Need for Speed: Unbound Review (Saher)
Internet did a lot of bad PR for this game but i think it's worth to give it a shot.
I'll start from the most universally hated things. Anime/cartoonish artstyle fits game really great. Car special effects are really flashy and satisfying when you manage to pull off full blast of nitro boost or make a large jump, they add something to the sense of speed in this game. I'm not the fan of cartoonish charcter models tho, but they are way better than uncanny valley frostbite engine faces known from other EA titles.
Soundtrack is also overhated, rap music fits really well for this game also it's not only american rap, devs acknowledged existence of europe so there are some non-english tracks(but i still miss static x or celldweller).
Handling is very similar to previous NFS games, so od you liked it you know what to expect, personally i think it's fun. There is also nitro boost which rewards you for taking a risk (and makes grip viable alternative to drifting) which is also great addition to the series. I like single player mode and from zero to hero approach and i think it's great that every place counts and you won't win every race. This makes me feel that every upgrade and small progress matters, which is satisfying compared to forza horizon where supercars thrown at you from the beginning made me drop the game in first 5 hours.
I also enjoy risk/reward system that comes with heat levels rising after each race, it made me think which races should i play, since if you play through every event you will end up with heat level 5 and you don't want it.
As for the police - it's more fun than heat one, but still not very good. There are way to many police cars and choppers spawning from the thin air during free roam which on higher heat levels make you play pac-man with police or you will be constantly chased, which gets boring. Also i think that pursuits after races are really weird and broken i got chased after like 70% of races even if i haven't had any cops on my tail on finish line(and sometimes vice versa - i was free even if cops were chasing me until the end of race). It would make pursuits more fun if this game had more mechanics that could apply to them, like pursuit breakers from black box era NFS or even EMP or other weird additions from HP/Rivals
Visual tuning is masterclass, even if i suck at making good paintjobs.
Graphics also look good, especially during rain(however sometimes i felt like i'm roaming around BF2042 map - which is funny since nfs heat made me feel the same way but with BF V - maybe frostbite is not the best engine for NFS franchise) city finaly feels alive with some npcs wandering around and there are a lot of small activities to do like in previous games.
Game lacks variety of race modes, i wish there were more of them(at least in single player mode), tracks are also quite repetitive
I hate the fact that EA won't let me change language of the game so i'm forced to listen to really mid dubbing (fun fact - in Poland we have fully dubbed game with one exception - ASAP Rocky speaks english while rest of the cast speaks polish. I kinda understand why it's like that but it just feels weird).
Also i agree with all negative reviews that mention EA app - this launcher is abysmal and really made my life more miserable with other EA games boght on staram(NFS works fine tho)
To sum up, this game had potential to be really great but ended up being just good because of lack of content and really weird decisions(which is also true when it comes to all previous nfs games - EA is really sabotaging this franchise!)
Still it's the best need for speed since 2010 and solid 7/10 game which feels refreshing after playing forza horizon or the crew which are basically the only AAA competition(test drive solar crown demo was abysmal, i'm afraid won't be able to polish the game and release it in the good state)
Thanks for coming to my TED talk