Need For Speed: Unbound’s Unique Art Makes A Thrilling Street Racing Game Pop
Looks aren’t everything — but they still go a long way.
Style alone can’t make a game good, but it certainly helps. Any game can benefit from a unique art style, and in racing games, a nice coat of paint goes an especially long way. This month on PlayStation Plus, one of the most stylish racing games ever is up for grabs, backing up its distinct looks with some great systems under the hood to sell the drama of its street racing fantasy.
When Need for Speed: Unbound was announced, the most attention-grabbing part of it was its unique art style. Just take one quick look at it and you’ll see why. While its setting of Lakeshore (a fictionalized version of Chicago) is rendered with the standard realism of a blockbuster racer, it’s accentuated with animated effects that evoke racing anime as much as street art. From the very start, it’s clear that Need for Speed: Unbound’s visual flair is a key part of its identity, and it helps make it one of the most fascinating racing games in recent years.
Need for Speed: Unbound is an arcade street racing game with style to spare.
Before the game even gets started, you make your own custom racer with a character creator that would be at home in any RPG. Compared to the more realistic backdrop of Lakeshore, every character in Need for Speed: Unbound looks ripped from anime, with a cel-shaded look and a nice array of fashionable clothes to choose from as you design your own.
Aside from your character, you can also customize your car’s flair with elements you’ll earn more of as you win races. These bits of flair come in the form of smoke trails that appear when you boost and other animated splashes that accentuate big moves like pops of graffiti suddenly filling your screen. The contrast between these animated details, your cartoon character, and the more realistic world clash in the best way, each pop of color highlighting the larger-than-life feeling of the game’s arcade racing.
Pops of color and animated effects add a lot of life to Need for Speed: Unbound’s cars.
Need for Speed: Unbound centers on its campaign mode, which tells a roughly 30-hour story of revenge. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but putting so much focus on the tale of your attempt to climb the ranks after a rival stole your prized ride gives a real sense of progress to your journey as you compete in race after race.
While its narrative beats might be predictable, the story also serves as a backbone for a fantastic street racing structure. By day, you take part in low-stakes races that can earn you modest payouts while cruising the game’s open-world map. Run-ins with the cops during the day will raise your Heat meter, making you more of a target for roving patrol cars. At night, the races get bigger and more dangerous, but you stand to earn a lot more money from them. At the same time, cops get much more aggressive and they’ll pursue you and your fellow racers from start to finish.
Need for Speed: Unbound follows your journey to the top of Lakeshore’s street racing world.
That all cashes out at the end of your nighttime races. After each race, you’ll need to outrun the cops on your tail and make it back home before you’re caught — or lose all the money you just won if they manage to catch up to you. That delicate risk-reward structure is one of the most gratifying parts of Need for Speed: Unbound, letting you decide whether you should take it easier for a smaller payday or risk everything you’ve worked for in the hopes of striking it rich.
Either way you pay, Need for Speed: Unbound wants you in it for the long haul. You won’t be expected to place first right off the bat, and earning enough money to buy decent upgrades for your car can take a long time. As sluggish as that can sometimes make the campaign feel, it makes every victory feel meaningful and every loss like a crushing blow you’ll have to work to recover from. It’s far from a realistic racing sim, but Need for Speed: Unbound is one of the most satisfying and stylish street racing games around.
