Unbound didn’t make a fantastic first impression on me. Likely due to my lack of experience with modern NFS games, I was expecting near Mario Kart amounts of easy drifts and speed races. I found the game much more demanding of control finesse. Especially in the fairly high powered car you receive initially it had been very easy to lose control around corners if I likely to just contain the accelerator and drift like it was Ridge Racer. Once I came to terms with actually having to learn the racing model, adjusting handling of cars to match my style I discovered keeping the vehicle under control easier. Challenging enough to feel rewarding (especially when the sport gives you boost and a sweet visual flourish for nailing a corner) but nonetheless more forgiving than say Gran Turismo. Driving in Unbound feels pretty fantastic.
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The game’s campaign is split up into a month of driving in Lakeshore, each day split up into day and night sessions and also the week culminating in a qualifier event to eventually go into the Lakeshore Grand – the best race to earn glory and fame. Each day and night will have a wide variety of events to compete in like races, drift events and takeovers (where you show off combos of drifts, jumps and target smashing) enabling you to pick your chosen method of competing. I truly enjoyed the way the game is split up into calendar days. It meant I possibly could play for just a day, secure some wins and reach may well finishing point – or I possibly could play a whole week in a play session basically felt like it.
It’s important gameplay wise too, because the more events you need to do right away, the more attention you’ll achieve with a home cops. Racing for big rewards increases your heat level so there’s a constant risk/reward happening that keeps things tense. Winning big bucks simply to lose your entire days winnings when you’re busted through the cops at night feels horrible, but is an effective way to encourage you to identify possible ways to get rid of the cops or maybe be more considered with the number of events you take part in on the particular day.
The cops though, are among my main annoyances with Unbound. They’re just so damned persistent. Things get easier as the car gets faster and much more capable, but in the first days if you increase your decent heat level it may feel damn near impossible to lose the fuzz. Even when I had a completely upgraded, top of S+ tier car it was still more annoying than fun to lose cops given that the moment a helicopter flying overhead or a patrol car driving a nearby road spots you it’s fully back up with the map suddenly peppered with all of terrain vehicles and police helicopters. Things get a a bit more manageable around the relaxed difficulty mode a minimum of, but even there the police’s ability to spot and rain hell upon you in a moments notice gets tiring when whatever you actually want to do is start the following event.
It would be remiss of me as well as the Lakeshore Online mode of Unbound. It's entirely outside of the campaign, with a separate money balance and garage but functions similarly. You jump into an online city, drive around to events and invite the other players within the city to compete. I believe if you enjoyed the campaign and wanted more, this may be a method to keep the event going. I can realise why they’re totally separate garages, however it was a bit of a bummer to have to begin with scratch again within the online mode for me.
There’s a great deal I liked about NFS Unbound. I really like that the game doesn’t expect you to come first to advance, and frequently I wasn’t even close. Higher places are in most cases just a slightly bigger payday so continuing on a 4th place still gets you some cash to upgrade and hopefully fare better next time. I loved the commitment to modern car culture aesthetics, events like the takeover are a good addition along with the distinct visual and musical style choices. As i found the cops mostly tedious rather than exhilarating, after i lost them and also got back to the racing I had a lot of fun climbing the ladder, upgrading my cars, learning the city and finally nailing the corners in races.
