NFS Unbound

To say it in advance: it's bad again.

Whoever thought it would be better just because Criterion got to do it again this time, should be reminded that it was Criterion who started this open world nonsense in racing games with the PS3 and Burnout Paradise back in the day.

I've played almost every game in this series since the first Need for Speed in the 90s... and have only been disappointed since Underground.

And this time it really tops everything. In the negative sense.

And I don't even mean those weird scratched effects, some of them I even find quite good.

No, the game is a half-baked mixture of Underground, Heat and Burnout Paradise.

As they always say in a restaurant: better a small menu with really good dishes than a book with dirt. This is a book.

The graphics are ok, but there are graphic errors everywhere, like weird floating shadows that are supposed to be puddles.

The sound is good, but... you are ALWAYS annoyed with some stupid babble for almost EVERY SECOND of the game. The (again) pseudo-cool kiddie gang is just babbling the whole time... it's such a pain in the ass!!!!

And then it's the same stupid story as always. Why do I need a story in a game like this?!!! And especially not such a flat, stupid, meaningless, copied one.

So I'm supposed to go to an event.

While I'm driving there, I'm constantly being talked to and pestered with new events, which I then have to bring forward. When I go to the garage to deliver the money, the events are no longer available because the next day has dawned.

I'm supposed to pimp my car in 7 days, but I always have to go back to the garage to drop off the money, and then the day is gone.

The cops are more active at night than during the day. Why?

The cops in the race are a joke.

The controls are bad.

The music is a disaster.

No quick travel to the races.

Eternal paths to the events.

Always the same disaster.

This is not a serious arcade game, but yet another bling-bling hip-hop epilepsy children's game.

EA: (expletive) You!

Maybe it's because I've played so many bad arcade racing games in the last 10 years that I'm eager to jump on a decent one.... but... I enjoyed the actual racing feel and art style. That being said... some of the worst writing I've ever seen. It's like they took crappy gen Z lingo and combined it with some nerfed "street" culture. Was almost cool... I really wanted to love it. Carbon and underground 2 were the best... I don't know why these developers can't just make more of "that". Also, not only was the dialouge cringy, it was political and way too much social commentary. We play these games to escape that nonsense.

This is the worst Need For Speed I have ever played. Maybe the last NFS I will buy. But I said that about Heat too. Criterion basically just ripped off Ghost games' NFS Heat map and changed a couple things to make better looking version of same unbalanced cop, unfair Ai, boring game. I never made it past two new playthroughs week ONE! Before I gave up, Because the amount of money earned for difficult races makes it zero fun. The game is unbalanced and just goes to chose that Burnout Paradise was the only good thing this washed out developer Criterion will ever achieve and that NFS franchise is ruined until EA puts it into 2nd gear and hires someone who can do math to program the Ai.

I have been gaming for as long as I can remember. I've played 1000's of games and genuinely, and I mean this wholeheartedly, this is one of the worst games I've ever had the displeasure of playing.

I could spend a full day explaining everything wrong with this game but I'll try and keep it as short and sweet as I can:

Gameplay: The gameplay is simply horrific. Some of the worst feeling cars in Need for speed history and racing games in general. Arcadey doesn't even begin to explain the driving mechanics. Slidey, non responsive cars that can't even brake and steer at the same time. You press brake and try to steer left or right but it takes the car about 2-3 seconds of braking in a straight line to finally begin steering and then you get massive oversteer swinging you into a wild drift, out of control all together or into a barrier. Trying all 3 starter cars, Changing settings such as traction control on/off or steering settings doesn't help whatsoever. Again one of the worst feeling Need for Speed games ever.

Story: it's insulting to even use the word Story to describe this horrifying mash of cringey, over the top and ear bleedingly bad writing. The characters are of legal driving age but act like 10 year olds who high five when they do cool tricks on their skateboards. At several points they actually high five, im being serious. They also talk like 10 year old kids who exclusively watch twitch. At one point the garage owner describes a car like this: "she sounds pretty, smells nice too" while sniffing and smiling. I genuinely thought it was going to cut to an X-rated scene of him having intercourse with the car exhaust. The reason I gave this game a 2/10 and not a 1 is because I genuinely laughed when I remembered that while listening to the dialogue I physically gritted my teeth in utter cringe at what was being said. I tried to find the most insulting thing to describe the writing and characters and I think it would be this: Need for speeds writing make Saints Rows characters look and sound like the greatest, most interesting and intelligent scholars of our time. The writing is horrifyingly cringey. Close your ears and look away.

Graphics: At best PS4 year one level graphics. I Played on a PS5 and my god does it look so bland. Even with their wild attempt at combining "realistic" looking cars with cartoon anime characters and effects it still looks so mediocre and goofy as hell. I can just picture the team sitting round a table trying to think what gamers like and one guy shouting "they all love anime" and they decided to roll with that idea till the cows came home. Style wise just as cringe as the writing, and so out of place to combine realistic graphics with cartoon people. Awful.

Overall I would't recommend this game to my worst enemy, normally I would say if you like something that others don't, then good for you and keep enjoying it, but if you like this dumpster fire of a game, then you seriously need to reevaluate your gaming library. Stay FAR away from Need for Speed, do not buy full price, do not buy when it's on sale. I wouldn't play this game if they paid me to do so. Every day I wake up I will do so with a smile on my face knowing I never need to play this game again.

This game is a straight out downgrade from NFS Heat or NFS 2015, you will have way less fun.

Positives:

• styling, very cool, looks just like spider man miles morales
• the story is not definitly mid, but its not bad and the jokes are also cool

Negatives:

• the week system is VERY BAD, probably the what spoiled the game for many people and myself, its just a downgrade on the day night system from NFS Heat
• on the PC, the Sony Dualsense do not work properly, so you have to add the EADesktop to steam, so STEAM handles the controller correctly and you can finaly play the game without problems
• also, sometimes even the keyboard would get bugged out
• the police is a nuisance, sometimes the police would even camp out on important events or safehouses, so I could not enter them
• on the multiplayer, you have to create a new save, so you dont have money parity between singleplayer and multiplayer, it not good.

• the money balacing is pretty bad, on the start of the game you cant test new builds or anything
• the class system is poorly thought out, it basically separates classes on random numbers, instead of each 100 number or something (like Forza)
• the performance tunning is very bad because of the class system, because when testing your car, you have to actualy buy everything instead of putting something in a cart and later buying everything.