The complete release of Need for Speed Unbound is on Friday, and a lot depends on it. It's the first NFS since the divisive Heat in 2019, the first created by arcade racing experts Criterion since the franchise returned to the group following Ghost Games' breakup in 2020 and the first on current-gen consoles. It's a thrilling time. Jalopnik had the pleasure of speaking with Kieran Crimmings, the game's creative director, for a short time about how Unbound came to be. While we at Jalopnik have only just started to get to grips with the street racing today, we will have our own impressions live later in the week.
He won't hold it against you if you're not immediately taken with the aesthetic direction based only on gameplay video. You'll have to play the game to fully appreciate why the development team has grown so fond of the idea for what Criterion refers to as "living graffiti" — the visual flourishes shooting off cars during drifting, boosting, and other activities — were generated from gameplay development, according to Crimmings.
We considered posting a lot of the graffiti we had in public spaces and other places. The artwork created by J.C. Rivera and some of our other artists was shown on the wall while we also rebuilt the handling and physics systems on top of it with the current-generation consoles in mind. With those platforms, we had far more power, so we wanted to completely redo it.
Need for Speed Unbound Gameplay
Unbound's burst nitrous system was one of the new gameplay elements that wasn't as intuitive as it may have been. According to Crimmings of Criterion, using the artwork as a visual aid drastically changed the kinesthetics of the encounter.
"We were having a difficult time communicating state changes to people. Specifically, when do you join the drift, when are you conducting a flawless drift, and when are you drafting? everything of that nature. And then there came a brief flash of inspiration: "Well, what if we just used part of this graffiti?" I believe we only had one go at these incredible graffiti lines before realising that they might simply be coming from the back of the car and alerting me to my top speed, for example.
"We tried it in a prototype, and it felt wonderful. So, as soon as we included it in a prototype, people said, "Oh, we've got to go for it!" And, don't get me wrong, we had to conduct a number of artistic experiments to determine whether we should proceed. However, once we did, they appeared amazing. It had the vibe of being brand-new, exciting, and novel.
Observing those flourishes and experiencing their bodily reactions while holding the controller are two entirely different things.
"I can't judge people for their opinions of the video because the game is still being developed and people can't play it yet. Fair enough. However, I would ask everyone who has evaluated the movie to watch it and observe how the system functions. It truly, genuinely works. Players are going to love it once they play it because it's such a terrific, viscerally satisfying adaptation of the boost mechanic that's coupled with some visual fireworks.
Cummings served as the leader of Unbound after getting his start in the Need for Speed franchise with 2010's Hot Pursuit revival from Criterion. Unbound's development was heavily influenced by the lengthy history of NFS across various car cultures and eras.
The original Most Wanted, Underground, and older Need for Speed games were all fundamentally about being in a gang of underground street racers who weren't supposed to be racing but were, and there was a risk and reward that was sort of implied there in that fantasy as well where people go out and make big bets on their races and might lose it all or might win it all. If I think about the older Need for Speed games, especially the Need for Speed [2015] reboot, maybe Need for Speed Heat
For us, that's always been a pretty interesting area, and I believe Heat kind of put us back there in a way that made sense and really connected with the audience. So, from the beginning, the main objective was to create a fantasy that not only delivers admirably on the risk-and-reward system (which, hopefully, you'll notice in the campaign structure) but also has those vibes and feels contemporary.
This week, you can find out for yourself. Need for Speed Unbound is ready now for those who pre-ordered the exclusive Palace Edition, though it won't be accessible to everyone until December 2. Starting today, EA Play subscribers can also play the game for up to 10 hours. You can get our unedited, live, initial impressions on the game today at 4 p.m. Eastern on Jalopnik's Twitch channel, twitch.tv/jalopnikdotcom, if you're interested. I am anticipating it.
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