Need for Speed Unbound Review: Reheated

[ron24]

Wouldn’t that remove the entire game? Or did you buy the full version after playing the trial?

There might be a workaround while EA/Criterion works on a fix:
You can replay the delivery missions after The Grand. They pop up during the nights, so keep an eye out for the delivery called ‘blacklisted’. (Might be a while before it shows as the events pop up randomly). I missed the car delivery during the career, but was able to pick it up later this way.

I suppose that won’t bring back the car you had purchased and modded though (assuming that one was removed too).

Thanks for the tip. I purchased 1 month of EA Play for the discount then pre ordered the Palace Edition. My Ea play expired the day after the game came out. Had the car then it was removed.

 

[inCloud]

Weird then

Every car you won in single player will be also given in MP.

 

[Famine]

Every car you won in single player will be also given in MP.

Just as I stated in my post, yes; the SP progress unlocks the cars for free as separate MP challenges.

And given that, as also stated, no car purchases, no car mods, no budget, and even no garage progress is carried from one mode to the other, they are separate garages. You cannot, as further stated within the review, tune up a car in SP and use it in MP; you have to do it all over again.

 

[Kart_Forever]

I mostly race ACC on a rig but I've been having fun with NFS Unbound on the other end of the spectrum with a controller. I like the customization and progression system. Working for your cars is more involving and rewarding than getting them handed to you on a silver platter.

Heat 4 & 5 pursuits are a good challenge on the hardest difficulty. However, the races are too easy even though the consensus seems to be that the AI offers a good challenge (I disagree). The handling mechanics with "burst" NOS rewarded for grip or drift turns are nice and fun to exploit. And finally the story and characters is just background noise.

For anybody remotely interested, give it a shot with the 10 hour free trial if you're a game pass subscriber.

 

[SPOOLMAN]

Guys would you say the physics are closer to Forza horizon this time around?

 

[NotThePrez]

Just as I stated in my post, yes; the SP progress unlocks the cars for free as separate MP challenges.

And given that, as also stated, no car purchases, no car mods, no budget, and even no garage progress is carried from one mode to the other, they are separate garages. You cannot, as further stated within the review, tune up a car in SP and use it in MP; you have to do it all over again.

To add to this, and to somewhat offer a quick tip to others, this more-or-less is also the case for rewards gained for completing activities and finding collectibles. The cars that you get when you complete these challenges are added to both your SP and MP garages, but the cash earned for beating each activity/finding each collectible, including the money you get when completing the sub-challenges for each of task, is sent only to the bank in whichever mode you completed the challenge in.

For those who think that money is scarce in SP, Multiplayer, at least in its current state, is a lot less forgiving in that regard, largely because the money earned vs. time spent is significantly worse. To that end, it might be worth doing at least the collectibles in MP, or trying to save up enough cash to build out a S+ car that's capable of smashing all the Speed trap and Jump records.

Guys would you say the physics are closer to Forza horizon this time around?

I'd say that the physics in Unbound are the best overall physics that we've seen in an NFS game in a long time, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit personally, but definitely doesn't come close to Horizons balance of arcadiness and simulation within its physics. There are some annoying quirks as mentioned in the review, like how cars (especially certain S+ cars) having bouts of random snap-oversteer, and how drifting, and building a drift-focused cars in particular, is incredibly lackluster.

IMO, the game is still quite enjoyable, but it's very far removed from FH4/5 in terms of physics.

 

[NLxAROSA]

FH is what it is because it’s essentially a more forgiving version of the FM physics engine. Which gives you a certain depth and feel straight out of the box because it’s essentially a sim model underneath.

NFS has no such background. It’s a pure arcade racer, with its own physics and mechanisms. Apples vs oranges really.

Does it matter though? IMO it doesn’t.

 

[Moglet]

I mostly race ACC on a rig but I've been having fun with NFS Unbound on the other end of the spectrum with a controller. I like the customization and progression system. Working for your cars is more involving and rewarding than getting them handed to you on a silver platter.

