It has been a red-hot minute since a Need For Speed game captured the attention of racing fans. Not since the glory days of Underground, Underground 2, and Most Wanted has one of EA’s racers really excelled. Most recently, Need For Speed Heat found itself on my PS5, courtesy of PlayStation Plus, and it certainly didn’t knock anyone’s socks off. Now comes along Need For Speed Unbound, a hyper-stylised, narrative-focused entry in the long-running series, and once again, my faith in the series (but not humanity, not yet) is restored. Despite a few, and I mean just a few, small glitches here and there, Need for Speed Unbound is a super stylish, polished, and downright fun racer that I greatly enjoyed my time with.

From the outset you are greeted with neon clouds of spray paint, comic book graffiti art with thundering Drum n Bass beats, and a highspeed flashy introduction that sets the scene of Need For Speed Unbound. The campaign kicks off with a surprisingly in-depth character creator, followed by a fairly meaty prologue that introduces the game’s key characters, and lays the foundation for the drama-filled campaign’s story. Unbound tells a dramatic story of loyalty, betrayal, revenge, and… well… family. Is it cliché? Yes. Did it hold my attention? Also yes.

Racing, drifting, and tearing up the blacktop in Need For Speed Unbound is an absolute delight. I don’t think a Need For Speed game has felt this good since the Most Wanted reboot in 2012, and this game absolutely shines on the PS5’s under-the-hood hardware. Everything is fluid and responsive, giving the player a true sense of control over the various muscle cars, sporty jaw-droppers, and beastly trucks you can utilise in the game.

During these events, the game really tests you; unofficial skill checks are peppered throughout the Persona-style daily calendar routine, testing your mettle against the other racers of Lakeshore. Other event types include Endurance, Speed Races, Corner King, and the classic Drift, among others.

The game’s sense of progression is very well crafted, with early-game races feeling like you are barely clawing your way to victory. Indeed, I was humbled repeatedly in the game’s opening hours, coming in last more than once and, with Need For Speed Unbound limiting restarts to only a few per day, forced to accept my failures.

As you upgrade your rides and begin to master the courses scattered across Lakeshore, you truly get the sense that you are making real progress and progressively conquering the open world that Need For Speed Unbound provides.

Each day is broken into a morning session and evening session, and you’ll have to complete events while navigating a risk vs reward equation; do I risk $20,000 in the bag and level 5 Heat to compete in one more event? Getting busted could lose it all – all your daily earnings are confiscated by the Lakeshore PD if caught, yet the allure of a ‘Big Money’ event often feels worth the extra Heat.

The game runs super smoothly at a steady 60fps on PS5, and everything is presented in crispy 4K greatness. Need For Speed Unbound positively shone on my TV, and I imagine would dazzle on higher end OLED screens as well. Each car looks sexy and stylish, from the early game junkers to the late game headturners, and the series’ staple ability to customise each to your own personal taste is always a treat.

There are very few negatives to speak of that I encountered in Need For Speed Unbound. As mentioned before, the plot presents as fairly cliché and leans a little too heavily into “the youth of today” speak, but overall I was unfazed by it. Several small bugs reared their heads at times – cop cars totaling themselves out of nowhere, in-game achievement notifications becoming frozen onscreen for minutes at a time, and at one time a car I had selected to use in a race vanishing from my garage temporarily. However, when taking into consideration just how well the game is presented, how good it feels to play, and how many activities there are across the large open world, it is a small price to pay for what may just be the best Need For Speed game in a generation.