To be honest, I was astonished by how similar it looked to a regular Need for Speed, what with the tuner and sports cars crashing through the city streets at night, trying to evade the cops and race each other for the win. The visual effects provide a nice touch, but they aren’t as overwhelming as I feared they would be. Wonderful news for NFS purists, Electronic Arts has already stated that they can be turned off, however judging on the gameplay in this video, I doubt most players would want to. The actual racing is what pulls me away from the footage, and not in a nice way. The vehicles appear to be light and flimsy, and they appear to handle like toys; a small Nissan hits a SWAT truck roadblock and barely slows down. I understand that the gameplay may differ from what is shown in the trailer since Need for Speed is an arcade racer and not a high-fidelity driving sim. Those vehicles look too static and unresponsive to be arcade-quality. However, if Unbound ends up handling like a toy car and not a supercar, it may be a problem solely for me. Several YouTube comments have praised the departure from realism, which is an understandable reaction.

On December 2, Need for Speed Unbound will go live for purchase on PC via Steam, Epic, and the EA app, among other digital distribution platforms. Read More: Need For Speed Unbound Leaks