Need for Speed 30th Anniversary Marathon Final Episode - Need for Speed Unbound
0The last NFS Series game brings to the current title called "Unbound"
Are we really Unbound?
Yes but that is when it comes to what the players/street racers feel like. That would be as well what the game vibe would tell, that you go for some Underground Street Racing and you know you just are basically going for it.
However... When it comes to the game itself let me explain some facts about this game:
NFS Unbound got released on 29th November 2022 after 3 years of waiting since NFS Heat got released. What some might already know this game features a completely new Art design and Concept behind the gameplay, the story or the cutscenes.
Now... I think facts speak the game didn't got a 50/50 welcome, it was much below that and when it comes to the reasons:
From the technical side there is absolutely nothing except Menu design, some graphics glitches and other smaller bugs or things what you could say is wrong in the game when it comes to the graphics, it's optimization and in general all the mechanics put together to make the game more unique than the one before. It has next-gen beautiful looking graphics in it's own way.
The problem is when you think it is a NFS game. The NFS series never was about, Initial D, Mario Kart or even something in between when it comes to the main focus on the whole series. It was about test-driving the sports cars, hypercars etc. either against the time or a opponent or even the Police. The same case was with it's Night Underground Street Racing direction which was inspired by the Fast & Furious movies clearly.
But when you launch the game and move the cars you got those driving tags/effects above your car, a unrealistic smoke + Cel-shaded characters in the story.
The issue with it I see is, as for this NFS series it is too much of a unique thing and should not be considered as a spirit of the true "Need for Speed" The games was never realistic itself, but the graphics and it's parts like the cars, smoke and each other thing you could be looking for was a realistic non-cartoon or cel-shaded environment with real car brands, realistic looking cities which reminded about real life versions of some other and such. Which of course remains a case. But each part of it was looking natural and the rest like around the cars not cartoon-like.
Next does it do the "NFS" thing when it comes to the idea of gameplay or showing street racing scene? Again yes, but the issue remains the fact that the story mode was simply "Cringe" with too much mainstream, mixed music nationalities and anything related with RAP or Being "Cool" put together. which for many longtime NFS players, some adults or maybe even half of the kids at least is not really a comfortable thing.
I don't think I like to hear non-english music with languages which for few of the countries culture is just too crazy or too unique to hear and just doesn't make you feel comfortable with, but that goes when the music is just "bad" Half of it however is still fine to listen during the game.
Of course the game got the "NFS" DNA by racing, by the police chases and even by some familiar mechanics used in the previous games but how about the gameplay and handling in general?
The Story mode has a interesting idea of making you race in the day or night either and getting money to advance to next weeks before the main competition at the end will show up. Unfortunately the number of races and grinding might be awful for lots of players and the player career/story mode is just not too long. Multiplayer got some updates to it which is something people asked since some of the previous games. Again here the issue is the races in playlists are repeating. You have various race types to choose or you can go for a "linkup" which is number of challenges to do with other players in area of the map to make some money and experience.
When you think about doing each of them, you can't ignore the new handling model. It is not bad but also not perfect. I think it got too stiff reacting to the inputs maybe not that much when you initiate a drift but if you want to counter or make the car straight. It just has that weird latency and stiffness to it that you can't have a smooth or much quicker control like Heat or Payback had. The car stability is awful and a important thing to fix, otherwise you end up being on a rodeo car "even on the highway"
To summarize: I don't want to talk anymore about what the games had nice or not. We are celebrating the fact that NFS Series is 30 years old and it survived amazing and tough moments. Something has to change to make it great again or if people want it alive and it is up to EA to keep it going. Combine the best of the main NFS idea and the Underground, don't exaggerate it like with Unbound. + add pvp such as first The Crew or Forza had and I hope for at least next 10 years of the NFS Series :)
I hope you had fun following the marathon on my channel. Thx for joining me through this 30th Anniversary of NFS.
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