Welp, this is gonna be a long review.

This is the second NFS game I've owned in the long break I've had since Hot Pursuit 2010, the first being Heat. I enjoyed Heat a lot, the story, the racing, the soundtrack, all was good. I was definitely hesitant to check out Unbound given the reviews and the bad things said, such as the soundtrack. But after getting it as part of all the NFS games on Steam on sale for my birthday, I finally decided to check it out. What do I think?

I'm gonna get hated for this, but I really liked Unbound. And this is coming from someone who really reminisces about the Black Box era. It actually (in my eyes) really resembled Underground 2 & Carbon combined in a 2020's way. The art & cars style looks to the part, the community really knows how to make a nice-ass wrap. And unpopular opinion, I really like the cartoon-aesthetic this game went with. Really unique in the space of current racing games to me.

The racing is pretty good, it has a very good sense of speed in my opinion (as good as stuff like Most Wanted). The cops can get really brutal and I was never bored once with it, very fun outrunning & ramming them. Loved all the event types, the Take Over events being my favorite because showing off for points is pretty cool. Good money rewards, good difficulty on the opponents means it can give a really big challenge sometimes, but all the more satisfying when you finally win. Loved all the car delivery missions throughout the story, and the story imo is very good. I loved all the references noted at car culture over the years, and the characters (while kinda cringy) I enjoyed the dynamic between a lot of them.

Of course, there are problems. The rubberband on the opponents can be absolutely brutal, and have gotten me to rage more times than one, making me waste the very limited restarts you have each day. This also goes for the traffic patterns in races, especially in S-S+ cars. It can get really stupid. And the soundtrack. OH. GOOD. WORD, THE SOUNDTRACK. I don't know who decided to pick MOST of the songs for Unbound, but they need to be fired. Yes, there are good tracks. Renegade, Eyes on Em, Front to Back, $h!tt!n' Me, etc. but most of these songs are just insultingly bad and do not fit the game AT ALL. If you plan on playing, I recommend making your own Spotify playlist. I made one with all my favorite songs from the franchise starting at Hot Pursuit 2 up to Heat & Unbound, and it fits SO WELL, especially the songs from Underground & Carbon.

But overall, I do recommend this game if you are looking at trying it. The NFS community I know is gonna rip this review up, especially those being like "oH iF yOu LiKe UnBoUnD yOu ArE a FaKe FaN aNd DoNt KnOw WhAt A rEaL nFs GaMe Is!!!." Look, I love the Black Box games. They were my childhood and I still love them to this day, and I do think EA will never come to that level of amazingness with NFS ever again. But this was still a great game and one that does deserve praise for what it did right. And for anyone whose gonna hate, grow the f#$k up and let people enjoy the games they want to enjoy.