Need For Speed: Unbound is EA’s latest of the franchise after the well received Need For Speed Heat. Need For Speed Unbound was created by Criterion Studios, the creators behind the Burnout Franchise and was released almost 2 years ago on December 2nd 2022.
It recently received an update on November 26th that includes lots of new modes, new cars and a new class of vehicles to enjoy.
New Modes And New Cars
One of the new modes is called “Lockdown”, where there are 5 crews of 3 players who are battling against each other while trying to complete contracts, breaking into “lockups” to take the money and ultimately extract the loot.Bringing a sort of battle royal style of play to a racing game is a breath of fresh air for sure and the concept does work in practice as you are constantly given new objectives and have to be on your toes to dodge police cars and other racers to defend your loot.
The extraction part is an interesting loop where we have to stick close to a speeding truck while the extraction begins. This is under a time constraint as we can’t extract our loot before the time expires we’ll get hit with a devastating EMP blast.
Now breaking into these lockups is the challenge and the rewards are some of the iconic videos of the franchise such as the 2005 M3 GTR from Most Wanted. The Lockup rides will change up every week thus keeping an interest on the playerbase to keep on racing and performing.
JDM Cars
Two iconic JDM cars are joining the roster, the Honda Integra and the Subaru Impreza WRX. The Honda Integra was known for its speed due to the VTEC technology that Honda pioneered and the Subaru Impreza remains a pillar of rally driving with its four wheel drive terrain that could take on any surface.
Both of these cars will get the NFS legends treatment as they will receive a host of body kits and liveries to allow players to really customize and spec out their choice of ride however they want.
We Got Motorbikes In NFS Before GTA 6
This update has introduced Motorbikes for the first time in a Need For Speed game, leaving it up to Criterion to always try to change things up. While a lot were skeptical of the decision and felt that it takes away from the identity there are a lot more people enjoying the change and are praising the control system for the bikes.
It is truly an enjoyable change due to how fast and nimble they feel compared to when we’re driving the cars. There is an undeniable sense of speed when driving one of these throughout the streets of Lakeshore City.
This alone is enough to cement the place of motorbikes in the game but the new modes themselves are all the more enjoyable with this change up due to how overpowered they feel. The control and speed really make you feel like it’ll be a breeze to go through the Lockdown mode’s shifting objectives.
Criterion’s Brilliance
Criterion truly reignited the interest in this game two years down the line, introducing new modes, weekly contracts, vehicles and bringing back the iconic cars of the series. While the update is a more than welcome change up and is sure to keep players engaged there are some minor bugs that need to be addressed.
Some of these bugs are the fact that cops can randomly spawn in front of us which kind of takes away from the experience as the cops are much more relentless here. There are some technical issues that players experienced on PC.
Overall, Criterion have shown almost everytime they know what they are doing with the franchise, NFS: heat, the previous entry was more story focused with intense scenes where characters were on the verge of being shot. Those moments brought back the serious tone that was missing from previous NFS titles.
This update is no doubt a step in the right direction for Need For Speed and hopefully the next title we receive will also also be from Criterion introducing us to more of their vision for this franchise.
