels realistic but at times the cringe’o meter is too much. Besides that, it also lacks cutscenes. I know this might be a very stupid complaint but in the case of Unbound they could’ve shown more conversations happening in a simple cutscene instead of thrown at you through a radio. Reasons for that being the detailed character customization and look of the game. People look flashy, stylish, and just pleasant to the eye and it is a shame we barely get to see them outside their vehicles throughout 15-20 hours.
Lastly, I want to mention the speed in Need for Speed… The visuals and the art style of the game combined with fancy smoke effects make racing feel thrilling and exciting, which is what you want. The cars feel fast, the hype is real, and you are just constantly in it, but gods does it become difficult to drive the faster you become. Pile stupid traffic, insane cop spawn rates and just unfair bullshit on top and some races become a rage fest. Which is also fueled by great rivals that you just want to run off the road from pure anger and you have yourself a fun Need for Speed game that almost reminds me of the good old days.