If you have never played any of the Need for Speed games, you missed out on a whole part of a gaming culture! The famous intro from Lil Jon in The Need for Speed: Underground is iconic, and the worldwide phase of car mods, drifts, and the popularity of those games largely inspired street racing. It was a wonderful time for all the car fanatics. You had the best Fast and Furious movies released, the Underground and Most Wanted games, and it seemed like it was meant to be like that forever.

Unfortunately, the series did not have much success after that. The not-so-great Carbon and a weird “pro” approach to street racing in the next game made the series not as popular as it was at the peak of its popularity. The games lacked the X factor that made that previous title great.

Well, it seems like the luck has turned for the series, as a few of the latest titles in the series – NFS Heat  and NFS Unbound are going back to the basics and gaining popularity among fans and critics alike. And if you subscribe to our newsletter – you can get them 20% off! In this article, we will choose the best NFS game on the market, and we’ll finally answer the question – which is the ultimate title? Let’s dive in!

Starting with the obvious one – gameplay. As you may have guessed – it will be a dive deep into what goes on in those games because, on the surface, those are both racing games with car modifications in them. What can you think of additionally? Well, as it turns out, quite a lot! Each game has something interesting to explore, and there are ways that the developers.

NFS Heat

Starting with Need for Speed: Heat – it’s a masterpiece when it comes to callbacks to the previous games. It takes place in the popular these days Palm City (aka Vice City, aka Miami, aka…you get it), where the sun always shines as bright as the detailing on your car.

It’s an open world, so you can either drive around the place and look at the beautiful sights or get into the races. There is no day/night cycle here like in NFS Payback, but you can switch between day and night races if you please. There are official races during the day and street ones during the night. Of course – with a little bit of police activity there as well. With every pursuit, you get rep points that you can advance your career with by getting new cars and racing in with even harder enemies.

It’s one of those games that will make you reminisce about the good old NFS times. It has everything you’d ever want – car modifications, new and improved stylizing options, and this fun arcade racing mode, where you can go over the sign, blocked street, or whatever, and it will not bump your speed down that much. It’s a game to have fun, not to stress over the clutch.

NFS Unbound

When it comes to Need for Speed: Unbound, it’s definitely a similar title in what it presents, but it does some things differently. It has more of a GTA: San Andreas approach, with all the graffiti coming out of your car and the art style that is quite unique for the series.

Here, we are going to be racing in Lakeshore City, AKA Chicago, which may be fun to look at but is definitely not Miami; we have to give this one to the Heat. It also has an open world to race in that is pretty much the same as what we have seen in the Heat games.

Moreover, we have the car mods here as well. You can request a race with other players, disable the traction in your car to have even better drifts, and just be the user agent who has a lot of fun with the title. In our opinion, it’s one of the best games on the market when it comes to arcade driving, as the racing architecture is just astonishing. You will be running home to play this game for sure!

Verdict

Although we have to agree that the Unbound version of reality does everything more and better like every sequel does, we just can’t shake the feeling that we had more fun with Need for Speed Heat. We understand that Unbound has more to offer and a new artistic style that can be considered interesting, but it’s just that Heat has something unique in what they try to accomplish. We just have to give this one to Heat for sure!

The second round is all about the plot! As it’s a single-player game at the core, the plot is what drives the title for many players. Of course, we are not even close to saying it’s some Oscar-worthy screenplay, but it’s good to have something to follow when playing the game. So, let’s see how both of our contenders are doing in that regard.

NFS Heat

Starting with NFS: Heat, we have to go back to the basics regarding the story. You can choose between male or female protagonists who just came to Palm City in order to participate in the SpeedHunters Showdown. And, as you prove yourself in the racing, you are getting a new car from Lucas Rivera, a local mechanic who helps you to enter the Showdown races alongside his younger sister Ana Rivera. She introduces you to the League, where you can gain points to get to even higher ranks and become the number one driver in Palm City.

The main antagonists of the game are Lt. Frank Mercer and his crew, who create a Task Force to stop the illegal street racing that is happening all over the city. You will go through ups and downs with your friends, but the main goal is to stop the corruption among the police who are extorting money from the racers (and more – no spoilers apart from those on your car) and get to the number one spot in The League. The story is engaging enough to join in, but it’s nothing that spectacular. Although it feels and looks good enough, and there are similarities between this and the famous Most Wanted game, this is just not the same. It’s good, but no one will reminisce over it. Nevertheless – it’s fun, and you should definitely give it a try!

