Need for Speed Unbound is everything that we loved in Underground 2

Need for Speed Unbound. More like Need for Speed Un(dergr)bound (2). Wahey. Ok, it’s not a flawless opener, but I’d say this is in fact on brand for one of the most entertaining games of 2022 that you didn’t play. Yet.

I can say this confidently because Need for Speed Unbound’s arrival on the scene was muted. Moreover, the new cel-shaded cartoony style for the game turned a number of fans off in spite of the cheering confirmation that Criterion Games is behind the wheel of this one. Criterion worked on a number of the most highly rated entries in Need for Speed, so it’s a curiosity that this game just hasn’t had the impact that you would expect.

Check out the trailer here!

Of course, there’s more than a significant proportion of fans who are hankering after a remake or even a remaster of Underground 2 rather than a totally new title. That was the stuff - an inventive open-world with a wide variety of street races and the most creative customisation features the series had seen.

In my wisdom as a woman, I will share with you perhaps the most pertinent thing about cars. They look the same. Surely not, a petrolhead pipes up. You see, sweet child, it is the case. The competition inside the racing and sim genre wouldn’t be so stiff if it wasn’t. What these games are actually selling you is the experience of pushing these pretend rides to their limits and proving your skill behind the wheel.

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This necessity for uniqueness is a part of the DNA of the NFS series. Consider the humble Call of Duty player, sniffing for one singular crumb of innovation over the course of a decade, like some sort of rarely seen rodent in a nature documentary. You’re really rooting for them. For a bit. And then something sleeker and more personable strolls onto the scene.

Need for Speed didn’t originally feature street racing, something that is now synonymous with the series. But, the games didn’t add this and make it a stalwart standard without careful consideration. Nearly every entry of Need for Speed chops and changes some aspect of the previous games, and conversely enough, this is the constant of the series.

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Naturally, this spiel isn’t to dissuade any criticism of Need for Speed Unbound’s design decisions. It just sends me the wrong side of Saturday that this is such an inventive and moreish experience that might have been overlooked resulting from how late it is in the year.

These cars are gorgeous - we’ve established that in the genre’s ambition to bring a brilliant level of realism to the experience. Those cartoony effects though commit to the power rush of pinging this car from corner to corner to generate Burst Nitrous to blast past the competition. This isn’t thrown in for the sake of something sparkly, this embellishment makes the experience of street racing feel like the acceleration is peeling these cars off the pages of a comic book.

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Arguably, the fictional setting of Lakeshore isn’t going to go down as one of the most memorable, nor does the story reach any levels of excitement due to the flat voice acting. The more things change, the more they stay the same, I suppose. Yet you’ve got to give credit for the striking elements that chime in with what makes Need for Speed so irresistible with nearly three decades of games in its history.

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It’s impossible to shift from my mind the sensation of securing an awesome drift across the road and being bombarded with these explosions of light and colour like some sort of superhero. Unbound is just like every other entry in the series, and for that reason, it’s definitely worth a whirl.