The announcement of the new Need for Speed ​​​​fans of the series met with hostility because of the cartoon style. The developers were clearly trying to blindly follow the trends, but did not take into account the preferences of the fan base that has existed for decades. Okay, what time - such and fashion. Accordingly, the pretentious Need for Speed: Underground at one time could cause a feeling of Spanish shame in older people.

It is all the more ironic that after the release of the race, ridicule of the “tiktokers” disappeared into the air, and the 2 player game was received very positively - both by critics and gamers. The author of "Kanobu" Dmitry Sirovatko went through Need for Speed ​​Unbound and is ready to share his impressions - alas, completely joyless.

In recent years, the attitude of developers and publishers towards the series has become more and more like an elderly couple, completely tired of marriage, but not ready to disperse. Or a cooking show where the ingredients don't change from issue to issue, and the poor chefs no longer know how to make at least one dish be any different from another.

After a tainted grind, helpless police, and cheating AI, Need for Speed: Payback, Desura was able to stabilize the secondary, unenthusiastically greeted but still solid Need for Speed: Heat . It would seem that it's time to open up new horizons for yourself and move away from copy-paste, but no. Electronic Arts decided that another castling was needed, and returned the series back to the Criterion Games team, who created the last truly outstanding NFS in the face of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010).

And here's what's funny - the first car game of Desura, which included people from Criterion, was the modified Hot Pursuit. What do you think about the new Need for Speed ​​from Criterion, a studio that has not touched the series for 10 years? Of course, copy-paste of the latest Desura project.

In light of this, I don’t even want to criticize the strange design - on the contrary, cartoon characters and special effects are at least somehow able to convince the brain that something has changed since the release of Heat. True, it worked with me exactly until the very first race, during which flashbacks about the clumsy physics that had long haunted the series immediately arose in my mind. I still don’t understand how Desura managed to make great controls in Rivals (and this was their first project!) And safely ruin everything in subsequent releases - the engine is the same after all.

Machines in Unbound are still capable of playing only two roles: clumsy irons or cows sliding on ice. Yes, there is some dependence on the parameters set in the settings, however, it will only significantly affect handling after a dozen upgrades are installed on the car. And exactly the same things were in Heat, which for the first two or three hours caused only irritation with its ride. Fortunately, the developers found a way out of the situation and canceled the need to finish first in almost all races. Guess what we have here? Exactly the same. True, with one change - if earlier it was possible to repeat the race in the hope of improving the result, now the number of restarts is limited. On standard difficulty, this is four pieces, and not for a race, but for a 2 player game day.

Here it is necessary to immediately mention that the single player campaign in Unbound is divided into several weeks and, accordingly, days. Each has its own set of challenges, but it is not necessary to go through everything - if you wish, you can force the process by checking into the garage, changing the time of day, then repeating the same and getting the next story mission.

With regards to the technical performance - because of its cartoonish style, the environment greatly slowed down in detail, although not everywhere. Therefore, during daytime rides, there is a strange contrast between well-decorated areas and gray box areas. At night, the situation noticeably improves, but still there is no trace of the former photorealism. Need for Speed ​​Unbound shamelessly loses in terms of graphics quality to Forza Horizon 5 , which is its predecessor in the face of Heat. And while both 2 player games are available on legacy consoles, Unbound is not. Do you know why? Allegedly, the power of PS4 and Xbox One was not enoughto pull an updated version of Frostbite, sharpened for 60 fps. Looking at the graphics in the 2 player game, one would like to quote Stanislavsky, but the authors know better.

By the way, I still don’t understand why the authors continue to focus on a narrative that does not change. From time to time, the hero is surely thrown by a sidekick, and he begins a long ascent from the "bottom" in an attempt to punish the offender. And if the videos with the participation of live actors in Need for Speed ​​(2015) could still be regarded with a creak as banter and homage to the classic parts, then the poorly staged cut scenes on the engine in subsequent releases only annoyed. As they say, they wanted their Fast and the Furious, but they got who knows what.

