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Stockholm Syndrome

Lakeshore is a city of young street racers who are not understood by society, and the mayor of the city wants to stop them at all costs. You are a talented driver with the potential to become a legend, but your friend has betrayed you and you must start from scratch. Will you be able to rebuild your reputation and beat your rival?
Story
I hoped there would be a better story than in NFS 2016, but there isn't. It's just a very average plot about betrayal, revenge and reunion. I can describe it in a few words: someone is talking about something. I'm disappointed because I expected more. I know it's funny to expect a story from Need for Speed, but you know what I mean. I would like to see more from the AAA game than what they served up. If it was an indie game, I would be fine with it. Maybe I'm not the target audience, but I think EA and Criterion games can do better.
Gameplay
The story is divided into four weeks. During each week, you must accumulate enough money and have the right car to qualify for a big race on the seventh day. Each day is divided into daytime and nighttime. As soon as you leave a garage, you can enter any race that is available to you. You can choose from sprints, circuits, drifts or my favourite, takeovers, where you have to combine drifting, jumping and smashing green objects (fences, cons). After each race, you will receive a heat level. My advice: don't get more than two heat levels during the day, because the next night will be harder for you. To enter a race, you will need a few bucks for the buyout. If you fail, you will lose money, but not all races are risky. In many, you can still win some cash if you finish second, third or even fourth. There are also side bets that can help you win more by betting on a driver you think you will overtake during the race.
So, money is not a problem in the game, but the cops are. They can be very annoying thanks to their stupid respawn and their hunger to catch you. If your heat level is less than one, you are fine, but if it goes up, you have a problem. Cops will chase you even if you park your car close to the road and turn off the engine when they see you. Police pursuits are not instantly aggressive, but the more heat you get, the less time you have to hide, and more and stronger police cars will spawn around you and the path you set in the navigation. So keep an eye on the minimap to avoid trouble. If you are arrested, you will lose any money you have won in day or night races. Cash is banked only when you return to one of your garages. One more tip: if you get annoyed by the cops and want to make a quick getaway, just leave the game in the main menu. Your car will reset to the city and you can continue.
Also, there are only a few races. After ten hours or so, it starts to get repetitive. The map is big, so why don't devs use it to its full potential? But, I like systems of meet-ups where you have to go if you want to start an event. It looks more natural than just a flag in the middle of the road, you can preview your opponents and it has a good street-racing vibe.
Another issue is the handling of the cars. I think it's better than in NFS 2016 or Heat, but it's still strange. You don't feel the true weight of the car, sometimes you get weird cornering or the car starts to drift when you don't want it to and vice versa. You can tune the car to get more grip or to drift, but it is still not good. Of course, I don't expect a handling system from the Forza Horizon series, but come on developers, you can do better.
Audiovisual
Like many other gamers, I was very sceptical about the cartoon/graffiti effects that a car produces instead of real tyre smoke or exhaust flames. After a few hours of playing, I can say that they fit the game perfectly, and you will like them. They give you visual information about how much nitrous you have left, or if you destroy a police car, you will be notified by emoticons popping up above the roof of your car. Tyre smoke also looks good during a drift. You won't believe me, but there's one thing I would like to see in Forza Horizon. There is no annoying flashing effect when you pass a speed camera or zone. Just a popup on the HUD showing how fast you passed the radar. This is a better solution than a big white flash like a flashbang.
Overall, the game's visuals are good but inconsistent. Sometimes you find weird things like bush models and textures from the Playstation 2 era or very simple object physics. The car sounds are well-made and you can adjust the exhaust in the garage: timbre (treble), tone (bass), overrun (pop and banks) and forced induction (turbo or compressor volume). This would be nice in Forza Horizon too.
To my surprise, the game also has a good soundtrack. I heard a lot of people complaining about it, but I think it is well-mixed. There are different artists from 25 countries like Poland, Ukraine, France, Germany and others. I found a few tracks annoying, but overall the soundtrack fits the atmosphere of the game well, and I have added a few songs to my Spotify playlist.
Multiplayer
I also tried the multiplayer and I must say I enjoyed it. PvP is rough, but free roaming is fun. You can fool around with cops or join Linkup, which is like Forzathon in Forza Horizon. In a designated area you have to complete missions such as driving as fast as possible, jumping in circles, drifting, using nitrous, destroying cop cars and so on. If you and other players are successful you can obtain good money if you lose cops. Pursuits are much easier here than in single-player. You can also change part of the day from morning to night, which is nice. Each player can choose what they prefer. One thing that would be nice to add: is the ability to use cars from a multiplayer garage in the story, because cars you buy in multiplayer are not available in single player and you have to buy them again for money that you only earn during the story (or free roam after completing it).
Conclusion
This game is like Stockholm Syndrome. I hate it during the prologue, but later I start to enjoy it. Yes, the story is average, and the handling is still weird, but the car list, models, customisations and sounds are very good. The game also has its style thanks to the graffiti effects and cartoon characters. Despite all the cons, I can still recommend the game to you. I think it is a little better than NFS 2016. I hope that the next Need for Speed will be something more. Rumours say it will be a remake of Most Wanted, so I keep my fingers crossed.
Need for Speed Unbound 7.0/10

🟢 It has style
🟢 Car customization
🟢 Good car list
🟢 Sounds
🔴Average story
🔴 Annoying cops in story

🔴 Still weird handling
🔴 Unused full potential of Lakeshore