NFS Unbound

With Unbound, it’s pretty similar, as you can also choose between male and female protagonists. You and your friend decide to restore your car to its older glory in the mechanic shop owned by Rydell, who becomes your mentor in the process. You then use it for street racing, as you were always for some good old customization of your car and – showing it off on the streets.

After a disagreement between your partner and your mentor about being tired of doing the same thing all the time, she decides to do something new and interesting. Upon receiving a job offer from a friend within the foster system, she agrees to deliver a fleet of cars to various locations. And so, she embarks on this new adventure.

After clinching victory in several races, you attempt to reach out to her and Rydell, but they're not picking up their phones. Meanwhile, an alarm blares from Rydell's Rydes, prompting you to rush back to the scene, only to find it raided, with all the cars Ryder was tinkering with now missing.

Yaz, your partner, denies having to do anything to do with it after being accused of stealing. Two years after the incident, Yaz shows up suddenly only to announce The Grand, a huge street race that will happen in the city. As it turns out, she is now working with a crew of car stealers who showed up in the city to restore illegal racing in Lakeshore! Your task – to initiate some vengeance upon her and become the number one racer in the city!

Verdict

When it comes to the story, both games have something to say for sure. In Heat, we have the famous corrupt cops who are not allowing us to have fun. Unbound is a much more personal story about betrayal and everything. In our opinion, we can appreciate both of them similarly, as there is not something extremely unique about either of them. For sure, the Heat may feel like more of a call-back to the basics of the series, but fighting with cops is not something we would consider incredibly creative on its own merits. So, we feel like it’s a draw in that regard.

Next, we have the car selection for each game, and let us tell you – this can make or break any title. If you don’t allow players to have fun with some of the most interesting vehicles on the market, they will simply go to the competition. With what Forza Horizon managed to do, it’s only understandable that it’s important for Need for Speed to also present something unique in that regard. So, let’s go over the cars that are available in each game!

NFS Heat

When it comes to Need for Speed: Heat, you have a wide selection of cars to choose from. There are classic cars on this list like Volkswagen Golf GTI 1976 Hot Hatch, incredible supercars like Pagani Huayra BC 2017 Hypercar or McLaren 570S 2015 Supercar, but also some classics from the previous titles like Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X 2008 Rally, Mazda MX5 1996 Open-top (great for drifting), or Lamborghini Murciélago SV 2010 Supercar. The selection is pretty grand, and you can check out all of the cars that are available in the game on the official  list provided by EA. We feel like everyone will find something for themselves here, so there definitely room for fun!

NFS Unbound

On the other hand, we have the list from NFS Unbound, and let us tell you – it’s a long one. You have most of the cars from the above, but also some fresh BMW M2 (2022) and Buick Grand National GNX (1987) from the Volume 5 edition. Volume 4 brought us the Porsche Taycan Turbo S (2022) and the Porsche 911 Legendary Custom. Apart from classic racing cars, you can also choose the Mercedes-Maybach S 680 (2021) and DMC Delorean (1981). The list of cars in this game is incredible, and we advise you to study it to find something for yourself here!

Verdict

We cannot shake the feeling that both titles deliver on the car front, but we feel like the Unbound game is a little bit better in that regard. Although both games have provided us with some astonishing cars, the appearance of Mercedes Maybach or the famous DeLorian cannot be understated. Point of Unbound.

And finally, we have the graphics department. Let’s find out which game is better to look at!

NFS Heat

Heat is astonishing when it comes to car design and how well put together a game it is as a whole. Night racing and day racing look equally good, and the details on every car are almost photorealistic.

NFS Unbound

On the flip side, we have the Unbound series that decided to do things a little bit differently. The developers decided to add some comics-based effects to cars and the whole UI to make the game feel more street-like and unique. And, in our opinion – it looks great. Definitely adds to the whole experience and makes it feel like they are actually doing something new and interesting!

Verdict

We just have to give this one to Unbound. The game looks different than anything you may have seen on the market, and we are all for it! It is one of the more interesting concepts regarding graphics design in recent years, and we are definitely pro-experimentations.

And here we have it; it seems that Unbound came out on top, and we are all giddy about it! Of course, both are playable titles, but the uniqueness of Unbound made it so we just have to acknowledge the work of developers. This is one of the most fun with the Need for Speed title we had in a long time (at least since Heat), so you can understand why we are so excited about this game!

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