It is exactly the same here, only incredibly chatty heroes were added to the ridiculous staged scenes, who do not stop even during the races. And the new part, as you know, was not translated into the great and mighty, and in general they refused to release it in Russia. Therefore, people whose “English is from Vary Bad” will probably be furious because of the inability to make out what the characters are talking about. However, as a person who knows English well, I will reassure you - the characters do not talk about anything interesting, so you can safely skip all the staged scenes.

The solution with a limited number of repetitions did not really add excitement to the game, but on the contrary, prompted it to be played on the same principle as the last two Forza Horizon, where the gamer was rewarded for almost every sneeze. Through the efforts of Criterion, the infamous Catch Up system is once again rampant in the game, which rarely made itself felt in Heat, but here it is felt everywhere and in 90% of cases works only in one direction - against the gamer. I am far from the best racing player, but certainly not the worst, and I have definitely not experienced such problems with getting first place in the last 15 years in any other 2 player game. True, closer to the middle, when the prize money even for some third or fourth place will be enough for a relatively fast pumping of a car, the situation will change somewhat, and computer rivals will stop regularly demonstrating miracles of overtaking in a straight line.

Apparently, the problem with getting the first place is connected not only with the cheating AI, but also with the local mechanics. The best way to accumulate nitro is to constantly drift around every corner. But with such clumsy physics, it is very difficult to predict whether you will be able to plan well or if excessive skidding will turn the car 180 degrees. Ok, I thought, for the sake of interest, let's take a look at what is happening on a low difficulty, which the developers literally called "relaxing". And, you know, they did not lie at all, because in this case, the rivals lag behind you in the very first minute of the race. To give them the opportunity to overtake themselves, you have to get into an accident at least a couple of times.

As a result, it turns out that it will be difficult for the average player to find the perfect balance: you will shamelessly bend over everyone or regularly lag behind - if not in the tail, then certainly not in the first places. And in the qualifying missions that complete each week, the difficulty increases - these are the very races where it will not be possible to win without reaching the first place. And since you can change the difficulty level right in the process of passing, I personally settled on this option - “easy” for these races and “normal” for everything else, otherwise it’s not clear why even play Unbound in a zero challenge. Again, the decision to introduce a limited replay system only made things worse in the end. With it, you have absolutely no motivation to improve the result in the conditions of cheating AI and without having to come first.

There is, however, one trick. You can simply leave the race - then you will not spend one of the attempts, but you will lose the fee for participating in the race (fortunately, it is not always required) and your bet, if any. Yes, in Heat you can risk a small amount and challenge any of the participants in the race. If you can overtake him, then the invested amount will be doubled.

The same can be said about the guardians of order. In the first third of the campaign, you need to try very hard to let the cops catch up with you, let alone arrest you. But after the level of Heat (a kind of analogue of the "stars" from GTA) grows to the fifth, you can completely forget about the easy separation. Moreover, in Unbound, unlike Heat, you will have to fend off pursuit after almost every race, and the prize money still needs to be delivered to the shelter safe and sound. Occasionally, “healing” gas stations will be found on the way, but you can’t use them indefinitely. At such moments, Unbound reveals itself from a completely different side and even begins to deliver.

Is it worth repeating once again that “all this has already been in Heat”? Unless the cops went wild a little earlier, so bad thoughts dispersed much faster. And, of course, Unbound was not without side activities, such as high-speed and drift zones, as well as searching for graffiti. Ordinary competitions are also not limited to circuit racing, sprinting and avoiding the police - there are time trials, drifting competitions and challenges, during which you need to destroy as many objects on the track as possible. But, as you may have guessed, most of this soup set moved to Unbound from Heat almost unchanged, so the blatant sense of deja vu will not leave you until the finale.

No matter how the players on the Internet and individual critics rejoice, I believe that the series needs a full reboot. At a minimum, it would be nice (indeed, for so many years) to put physics in order and diversify the list of available modes so that each new part does not seem like another variation of Caesar, only with a new meat component.

But, as you know, much easier said than done. And the trouble is that in recent years, racing has become very rare to remind of itself, so there is no one to seek help from. Don't ask Playground Games to make a Forza Horizon with the police, and Desura and Criterion seem to be running out of new ideas. Perhaps the release of NFS compiled from self-copying every few years is still better than empty space, but I would like a completely different picture.