With Unbound, Criterion finally releases the handbrake of the NfS series. In the first hours of the test, the arcade racer makes a great impression.
When testing a new Need for Speed, an editor has to be prepared for anything. Because this series has gone through more ups and downs in its 28-year history than many others.
There have been great exponents that defined how open worlds can work in racing games, but also buggy glitch messes and technology disasters, a gigantic MMO crash and strange experiments to put you to shame. We know what we”re talking about, after all, we recently ranked all the major NfS parts.
Need for Speed Unbound was not only a pleasant surprise in this respect, but a downright revelation. Because it is the best NfS in years. We already agree on that, even though we have only played around ten hours so far, before the official release on 2 December 2022. By the way, this option is available to all Palace Edition buyers and Game Pass or EA Play owners. If you want to see how it plays first, we have recorded a gameplay clip here:
In this review we give a preliminary conclusion to NfS Unbound – in the next few days we will update the article with more impressions and the final rating. But it already looks like the arcade racer will satisfy racing game fans in a way that Electronic Arts and Need for Speed haven”t done in a long time.
Table of Contents
Rapid and massive
The most important thing in a racing game is on the course … uh, no, that was a different sport, hold on. It”s the driving experience, exactly, that determines the weal and woe of every PC racer. In Need for Speed Unbound this makes a really good impression so far, especially from the bumper or bonnet camera (a cockpit perspective is missing) the speed feeling is great and we feel in control of a barely controllable beast with fast cars.
Cars have weight and slither casually around corners without becoming drift slingshots from one moment to the next. In fact, the difference between drift and grip handling is very pronounced; each car can have this balance adjusted individually, so that you can drive fast and precisely through corners or clear the track boundary with a breakaway tail if you wish.
To make these settings in general is immensely important for the driving fun, because every player has different preferences here. For our taste, for example, the carts in Unbound are set a little too stiff by default. Those who expect a simulation will not be happy in any case, uncomplicated driving fun is the focus of Unbound. But that doesn”t make the new Need for Speed undemanding by any means.
Uncomprehensible AI behaviour
After an approximately one-hour prologue, the city of Lakeshore opens up and you gain access to more events, cars and upgrade parts. Because you also have to hand in your fancy supercar from the beginning of the story campaign, the difficulty level really kicks in at the same time: Suddenly AI opponents are fearsome adversaries and every podium finish in the street races is a reason to rejoice.
Nasty, but also exciting: There is no rewind function. If you get stuck in heavy traffic or at a corner, you can”t easily iron out the mistake. This is especially bitter if you have previously paid a participation fee to take part in the race. You will be paid for results other than first place, but in the worst case you will be worse off financially after an event than before. Nasty to the power of two: You can only restart an event on the normal difficulty level a total of four times per night/day.
By the way, we didn”t write this because we are angry about it (well, sometimes we are) and would like to see a rewind function for Need for Speed Unbound. On the contrary, this constant risk factor brings welcome thrills to the game.
Your vehicle and those of your competitors have a driving class and a level, which you gradually increase with upgrades. If you are more than five levels behind the next best vehicle, you will have to work really hard in a competition to win, also because the AI pushes like crazy.
From ten levels upwards, you need all your skill on winding roads; if there are too many long straights, the opponents will quickly leave you behind. Catching up is not so easy, because Need for Speed Unbound completely dispenses with the dreaded rubber band AI of the series history. To ensure that players of all levels have fun, there are three difficulty levels that can be changed later, and even on “Normal” you”ll work up a good sweat. Especially when the police are also involved.
The long arm of the law
The cops can show up in Need for Speed Unbound at any time during any race aside from special drift and takedown events where you race for points instead of 1st place. Their tenacity depends on your heat level. During the day, the lawmen take it easy, but at night they quickly unpack the really big calibres such as helicopters, nail boards and ramming manoeuvres in a fat SUV.
Time passes when you return to a garage that also serves as a safehouse. Then the money earned on events will end up in your account; if you are arrested before then, the money is gone. From heat level 3 at the latest, every tour through the open world becomes a tense cat-and-mouse game: We switch off the engine to hide from the helicopter in the dark, or quickly turn the corner so that the patrol car ahead doesn”t spot us.
Once we”re busted, all hell breaks loose and a storm of sirens pours over us, accompanied by the twitching of the blue lights. This is basically successful because the police prove to be a tough adversary. Patrols are not easily shaken off, aside from ramming (difficult during a chase) there are few ways to take out the cops. We have to hope they make mistakes when we speed close to concrete buildings or take refuge in oncoming traffic – all other obstacles break at the slightest touch.
Nervous: After completing the races, the police often chase us even when we are actually miles ahead of the competition and the patrol cars (thanks to the lack of rubber band AI).
If we then have a high heat level like 4 or 5, there is hardly a moment to catch our breath, and we are almost forced to first shake off the police and then set off in the direction of the safehouse. This is the only way to lower the search level. We would have liked to have other options here, such as repainting the car like in GTA 3.
