Need for Speed Unbound is on the way this year, but what should get the drop from NFS Heat?
With an amazing new art style, Unbound has grabbed the attention of everyone. Early gameplay has made it look pretty close to 2019's Need for Speed Heat, which isn't a bad thing.
However, there are some features should it NOT carry over from Heat. While Heat was a step in the right direction for NFS, there were still some features that we wished weren't included.
If these were to be fixed or removed for Unbound, it would put the upcoming title in very good stead for December.
Drop for Need for Speed Unbound
The cop chases are one of the most recongisable features from NFS in general. While they haven't always been present in NFS games, they are synonymous with the series and usually play the role of the antagonist.
One thing that they shouldn't be to evade is easy, but Heat took things too far.
Even on low Heat levels, the police were almost unbeatable, able to withstand T-bone collisions at full pelt with hardly a scratch on their car.
This is especially frustrating when the cops take all of the money that you have on you if you get busted. That can be a huge amount of money, especially when you're first starting out in the game and need it most.
Ghost City
This has been a problem that NFS has always suffered from, but it's now time to correct it.
NFS games are usually set in large American cities and you'll be able to explore Lakeshore's huge map in full 4K and 60 fps on the next-gen platforms.
However, as good as the cars look, NFS games have a habit of taking place in abandoned urban areas. What we mean by that is that despite these being large cities, nobody seems to live in them.
In the days of the likes of Most Wanted (2005), the excuse was that the console didn't have enough processing power, but those days are long gone.
We don't expect the level of detail you get in Grand Theft Auto V, especially at night. We do think that during the day it'd be nice to see a bit more vibrance to a city that would have around a million people living within it in the real world.
From what we've seen so far though, pedestrians and other cars within Lakeshore will be in the city.
Rubber-banding AI
While the AI was decent to race wheel-to-wheel against in Heat, they still left a little to be desired.
One of the issues when it comes to most AI in arcade games is that no matter how fast you are, they will be near you come the end of the race.
While this keeps the action interesting throughout, it is very artificial. It becomes more obvious when your car is far superior to the AI's, yet they are still on your tail at the finish line.
Some may like this, but most gamers will find this is something which spoils the immersion. From what we've seen in the latest trailer, we wouldn't rule this out still being in the game, thanks to the huge variety of cars shown in the race.
Auto-drift
Drifting is fun, there's no getting away from it, but it has a time and a place. Drifting isn't the fastest way to get around corners, so when you have an AI that will always be close behind you, you can't afford to make any mistakes.
The handling model in NFS has never been the best, but we would like to see an improvement over what we saw in Heat.
We should be able to avoid going into a drift when pushing the limits of the steering lock in the cars. For rear-wheel drive cars, this isn't such an issue, as drifting with these is actually a lot of fun.
However, for those that are front-wheel or four-wheel drive machines, it's painful to lose control of these cars around corners and end up in the barriers or a building as a result.