Need for Speed Unbound is an arcade racing game published by Electronic Arts. The game was developed by EA's subsidiary, Criterion Games, who had previously provided assistance to other larger Electronic Arts studios such as DICE and Ghost Games. NFS Unbound is the first independent project from Criterion Games in the last 10 years.
Storyline
The game takes place in modern times in a fictional city called Lake Shore City. The main character, "Spidy," and his girlfriend Jasmine work as mechanics in an automotive workshop. One day, they build a car and participate in an illegal racing tournament. Their goal is to make a name for themselves and attract other street racers to have their cars fixed by them.
The plan proves successful, and Spidy's workshop quickly fills up with expensive cars. However, Jasmine betrays the main character and steals all the cars along with her new acquaintances. Finding himself in a difficult situation, Spidy decides to recover all the stolen cars and seek revenge on his girlfriend. To do so, he signs up for the Grand Final, the largest street racing competition organized by Jasmine's new friends.
Unlike previous NFS series projects, Unbound includes narrative elements - the story and the game world unfold through dialogues, notes, and visual surroundings. Secondary characters have their own personalities and unique characteristics, so they will share stories about the city, their problems, and personal experiences in the dialogues. This approach enhances the immersion in the story and makes the game more believable.
Gameplay Trailer
Gameplay
Unbound uses the same gameplay formula as other projects in the "Need for Speed" series. The gamer drives around a large open city and its surrounding rural areas, participates in races, and tries to avoid getting caught by the police. The gameplay differences in all games in the series are minimal nuances, which we will discuss later.
Physics
In racing games, physics refers to the behavior of the car while driving. In Need for Speed Unbound, the physics are not realistic but rather arcade-like. This means that collisions with obstacles have little impact on the car's handling. Collisions also do not pose much danger - if you collide with an opponent, the characters do not get injured, and the cars only suffer minor scratches and dents.
Considering that physics does not have tangible characteristics, gamers have to describe it based on subjective feelings. In previous NFS series, such as Payback and Heat, someone described the cars' behavior as "feeling like irons on ice." This is not the case in Unbound. The controls are responsive, and the cars do not slide out of control in every turn.
Each car in the game feels different. Switching from a four-wheel drive Nissan Skyline to a rear-wheel drive Pontiac Firebird, there is a noticeable difference in handling. So, getting used to a new car will require some practice.
Difficulty
Upon initial launch, the game offers three difficulty modes:
- Relaxed - easy;
- Challenge – medium;
- Intense – hard.
Even on the medium difficulty, the game becomes challenging. This also sets Unbound apart from previous projects in the series. Situations where you lap opponents multiple times are completely excluded - you will have to fight hard for first place.
Constantly replaying races is not possible either. On the medium difficulty level, you are given only 4 restarts per in-game day. You will have to save them for special races with large winnings.
Additionally, the player will have to settle for 2nd or 3rd place in some competitions. The reason is that you need to pay a starting fee before each race. To prevent it from being wasted, sometimes it's better to give up on winning.
System requirements
NFS Unbound is the most resource-intensive racing project of modern times. To see this, just look at the minimum and recommended system requirements. Such high requirements are justified: the game has taken a step forward in terms of global lighting and LOD quality - the level of detail of distant objects. To enjoy the updated graphics, you will need to set the graphics sliders to "High" or even better, "Ultra".
| Minimum system requirements | |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10, 11 |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-8600 |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti |
| RAM | 8 GB |
| Disk Space | 50 GB |
| Recommended system requirements | |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 11 |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-11400 |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 |
| RAM | 16 GB |
| Disk Space | 110 GB on SSD |
To eliminate the "staircase" effect in Unbound, TAA smoothing is used. It effectively removes the "stairs" but blurs the image, making object boundaries fuzzy. This is especially noticeable on monitors with Full HD resolution.
Adjusting the "Resolution Scale" can help get rid of the blurriness. By default, it is set to 100%. If increased to 135%, the game will render at 1458p on a Full HD monitor, slightly exceeding the 2K resolution (1440p). Increasing the "Resolution Scale" helps eliminate blurriness but raises the system requirements for Need for Speed Unbound even higher.
Ideally, it is recommended to have powerful graphics accelerators together with high-resolution monitors, such as 4K. In this case, TAA smoothing will not blur the image, and no adjustments to the "Resolution Scale" will be needed. To run NFS Unbound at 4K resolution, the following configuration is required:
| Maximum system requirements | |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10, 11 |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-13700K |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti |
| RAM | 16 GB |
| Disk Space | 50 GB на SSD PCI Express |
Computer for Need for Speed Unbound from HYPERPC – November 2024
The release of NFS Unbound has already taken place on November 29, 2022. Since then, the game confidently holds the position of the most demanding racing project of modern times. It is expected that even Forza Motorsport 8, which is scheduled for release in the spring of 2023, will not surpass Unbound in terms of graphics level.
HYPERPC computers are designed for you to enjoy the visual aspect of all games, including racing games, for years to come. With our systems, you will have access to any graphics settings with a stable frame rate.
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