The AI is stubborn, but not unfair. Thanks to the lack of a rubber band, it can sometimes outrun us uncatchably, or we it.
So much to do, so much to buy
As a true street racer, we naturally want to call the coolest car our own. But that can take a while in Need for Speed Unbound. After ten hours we had just completed the first of several fictional weeks in the game; the daily rhythm (dictated by the player) and the multitude of events promise a long playing time. Add to this the open world, which is filled with side activities.
The fictional Lakeside looks very pretty (especially when it rains, the streets and car bodies shine fantastically) and offers several small goodies that you have to find yourself. Only the events are marked on the map; collectibles such as bears and scoreboards to be destroyed or graffiti designs to be collected are only roughly indicated as you drive past. To find out the type and exact position of the extra, you have to slow down and take a closer look.
In the sequence, you get to know the world very well over time. Numerous jumps and tunnels provide variety, and rewards such as money and unlocked car and character cosmetics keep the motivation high to pursue all the symbols. In addition, there are (partly changing) challenges that arouse our ambition.
In the garage, we can then put the money we have earned into a large fleet of over 140 cars and further tune each of them. The number of individual performance upgrades isn”t insane, but it”s more than enough to keep throwing the next carrot in our faces.
The visual tuning is similar: With the wrap editor introduced in Need for Speed 2015, creatives can once again let off steam for hours, plus there are components for every manufacturer such as new rims, a rear spoiler or the infamous underbody lighting. This is good average, but especially for luxury cars from well-known manufacturers, the options are limited. The developers have already announced that they will expand the range with free DLCs after release.
You can also choose special winning poses or chic new clothes for your own character, which you can completely customise optically – even branded goods, for example from Versace, are included. You see your character in cutscenes and he speaks in frequent but not omnipresent dialogues – in German if you wish, although the English dubbing seems far more successful and less mechanical.
The thing with graphics
Need for Speed Unbound has a full-fledged story campaign that you can also play completely offline. We have yet to try out the multiplayer mode, but this time there”s a separate progression system and better ways to find teammates.
The story revolves around a workshop and its employees who are out for revenge after a major betrayal at the beginning. Good: The characters are far from being such pain in the ass as in past NfS parts (okay, maybe with one exception) and the plot is simple, but is at least so far well and professionally told.
All the characters are visually very different from the realistic carts and the chic world: they have a reduced comic look. You”ll also find this in the battles on the road, because when braking, in crashes or when you use the now slightly tactical nitro system with two different boost types, Unbound fades in coloured comic effects.
And contrary to what was promised in a tweet that received a lot of attention in advance, these effects cannot be switched off completely. This was already known, but it passed us by for a long time. You can only decide to stick with the standard look of the effects instead of resorting to the more elaborate options with wings displayed in flight or symbols superimposed over the car. Even then, you will still see the smoking tyres and a few other lighting effects, as well as all the effects of other cars.
In the test we liked to equip our cars with different effects, because in our opinion they integrate well into the action and do not interfere at all. But if you want the most “pure” driving experience possible, Need for Speed Unbound might not be right for you.
Why no rating?
We have only played Need for Speed Unbound for about ten hours so far – Electronic Arts did not provide any pre-test versions. So that you know what you”re getting into when you buy the release version on 2 December or the trial version on EA Play and Game Pass, we wanted to give you this preliminary test with a rating tendency.
For the final test with a final rating, we will still play through the campaign in order to be able to assess the variety in the gameplay. We are also missing impressions from the multiplayer mode and there are currently reports of micro-stutters and occasional slowdowns with the PC version. We also had to struggle with rare performance problems on one of our test computers – on the other hand, Unbound always ran smoothly on another configuration. We have already put our hardware editors on the subject and will keep you up to date on how things are going with the technology.
Preliminary rating box
Editorial conclusion
To say Need for Speed Unbound had one of the worst advertising campaigns ever would be an exaggeration, after all Sony once advertised God of War 2 with a severed goat”s head. But the PR and marketing failures leading up to it were definitely tricky enough for me to have been a bit worried about the game. Now it turns out: that was absolutely unfounded. Unbound is a much needed breath of fresh air for the series in those first ten hours.
I love exploring the open world and smashing bear statues on the way to an event. I enjoy the successful mix of chic graphics, great soundtrack and (in my eyes) fitting comic effects. I celebrate the great feeling of speed from the bumper perspective. I”m thrilled when I win a close duel with the crisp AI.
Criterion Games has done so much right with the basic pillars of the craft and the spirit of the underground/most-wanted era conjured up in the game appeals to me in such a way that I have already had far more fun with Unbound than with 90 per cent of all NfS representatives of the last ten years. Forza Horizon has nothing to worry about, but it looks like Need for Speed is finally back in at least a similar league. Only the policemen get decently on my nerves from Heat level 4 onwards. But that probably just means they”re doing their job right.
