• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Why is Need For Speed Unbound such a stupidly hard game?

Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
I'm trying to clear out my backlog of games that I haven't finished yet and figured that I'm gonna revisit this. Last time I gave up on it, I was at the end of the first week (tier) in a Honda Civic that's maxed out to the maximum allowed power level. I can't even go above A class because then I will be too powerful for a qualifier race, and I do have unlocked extra parts that I can't buy because of that, and enough money to burn to be able to go out on a week long binge of hookers and blow and still have enough leftover to comfortably buy into the qualifier race multiple times. I also tried multiple tuning settings but none of them really help at all. It just makes the car either be more drifty or stiff. I'm also playing on the so-called "relaxed" (i.e. easiest) difficulty level because I don't fucking care, I just wanna zip around some race tracks in my gay pink Honda.

And the game is STILL kicking absolute living shit out of me and it's such an annoying experience playing this stupid game. What the hell were they thinking? I mean, seriously, I'm fairly seasoned in racing games, they never really give me this much trouble unless I crank up the difficulty to harder modes. And yet with this shitty ass game I'm just struggling and it's not fun in the slightest.

What gives? I'm seriously asking if I'm doing something wrong because I refuse to give up on this completely.
 
Last edited:
Guilty_AI

Guilty_AI

Member
JBnLJYFcFsd8r1QCw8cV3iG4EUEHyg1vtCQURM39Oq8GfIinSOGcsSz6kWzdgTxDS6yJRD_CJQ=s900-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj
 
Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
wvnative said:
Criterion's NFS games are the hardest, it's weird because Burnout was so chill, I don't know why they're NFS games are so hard.

In unbound specifically I couldn't progress on easy mode.
Click to expand...
Eh, dunno about that either. Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted 2012 were pretty chill too. I beat them multiple times and never really struggled like in this one.
 
wvnative

wvnative

Member
Drizzlehell said:
Eh, dunno about that either. Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted 2012 were pretty chill too. I beat them multiple times and never really struggled like in this one.
Click to expand...
They were more gradual but for me they both get really difficult to play after a time.

But racing games are physically difficult for me so my experience may not reflect others' experience.
 
Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
rofif said:
I think these games are like that. I've tried Heat and 1 mistake and you will most likely not be 1st anymore
Click to expand...
That one didn't give me any trouble either tbh. It's the cops that were stupidly overpowered but there were some easy tricks to losing them and later on you could just speed away from a pursuit and they had zero chance.
 
C

Cashon

Banned
I made it up to the final week, earlier this year, before uninstalling it. There's one really long race, in which you race against ASAP Rocky (?) aged it's easily the hardest race I encountered in the game. He would always be waaay ahead of the pack, so I just quit. Even outside of that race, overall, it's a much lesser package than Criterion's Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted. Decent, but not great.
 
Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
Fuck me, this is such a supremely dull game. I'm midway through the second week now and every time the heat resets at the end of the day, it fills back up so fast, and those level 5 cop chases take fucking forever to escape and are really hard to avoid.

This really is one of the shittiest NFS games in the history of this series. But I refuse to let that money go to waste, I haven't reached my breaking point just yet, lol.
 
jayj

jayj

Banned
NFS games have always had really cheap AI, and Criterion has always been the worst when it comes to designing NFS games.
 
lem0n

lem0n

Member
I like to call this type of bullshit in racing games 'artificial difficulty'. Things like robo-cops, rubber-banding, intentionally shit rewards.. choices all made to "challenge" the player because the base game nearly plays itself. The driving is on rails, the roads are huge, waypoints on the map the whole time, you can go anywhere and ram through basically any thing you see outside of massive trees and buildings.. They had to make it challenging somehow so they just defaulted to the ol' tried and true nonsense I've come to expect from modern NFS.

I've been playing racers since the late 90s so I'm no stranger to this kind of challenge- but there are other ways of challenging a player without resorting to borderline cheating. Midnight Club had cops, rubber banding etc, but these effects weren't as noticeable because you were focused on the race. If modern NFS turns the bullshit up to 10, Midnight Club had the dial on maybe a 5 or a 6. The actual challenge of the races, the race routes themselves, and the stakes in a championship made the game hard in it's own way. Games like Project Gotham Racing had the Kudos and medal system so you could go as hard in the paint as you wanted- you got out what you put into it. Platinum races were no joke. I've gotten every single Platinum from every single PGR and let me tell you there have been times I was nearly smashing a controller through my wall. But god damn, once you got it just right, no better satisfaction. Gran Turismo and their License Tests.. need I even say more? Awful at times but fun because the game made you drive with more finesse.

