Don’t be alarmed: I think Need for Speed ​​Unbound is really good!

As a game tester, alarm bells always ring when a trial version of a title arrives just days before it’s official launch. That’s not even meant for Need for Speed ​​alone, although it certainly doesn’t help that this series has recently produced three rather mediocre series entries in a row.

In this case, however, I don’t believe in delaying tactics in order not to be confronted with bad press at launch, because after a longer evening with Need for Speed ​​Unbound I am decidedly positively surprised.

It’s good that Criterion is back behind the wheel, which is a good sign, although many of the key personnel from the burnout and hot pursuit times have long been producing banner games, among other things. And then there was the style, which didn’t make everyone happy. Pastel cel-shading drivers, comic-like, stylized clouds of smoke, graffiti effects on drifts … that seemed deliberate and super cool from the start. “When will EA finally realize that this pseudo-hip pandering to a completely uncritically portrayed street racing scene front and back doesn’t work?” was the thought I couldn’t resist. And that’s how it started.

Another open world with a story mode that revolves around a couple of almost teenagers who are miracle mechanics and speeding geniuses in one person. They are harassed by the nasty, nasty police. Why can’t they just do whatever they want with their heavy metal projectiles on the street – this time even populated by pedestrians? After all, you grew up as an orphan and you have a DREAM, you haters! But it got better very, very quickly. Not only because I’ve seen that the speakers (whose tough street talk just doesn’t work in German) can be turned down completely to inaudible, but because the game is just a lot of fun and gets to the point quickly.

Let’s start with the most obvious, the style: I have to say: I now find it really, really good. The over-lit, over-driven realism of the vehicles and track optics provides an oddly alluring contrast to the stylized elements of the drivers doing exciting things to my brain. It certainly helps that the very first thing I do in the prologue is sitting in an ’88 Lamborghini Countach, whose red in the shimmering neon night rain gets the senses pretty tipsy. But gosh, is there something going on in the picture once you’re fighting for positions in a race. A bombardment of the senses.

And then the races themselves: The licensed cars are a good mix of inconspicuous everyday cars, trashy classics (a 1977 Trans-Am!) and super sports cars from all over the world and drive decidedly differently. There is no rubber band on the slopes – Hallelujah! – that the peloton is artificially held together and the AI ​​kicks my ass so regularly on the default “Challenging” difficulty that second and third places feel like wins. Especially since you can’t restart an event endlessly, but only have a few attempts to do so.

And the fact that the town of Lakeshore and its surroundings is full of nice challenges in terms of drift, average speed and top speed, offers a lot of opportunity for daring jumps and also hides nice collectible stuff makes me really optimistic for the rest of my time with Need for Speed ​​Unbound. Yes, I really want to continue playing this and the – to be honest – street racing scenario, which has been romanticized inappropriately for a long time, can’t change that.

The risk-reward system, which was used in a similar form in Need for Speed ​​Rivals – the last usable part of the series – is also exciting: the more races you complete, the more money you earn. But you also collect “Heat” at the same time, which ensures that the cops jump on you faster and start chasing you. If they arrest you, the coal that you have not yet delivered to one of your garages is gone. At the same time, the events become more and more lucrative if you delay bagging the dough for as long as possible. I liked the system back in 2013 and here it is an idea more mature it seems.

So yeah, I know Need for Speed ​​has become something of a byword for disappointed nostalgia and misguided “subculture” of one of the worse ideas you could have as a bored 19-year-old with a freshly printed driver’s license. But I feel like Criterion still has the talent – and the desire – to bring a nice gritty, fast and motivating racing game to the streets. What a nice surprise!