Cars still have a heft and slight understeering tendency early on, but modifications quickly change that to make them feel more responsive than before. The driving experience is significantly improved, too. Maybe the next installment could push it some more. We would be very interested to see what Criterion could do with a game more fully embracing this style, something along the lines of 'Auto Modellista' from Capcom. Need for Speed has real speed now.Īlso, the cel-shaded characters and graffiti-inspired graphics during gameplay look extremely cool, and aren't distracting. These are great not just for getting you into the action much faster than before, but it also massively aids in making the game feel and play faster. The game runs at a very steady 60 frames per second at 4K resolution (we played on PlayStation 5). Right off the bat, the game runs much better.

While we can't say for sure, that does seem to explain why there are substantial similarities between 'Unbound' and the Ghost-developed 'Heat.' There are very similar risk-versus-reward mechanics with pursuits and earning money from races, the basic handling ideas of balancing grip and drift styles and on-road and off-road advantages, and much of the customization are very similar.īut what Criterion has managed to do is refine and tighten what Ghost built, fixing what was broken, and making everything else run better. less than three years), since Criterion was providing support in developing a Battlefield title. We spoke with the game's creative director, Kieran Crimmins, who revealed that the development time for this game was pretty similar to past ones (i.e. Interestingly, Criterion wasn't able to spend the entire three years off working just on Need for Speed. But in the tumultuous years between releases, 'Unbound' has emerged as the best Need for Speed in years. And this one was developed by Criterion Games, rather than Ghost Games, which was dissolved and turned into a support studio.

The Need for Speed series is finally back with ' Need for Speed: Unbound.' And it's been a while since the last installment, 'Need for Speed: Heat,' which launched three years ago. Pricing and availability are subject to change. Autoblog may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page.

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