Heat 4 & 5 pursuits are a good challenge on the hardest difficulty. However, the races are too easy even though the consensus seems to be that the AI offers a good challenge (I disagree). The handling mechanics with "burst" NOS rewarded for grip or drift turns are nice and fun to exploit. And finally the story and characters is just background noise.

For anybody remotely interested, give it a shot with the 10 hour free trial if you're a game pass subscriber.

I'm playing on Easy and providing the car you're in is near the top of the class the races are fairly easy. However there are some, starting in week 3, that become challenging for the wrong reasons - they get very messy with the AI bashing you about and the cops smashing the heck out of you. Takeover and Drift events are far too easy though, I always double the top score with ease.

 

[SPOOLMAN]

Ok I bought this and instantly regret it. I'm sure there's a good game somewhere here but it's overshadowed by the complete awful cartoon effects. No matter how hard I try to ignore it it's just too awful to ignore. It's completely tacky and cheapens the entire game. No car enthusiasts wants to see cartoon smoke and acid trip effects.

Need for speed 2015 is still by far the best mood, art style and aesthetic. It was pure perfection and all they had to do is expand on it and we would have had a successor to underground 2

But nope gamers are morons who have no idea and EA continues to prove they are trash.

$100 wasted.

 

[Moglet]

No car enthusiasts wants to see cartoon smoke and acid trip effects.

Car enthusiast here, I love them and think they look fantastic, especially in motion. I'm actually hoping they add more so that there's some more variation on things like the wings during jumps or the light trails.

The camera dropping to the floor when your car lands from a 1ft jump, however, can get in the sea

 

[GTxForza]

I prefer Forza Horizon 5 and Need For Speed Unbound more than Cruis'n Blast and Asphalt 9: Legends because their gameplay style suits my preference.

 

[DC2_Evan]

Roughly 30 hours in so far, mostly player multi player and I've been loving it. Yes it is very similar to Heat but imo that isn't a bad thing. Heat was a pretty fun NFS game. The cell shaded smoke and wing effects are super cool as well, really dig them. I gauge NFS games differently from a traditional racing game like FM, FH, or GT and as such, I think its great. Physics are fun, most track layouts are pretty good. Def. falls short in some places but overall I think this is one of the better NFS games to come out in the last 10 years or so. Hopefully they support it long term with updates and maybe some new cars, races, etc etc.

 

[Dak0ta]

FH is what it is because it’s essentially a more forgiving version of the FM physics engine. Which gives you a certain depth and feel straight out of the box because it’s essentially a sim model underneath.

NFS has no such background. It’s a pure arcade racer, with its own physics and mechanisms. Apples vs oranges really.

Does it matter though? IMO it doesn’t.

 

[Hazel]

An update as I have now managed to get some 'play time'.
Only 2 races and some cop baiting.....
It's not ACC but then it's not meant to be.
What it is is street racing with all the attitude and drip (I learnt that one from Joey the Anime Man....), haven't changed any of the controls yet, but it handles okay. Still think it's too expensive at full price but will definitely get it on sale.
Oh, most of the female models look better than the males, in my opinion....😝

Cars look good and isn't that the main thing?

As always YMMV and liking different stuff is good, be very boring if we all liked the same stuff.


janai....

 

[leggy2fast]

Finished the game yesterday and generally had a pretty good time! Again, what I liked the most was that I could use the cars I really wanted for the single player game. The game demands you to have 4 different cars for the "Grand", and in the end I raced with a Beetle, a Foxbody, the Volvo 240DL and the Mk1 GTI as my "supercar" for the final races. That alone is worth a ton to me, especially with cars handling very different from each other.

The characters and styles are pretty cool, but the ending was very very underwhelming even for the simple plot they presented. I expected more haha. Still, had a very good experience in general! I just think I should listen to at least a couple songs from that A$AP Rocky guy because I'm not familiar with their work at all haha