A new blog post on the official Need for Speed Unbound site has gone into more detail on the car and character customization options, as well as the extent of the the vehicle performance upgrades in the game.
We already heard in general terms about the depth of car customization earlier in the week, but the blog post goes into a little more detail.
You’ll be able to upgrade your car within any Safe House in the game, with “Style” and “Performance” upgrade tabs in addition to garage management. “Style” naturally includes painting the car, a new “Wrap” editor with decals from basic letters and shapes to manufacturer (car and fashion) logos and complex designs including street art.
There’s also, as we’ve already seen, the ability to add full bodykits or individual components, remove body panels (although EA notes this is available “on some cars”), change wheels, tint your windows and headlights, change brake calipers, and customize your licence plate.
As well as “Legendary Customs”, which appear to be total vehicle upgrades that radically change the shape of the car — it’s likely the S14 Silvia convertible, 240Z bosozoku, and BMW M1 drag car are examples — you can also customize vanity items like underglow, hard-parked stance, horn, and exhaust note across four parameters.
You’ll be able to save your final design and share it with the community, although this is platform-specific: PS5 players won’t be able to see shared liveries from Xbox Series and PC.
There’s also that all-new suite of graphical effects, consisting of “Tags” and “Samples”. Tags are the graphics that pop up when you perform stunts — jumps, drifts, burnouts, and so on — while Samples customize the sound of your “burst nitrous”, a performance boost which fills up the more you stunt.
Players can use “cloaked” tags, so that only tire smoke and trails appear, and the “silent” sample to tone down the nitrous activation — although it seems that will only apply to your own car and not those of AI rivals and other humans in multiplayer.
Performance mods are just as extensive, ranging from the small to the overhaul, and how fast your car can go determines what “tier” it slots into — from “Stock” to “Pro”. The blog post notes that the first category in the performance tab is engine swaps…
However you can also chop and change components, with induction and exhaust, forced induction, fuel systems and — of course — nitrous all available to add more power. You can also upgrade the transmission, differential, clutch, suspension, brakes, and tires to improve how your car harnesses that power, and tuning sliders allow you to quickly modify how the car drives.
With escaping the cops being a key component of the game, there’s also “auxiliary” parts, which range from vehicle strengthening to gadgets like repair kits and radio jammers.
Character customization is a major part too, with players able to modify much of how they look and what they wear.
You’ll be able to select a model template and adjust parameters — skin tone, hair and eye color, tattoos and makeup, facial hair — and even adjust your voice.
There’s also clothing items from five customizable areas, with some as-yet unnamed fashion brands offering clothing items and outfits, and driver poses too. EA states you’ll be able to unlock more of all of these items by completing challenges, picking up collectibles, or advancing through the story.
At the moment there’s no mention of microtransations or paid DLC packs with clothing items/poses or vehicle tags/samples at this stage, but experience has taught us that this is something we may well see.
Need for Speed Unbound will launch December 2 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series.
