Need for Speed: Unbound, developed by Criterion Games. Is a racing game that offers a unique and exciting experience for players. One of the standout features of the game is its calendar progression system. Which sets it apart from other racing games on the market. The game begins with a prologue that allows players to familiarize themselves with the controls and mechanics of the game. Using a decent car. However, once the prologue is finished. Players are given a lower quality car to start with. Which provides a sense of progression and excitement as they work to upgrade their vehicle and improve their skills. This system is a refreshing change from other games like Forza Horizon. Where players have access to high-end supercars from the start, which removes the sense of progression and the thrill of starting from nothing and working towards something better.
Unique game mechanics
Another aspect that makes the game unique is the game mechanics that make it challenging and immersive. The game is divided into weeks, and the last day of each week is a qualifier, which is the only way to progress further into the story. Each day is divided into daytime and night, and one whole day counts as one session. Unlike other arcade racing games, Need for Speed Unbound made me carefully consider my actions and make strategic decisions, such as whether to risk my money on another race or save my restarts for a more important race. The game also has a limited restart system, which adds to the stakes and consequences of the game, forcing players to make the most of their limited retries and to carefully consider when to use them.
Car rating system
The game also has a car rating system, which ensures that it is not necessary to win every race. Players can participate in races where they aren’t in first place and still gain something from it. For example, players have the option to compete with a rival who is likely to come fourth and bet against them. This creates a sense of purpose to even the difficult races that you’re not likely to win, and takes away the need to retry races until you come out on top.
Summary
In summary, Need for Speed: Unbound offers a unique and enjoyable racing experience for players. The game’s calendar progression system, game mechanics, and betting system, all add to the immersion and challenge of the game. The game also offers a sense of progression and excitement as players work to upgrade their vehicle and improve their skills, making it a refreshing change from other racing games on the market.
For me its a copy+paste of NFS Heat with some small changes. The most stupid change is that offline- and online-progression are seperated, which means if you own all cars in the “offline”-mode you start from scratch when you play online with other people. But since, as far as i know, you can also do the hole story in the online-mode the offline-mode is pretty much useless. I don’t know if the decision to seperate off- and online is just to stretch the playtime or something else.
The longevity of the story is definitely longer than in Heat. In Heat you are through with 100% progression in about 40-50 hours. That means basicly everything you can do.
One good thing, which is most likely not intended and a bug, is that you have no cops in online-mode. That makes it on one hand harder to collect some money but on the other hand makes it less annoying. In offline-mode you have cops on every corner. If you have a “heat”-level that makes it very hard to get to the next event you want to drive.
When i bought Heat in october (for 3 bucks) i installed some mods very soon when i saw this. (It was the same bullshit there.) So NFS Unbound is again a game i will only buy when it’s down to 5 or less euro on Steam. It’s not worth more in my eyes as i will definitely not play online with all those ramkiddys.
I am still waiting for the review-video of AltF4Games. 🙂 But that probably will still take a couple of weeks.
Edit: And i did not even mention this stupid childish comicstyle of the game, which you can only turn off with some mods, although EA/Criterion promised you can do that ingame.