A lot of the hate NFS Unbound got was from the cartoon graffiti effects which was something the Criterion dev team wanted to try for a NFS game. An overwhelmingly negative backlash occurred on the game's release (It was also forced upon players on release / No one can turn these cartoon graffiti effects off). NFS Unbound was also seen as a NFS Heat 2.0 as well, which didn't do the game any favours.
Now the cartoon graffiti effects backlash died down and certain people have gotten used to the effects now and even grown to like them. People can also turn off the effects and have regular smoke now.
NFS Unbound won't receive any new updates, so there won't be any changes to the game. Despite this, NFS Unbound is a fun game and there is a good amount of fun to be had with the game. 😊
I personally enjoyed playing NFS Unbound. 😄
I've been playing since its launch back in December 2022, but I'll finally put NFS Unbound to rest for good soon once I have gotten all Weekly Rap rewards in the Lockdown game mode. (It'll be nice to take an extended break from the game after playing it for over 2 years. lol)