I’ve been playing Need for Speed for 24 years, but this Unbound feature I think is brilliant

Need for Speed is set to get a remake of Most Wanted in 2024. But for Kevin, the arcade racing game is in desperate need of an often overlooked new feature from NfS Unbound.

Criterion Games can’t let bygones be bygones – which makes perfect sense in the case of Need for Speed, after all the best days of the racing game series are behind us.

The new NfS Unbound failed to captivate fans in the long run, for 2024 its developer Criterion probably wants to return to the classic Most Wanted. A remake is said to be in the works – again, because a remake was already released in 2012, Criterion Games was the executing studio then as well.

But stop! I say: A bit of series nostalgia doesn’t hurt, but please don’t forget the good innovations from Unbound again! One feature in particular appealed to me as an old NfS fan and I’d like to see it again in the sequels in the future – even if hardly anyone talks about it apart from me.

A boost to the fun of the game

Yes, I think that many Unbound players didn’t understand at first that there was an unusual tactical flavour in the arcade racer  That’s partly Criterion’s fault, too, as the developers explain one of the more unassuming new features of Need for Speed Unbound rather inadequately.

That’s another reason why I decided to dedicate a separate subheading to it (in my beginner’s guide with 7 valuable tips) . It is of course about the revised Nitro function, which is now divided into four different sections and two colours (green and blue).

The whole thing works like this: The yellow segments are consumed by tapping the boost button and give a single, short burst of speed. The blue column is drained by holding the boost button and feeds the nitro more slowly but steadily into the injection system, making your car faster over a longer period of time.

Sounds simple, but by a simple trick it became my absolute favourite new feature of Unbound. At least in the moments when I wasn’t fussing about the game’s problems.

Charge and weigh

The genius of the new boost system is twofold:

The two different boost columns charge up through different actions . Blue energy automatically accumulates over time and can be recharged faster by driving in oncoming traffic. For yellow boost, you need to perform more difficult actions such as drifts, slipstreaming, jumps, perfect turns or burnouts.

Lose your yellow boost after a while if you don’t add to its account every few seconds by doing the actions listed above.

As a result, you’ll have to constantly worry about keeping your boost at the limit in the sometimes quite demanding races against the rubber-band-free AI.

Since the yellow boost is most effective, when all three segments are filled, a portion of tactics comes into play: Do I quickly use a mini-nitro or do I wait until all parts of the display are full, always with the risk of losing all boost progress?

Meanwhile, the blue nitro is my always available backup, but even with that I have to think about when I use it. Because that’s how I bridge phases when I don’t have a yellow boost.

(Left: the yellow boost indicator is charging. Right: with full yellow nitro, you can activate a very powerful boost).

The consistency with which Need for Speed Unbound demands that I master this mechanic for the top places already in the second of three difficulty levels has me excited. Even though I read next to nothing about it anywhere after the release.

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