
There’s nothing terribly groundbreaking about Lakeshore City.

You’ll always have to watch out for the cops, but they don’t ruin the fun as they did in some of the more recent entries in the series (especially Need for Speed Heat). The cops are also well-handled, as they patrol realistically all the time and aren’t overly aggressive once you get into a chase with them, as in other parts of the series.

Lakeshore feels both well-paced and fun, in a way that Ghost Games’ more boring sandboxes never did. Lakeshore City is a great driving “sandbox” full of challenges, collectibles, memorable landmarks, and unique regions. If I had to pick one thing that Need for Speed Unbound does better than Ghost Games’ titles, it’s open-world development. “Take me down to the Lakeshore City, Where the grass is green, and the girls are pretty” In the break between Gran Turismo 7 and Forza Motorsport 8, d next spring, this open-world racing game boosts to a series that has been slaloming at a modest pace among the rest of the genre. Need for Speed Unbound is surprisingly challenging, making every race count and immersive, with plenty of styles. The classic racing game has finally reached its limits with an occasionally embarrassingly clunky story and repetitive objectives, but the journey to get there has been a lot of fun. It was with this surprisingly strong narrative thread that Need for Speed Unbound started, and despite the series’ recent struggles and subdued marketing campaign, it proved to be a pleasant surprise overall.
