Need for Speed Unbound

Need for Speed Unbound won't win any awards for gameplay originality, but it is a welcome return to form for a series that has had more downs than ups in recent times. Criterion Games has returned to the genre it knows best and has crafted an arcade racer that is, at its very core, enormous fun. The aesthetics might not appeal to everyone, but the handling of the cars and sheer joy in its, at times, madcap cop chases should win them over. Welcome back NFS.

Need for Speed Unbound proves that having a distinct style and cool premise does a lot to elevate a game.

Need for Speed Unbound brings plenty of style and builds upon the high stakes dynamic established in 2019’s Heat to create an engaging and enjoyable open world racing game. The large emphasis on story falls flat once again particularly during the slow opening hours, and the online mode lacks some of the best aspects of the single player mode, including police and Takeover events.

Need for Speed Unbound is the best arcade racer of 2022, and a real statement from EA and Criterion. Why it’s snuck out with so little fanfare will be one of the mysteries of the year.

As a result, Need for Speed Unbound feels like it comes to a stop before it ever gets going. The polish in the moment-to-moment gameplay cannot be ignored, but as a whole, Need for Speed Unbound is just another forgettable entry in the long-running franchise.

Need for Speed Unbound is a great showcase for a new generation of hardware. Criterion has delivered a high quality, breathtakingly fast open-world street racer that is both technically superb and strangely familiar.

Beyond its unique art style, Need for Speed Unbound doesn’t do anything to reinvent the steering wheel, but it doesn’t need to. This is Need for Speed, so you know what you’re here for - fast races, cop chases, and more cars than you know what to do with. Unbound is all of that packaged in the series’ most stylish entry to date.

Need for Speed Unbound is a curious game. After several years of bland, often bad games, Need for Speed Unbound feels like a breath of fresh air. While it’s far from the most perfect racing game out there, it’s definitely filling an important niche, and it’s doing so with a hefty amount of style. Need for Speed Unbound looks great, is a lot of fun to play, and most importantly, leaves me feeling quite good about the future of the Need for Speed franchise as a whole.

Although I faced a few technical issues initially while getting the game to work on my PC, it offered a relatively polished and bug-free experience overall, something that is hard to come across in modern AAA gaming. With a satisfying gameplay loop, a huge roster of upgradeable and customizable cars, and a really fun driving experience, Need for Speed Unbound is effectively the quintessential "Need for Speed experience."

The super simple, non-shaded characters with cel-shaded faces also don't really fit in with everything else, which, along with the strange mix between friction emulation and Crazy Taxi racing, makes Unbound feel a bit like a hodgepodge mismatch. And not a very tasty concoction. I had really hoped that Need for Speed Unbound would be really good. I really wanted it to be as good as Hot Pursuit once was, or Underground. After three days with EA's latest, however, I can't help but state that I think this game series is well past its prime, and of course that's just sad.

It’s been a while since Criterion has helmed the Need For Speed franchise, but this new entry has unfortunately fallen flat. The racing controls feel off, NPC cars violently disrupt certain races and the story and characters feel like a knock-off Fast & Furious movie. Unbound does run well both online and off, and there are some side activities to enjoy, although they’re nothing special.