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Novamesis_023's avatar
Novamesis_023
New Rookie
3 years ago

Serious feedback on NFS Unbound

Alright. 
The job that was done is great. 
Mainly excellent graphics, and visual customization. 
On that side, you're starting to kill it. 

Now let's talk about what is lacking in NFS Unbound so far in my humble opinion. 
I will speak in two parts : driving experience and in-game content

I - DRIVING EXPERIENCE
Let's be very honest with the driving experience.
Strong points are the following : cars are easy enough to handle, you can tune your steering sensitivity, drift vs grip style, and drift entry.
Now this is my opinion and considering that this game is F expensive, I'm not gonna lie, it's quite disappointing :
* the handling physics still feels like a prototype; the cars slow down way too much as they drift or slide. 
Check it for yourself from this clip, the turn/curve that is being taken demonstrates the flaw : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd5JaeoG5UA&t=88s

* Some upgrades actually downgrade you car's stock performance. This is noticeable mostly with drift tyres or ECU. Higher tier drift tyres make the car grip as F. 
Higher tier ECU downgrades the stock performance of cars like the Ferrari 488. Make that make sense. 

* The speed cap that can be achieved by tuning the most powerful car engines in the game, is only 245 MPH. Absolute disappointment here, and I was expecting a fully upgraded car
with the most powerful engines to go from 0 to 300+ MPH in about 25-30 seconds only, without NOS. 
I was also expecting the "Extreme Performance Customization Philosophy"(EPCP model) to be taken into account up to a fair extent, allowing even a low tier car to be
transformed into a god tier one, by swapping in monstrous engine power, with maniacally optimized tuning to make the car chill and stand on equal ground with the bosses which are
the fastest stock cars in the game. 

* The velocity seems wrongly computed in the game engine and feels dampened. Have your developers double-check because 100 KPH feels
like 15 meters per second instead of 25 meters per second.

* From the cockpit view, the flashing on the car as you boost with power NOS is really disturbing were you to drive from that view point. Please remove it. 

Notice : About the drift vs grip model, Need For Speed Most Wanted 2012 perfectly balanced it, making both grip and drift virtually the same performance. Plus
the car didn't slow down too much nor was it too fast in curves, and the force of the mass caused by your high speed could be felt as you slide side ways right after.
If I could give a suggestion, it'd be to build ontop of this handling model and fine tune it well to match the expectations from the current Need For Speed game. 
Last thing with the driving experience. The physics felt more natural in NFSMW 2012, you grip then power slide then drift without necessarily
making your car engine fart when it shouldn't. And the steering wheel of the driver from the cockpit had better attention to detail compared to NFS
Unbound, in the sense that the steering angle was broader and felt more realistic. That's not the case in Unbound.
Also, as a bonus, here's :
- A clip of a Koenigsegg Jesko capable to reach 320+ MPH : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q5VSmLTuWk
- A clip of a beautiful gameplay with the Lancia Delta HF Integrale : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syLOTU8bMso


II - IN-GAME CONTENT
The in-game content is great but not exceptionally striking if not for the new art style with the Grafitti and cell shaded characters.. 
So here I'll talk mainly about the game's subtitle, the city map and the cars in the game.

Subtitle : The game was subtitled "Unbound" and I was expecting to see a mad man, or some kind of maniac, and genius when it comes to Extreme car customization, be it for 
performance or visual style. There was not such character and you didn't even focus a bit on that in the game. What is the link with "Unbound" then with this franchise?
I don't understand it.

City map : This game is really expensive. So please, include two to three maps the same size as the current one available in it, for even more fun. 
Midnight Club 3 Remix had more than 5 different cities : Detroit, Atlanta, Paris, New York, Tokyo... I'm only asking for two more maps. 

Cars : the car variety is decent, but not rich, not as rich as in Gran Turismo or The Crew 2. And also, today again, 10 years after Most Wanted 2012 is out, you're yet to push your car variety 
further by including fictional car brands made by yourself, from scratch or inspired from already existing car brands. Gran Turismo for instance has its outstanding Vision GT cars lined up.
What do you specifically have to compete? My suggestion is to create, exclusive Need For Speed cars which are fictional concept cars and car brands made for your urban racing game.
You can also create fictional variants of already existing car brands, be it Toyota, Ferrari, Bugatti, etc. These concepts will be Exclusive to Need For Speed games just like Vision GT cars are
exclusive to Gran Turismo games. 

That will be all for my feedback. I said it all. Up to you to impress us or not. 

Of little importance : I wouldn't mind another full reboot of Need For Speed Most Wanted, this time with everything it missed, from rich car variety to extreme visual and performance customizations. 

1 Reply

  • @Novamesis_023 Nice list OP, I agree with a number of these and I like the title comment and custom cars ideas... never really thought about those. Although a couple I can see reasons why some features were implemented.

    - The top speed of 245mph may be due to performance issues with the game when traveling that fast, especially for users that are working with PC's close to the minimum game req's.
    - The drift slowing mechanic was introduced as grip racing wouldn't be competitive in races if it was reduced anymore. The downside like you mentioned is that general drifting feels awkward and un-enjoyable. I guess they need to find a nice spot in the middle.

    +1

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