My thoughts on Need for Speed: Unbound

Although I wouldn't call myself the biggest fan of the Need for Speed franchise, I've always enjoyed playing the games whenever I can. If you're anything like me then you must've played Gameloft's Asphalt games which were and still are the NFS of the mobile platform especially with the release of Asphalt 9 Legends.

With the NFS games, I can remember playing Underground on the PSP console, Most Wanted on laptop and also played a bit of Payback on my PC but didn't quite enjoy that one. I've always wanted to play Heat but didn't get around to it and when Unbound came out, it didn't feel like it would be worth it.

Before NFS Unbound was launched, I had heard a lot of good things about the game including new cars, new interface and a whole new cartoon-ish feel that gives the game a unique and stylish gameplay.

So let's start with that. Gameplay. I have to say this is hands down the best NFS game that I've played. Now hold on, there might be better Need for Speed games out there that I simply haven't played but as far as I know, Unbound is currently up there for me as number one. When I got the game on the PS5 I didn't play it immediately, in fact I just kept it installed for weeks playing The Last of Us and Ghost of Tsushima.

But when I realised that I did in fact have Unbound installed on the console, I thought “maybe I ought to play a few races" and I got hooked immediately. The game has lots of customisations (or enough for me at least) and you could play around with your car handling and tune it to how you want it. The game's new decals and new cartoon-ish animation is pretty cool despite the mixed reviews it got when the game first launched.

I don't think I've ever enjoyed drifting in an NFS game as I did with Unbound. It was flawless and easy to get used to at the same time. And while I'm not much of a fan of the cop chase feature in NFS games (and I know that's sort of what makes the franchise special), I enjoyed it in this one even though outrunning the cops can be a pain sometimes.

As for the story, I don't think it brings anything new to the table that we haven't seen before in previous NFS titles or even in other racing games but that's not to take anything away from the game's campaign. I think CodeMasters did a fine job with the story and I kinda hoped it was longer because once you conclude the game's story, you're giving like a million bucks as reward and you can afford almost any car you want. So at that point you have leverage over your opponents but you still have the option to amp things up a bit by increasing the difficulty.

As for graphics, I think Unbound nails it here as well. As you can see from the actual in-game screenshots this game looks beautiful and I don't say this much but if a new NFS game comes out, I'll be buying it and I'll be playing it due to the experience I've had with Unbound. The map is bigger, there's lots of different races and events to partake in and cops lurking around in most corners of Lakeshore City hunting for street racers.

NFS Unbound is a lot of fun to play and although I'm one of those people who uninstalled a digital game on the console to make space for new games, I couldn't bring myself to uninstall this one after completing the story. I still play it once in a while as it's one of the few racing games that I've come to enjoy in a long time.

7.5/10