I guess long story short, OP, I had the same experience. I uninstalled and never looked back. There's something genuinely off about Unbound.
 
Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
lem0n said:
I like to call this type of bullshit in racing games 'artificial difficulty'. Things like robo-cops, rubber-banding, intentionally shit rewards.. choices all made to "challenge" the player because the base game nearly plays itself. The driving is on rails, the roads are huge, waypoints on the map the whole time, you can go anywhere and ram through basically any thing you see outside of massive trees and buildings.. They had to make it challenging somehow so they just defaulted to the ol' tried and true nonsense I've come to expect from modern NFS.

I've been playing racers since the late 90s so I'm no stranger to this kind of challenge- but there are other ways of challenging a player without resorting to borderline cheating. Midnight Club had cops, rubber banding etc, but these effects weren't as noticeable because you were focused on the race. If modern NFS turns the bullshit up to 10, Midnight Club had the dial on maybe a 5 or a 6. The actual challenge of the races, the race routes themselves, and the stakes in a championship made the game hard in it's own way. Games like Project Gotham Racing had the Kudos and medal system so you could go as hard in the paint as you wanted- you got out what you put into it. Platinum races were no joke. I've gotten every single Platinum from every single PGR and let me tell you there have been times I was nearly smashing a controller through my wall. But god damn, once you got it just right, no better satisfaction. Gran Turismo and their License Tests.. need I even say more? Awful at times but fun because the game made you drive with more finesse.

I guess long story short, OP, I had the same experience. I uninstalled and never looked back. There's something genuinely off about Unbound.
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree more. While I appreciate an attempt to raise the stakes for the races (I even had an idea for a racing game with super high stakes that I posted here once), there's just zero sense of satisfaction once you finally make it through a race. Usually my only reward for finishing a race is yet another 10 minute long cop chase that I'm utterly tired of after a couple of hours of playing. That and a couple of thousands of bucks that I can't spend anyway because my car is already upgraded to the max allowed level for that tier. Also, limiting the number of restarts is such a dumb idea I can't even fathom why would they think that it's a good idea to put it in the game.
 
Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
Tommi84 said:
That's why I ADORE Driveclub:

No rubberbanding BS, no stupid cops, no need ro farm money for upgrades. You graduate to higher tiar? Here're some cars you can chose from to drive - all similarly capable, all nice looking. No stupid tuning. You lost? You made a mistake, nothing else
Click to expand...
I still can't get over the fact that I missed out on it. I bought a PS4 just as this game disappeared from digital storefronts and I've upgraded to PS5 digital since then so I can't even go for a used copy of the game.

I'd play the shit out of it.
 
MacReady13

MacReady13

Member
This is an ALMOST game for me and it shits me cause I really enjoy the racing in it. It’s just the cop chases that shit me to tears. Trying to escape them is nigh on impossible once your wanted level gets too high. It’s actually completely dampens my enjoyment of this game.
 
Spukc

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Drizzlehell said:
Fuck me, this is such a supremely dull game. I'm midway through the second week now and every time the heat resets at the end of the day, it fills back up so fast, and those level 5 cop chases take fucking forever to escape and are really hard to avoid.

This really is one of the shittiest NFS games in the history of this series. But I refuse to let that money go to waste, I haven't reached my breaking point just yet, lol.
Click to expand...
Glad i refunded it.
Loved Heat
 
Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
01011001 said:
because it's fun, and I like the arcady way it plays... and it's fun to push your wanted level higher and higher and see how much you can get away with.
Click to expand...
Which normally would be fine, I loved cop chases in the original Most Wanted because they felt so tense and movie-like. But in this game they don't provide a meaty enough challenge because it's easy to total cop cars and they don't do any serious damage or have any cool tricks to throw at you. The only difficulty comes from the fact that the game will just keep spawning new cars and choppers out of nowhere while you're waiting for the cooldown meter to go down and it takes forever to shake the pursuit.

Personally, I just get really bored of them after a while. Feels like it's best to play this game in short bursts instead of having longer sessions with it.
 
Bond007

Bond007

Member
And its not hard in the- this is still fun kind of way. Its hard and it ultimately feels cheap.
Secondly, i didnt find online fun either because i am only ever paired with racers way higher than myself(every single time) so it essentially is me cruising into last place. So i am not sure how they pair racers online to make it even and challenging.

Its a shame because alot of what is here is pretty good in my opinion. Like, why cant they just replicate Hot Pursuit and expand on that, is it that hard?
 
Games of Today

Games of Today

Member
Magnus Walker in NFS 2015 made me want to cry. So hard.

And it compounded my frustration because every time I restarted the race he would say, "Good luck mate, I'll see you on the other side."
 
Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
Games of Today said:
Magnus Walker in NFS 2015 made me want to cry. So hard.

And it compounded my frustration because every time I restarted the race he would say, "Good luck mate, I'll see you on the other side."
Click to expand...
Yeah, that was pretty tough but being the last race of the campaign, it's justifiable. And finally beating him and being able to drive in that sweet Porsche of his was really satisfying.
 
Games of Today

Games of Today

Member
Drizzlehell said:
Yeah, that was pretty tough but being the last race of the campaign, it's justifiable. And finally beating him and being able to drive in that sweet Porsche of his was really satisfying.
Click to expand...
Why do I not remember it being the last race? Do you race him a second time?

As far as I remember there were still cutscenes after that race once I beat him and the next one I did was a drifting competition with the Car Mechanic chick? Which was even harder. So hard in fact that I quit at that on and never came back haha.
 
coffinbirth

coffinbirth

Member
I haven't liked a NFS game since Most Wanted 2012. That game was perfect though. Would love a remaster like they did with Hot Pursuit.
I played Unbound for about two hours and uninstalled, cut my losses.
 
Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
Games of Today said:
Why do I not remember it being the last race? Do you race him a second time?

As far as I remember there were still cutscenes after that race once I beat him and the next one I did was a drifting competition with the Car Mechanic chick? Which was even harder. So hard in fact that I quit at that on and never came back haha.
Click to expand...
Maybe you can complete them out of order. I can't remember at this point, it's been a while since I beat it, but it was definitely the last boss that I had to beat to complete the game.
 
Drizzlehell

Drizzlehell

Banned
Ok, I've had enough. I'm done with this shit:


This game is a fucking dumpster fire.
  • Horrible car physics where you're either gonna spin uncontrollably for no reason, or find yourself stuck to the road like a magnet and unable to turn, and there's zero consistency in the driving.
  • Speaking of driving, the physics engine also had a rather frequent tendency to just randomly throw me off track like I was in a pinball machine and it was just something that I couldn't predict or avoid
  • I also frequently had this bug where I was launched into the air on flat asphalt because I drove over some invisible piece of geometry. Good shit, devs.
  • Randomly difficult races with the same lame-ass enemy drivers with much lower stats than you, who somehow are able to leave you like 10 billion miles behind when in a previous race they were eating my dust.
  • The MORONIC idea of putting a limit on the number of restarts.
  • Absolutely brain-dead cops that will never ever take you down but it will always take forever to lose them because the game just spawns them out of nowhere.
  • Visual style that is straight up nauseous to look at because everything is bathed in this puke-green tint and the cartoon filter is half-baked and awful.
  • TERRIBLE soundtrack and voice acting, I just put that shit on mute after a while because I couldn't stand it.
It's just awful. It's so terrible that I'm considering just deleting it from my account to avoid any temptation of trying it out again later and avoid wasting any more of my precious life on this stupid bullshit. It's the last NFS game I'm gonna buy, that's for sure. You just can't trust these morons to make a good racing game anymore, even with Criterion as a developer.

Criterion:
VXwsQzR.gif
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Do you think that Codemasters should make a Need For Speed game?
29
1K
Scotty W replied
The Next Need for Speed Game Might Be Coming Out Soon
22
2K
AnotherOne replied
Need for Speed Unbound | Review Thread
Analysis Review 2 3 4
163
12K
MidGenRefresh replied
EA partners with PUMA to release new themed shoes and in-game content based on Need For Speed: Unbound.
13
1K
OmegaSupreme replied
Coming to Xbox Game Pass: Need for Speed Unbound, The Bookwalker, Sword and Fairy: Together Forever, and More
News 2
80
5K
StreetsofBeige replied
Top Bottom