Video Game / Need for Speed Unbound

Shittin' me? You ain't got shit on me...

"You say it pays the cost to be the boss, right? Let's show 'em who's in charge."

— A$AP Rocky, Takeover introduction

The one with cartoon aesthetics aplenty.

Need for Speed Unbound (stylised as NFS Unbound) is a 2022 Racing Game developed by Criterion Games (with support from Codemasters) and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. It is the twenty-fifth installment in the Need for Speed video game series, and the first installment since Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012) ten years earlier to have Criterion as the main developer.^note They co-produced Need for Speed Rivals (2013) with Ghost Games.

The game features an art style that merges street art elements like the cel-shaded and graffiti-inspired art style of Nitro with the more realistic art style of other Need for Speed games. The map is based in a fictional city called Lakeshore City, which is based on Chicago. Like previous entries in the series, it features an open world environment and will feature gameplay similar to that of previous entries in the series, being mainly focused on street racing. The game was first revealed by EA on October 6, 2022, and was released on December 2, 2022.

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SOMEBODY SAY, "HEY, WE WANT EXAMPLES" ^note HEY, WE WANT EXAMPLES

Tropes A to M

• Alien Geometries: Vol. 6 adds "Infinity Rims and Plates", which are items with a deep 3D effect, added gratuitous Tron Lines, and both defy the laws of physics and geometry.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The catalytic event of the story has Rydell's Rydes raided and numerous customer cars stolen.
• Always Night: As long as you drive well enough and avoid the cops, you can stay driving at night for as long as you like and the sun will never rise. If you return to Rydell's Rydes or a nearby safehouse, it'll switch to daytime.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Vol. 6's Rewards Pass allows you to unlock "player skins" for multiplayer, where said skin are actually the rival racers. So tha means... you get to be as Justicia, Ross and Younma. Or... upgrade to Premium, and you get to play as Rydell!
• Animesque: Unbound's setting features Cel Shading combined with Japanese-style aesthetics, making the characters look like they came fresh out of an anime, similar to the style used in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
• Another Side, Another Story: Unbound has two game modes: a single-player story mode and Lakeshore Online with both having separate progressions when unlocking cars.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The game features High Heat delivery missions, essentially a No-Damage Run that requires you to deliver a car to a certain destination whilst escaping from the cops without taking any damage. However, if the car gets beaten up, the game also allows you to drive through a gas station for a full repair before reaching the destination, so you can still get the full payout being offered.
  • Instead of just 3 gas station repairs per session, the game now allows for infinite uses with a 4-minute wait before it can be used again.
  • If you do not have enough money to enter a Qualifier, you will repeat the two Friday sessions until you have enough.
  • You can exit to the main menu during a cop chase if you feel like your car is underequipped against your current Heat Level. When you return to the game, you'll respawn in the city center without any penalty.
  • The Vol. 2 update allows you to pin a challenge directly from a locked car, allowing you to keep track of your unlock progress during gameplay before the said locked car becomes available for purchase.
  • The Vol. 3 update gives you the ability to teleport to a Safehouse or a Meetup, something handy if you don't want cops from your rear.
  • A December 2023 update adds car sorting, so if you have a crap-load of cars collected, you can sort by name, price, rarity, etc. so that you won't waste time scrolling through your collection.
  • Downplayed for the Vol. 6 update as you can progress through the Rewards Pass in single player, with some items require purchasing a Premium Speed Pass to obtain it.
• Art-Shifted Sequel: While the characters of previous installments were depicted with either CGI or in live-action cutscenes, the characters of Unbound are rendered in a much more cartoony style akin to the one used in the Spider-Verse trilogy.
• Artistic License – Cars:
  • A minor example. The BMW M3 GTR appears in the game with all the racing components lifted wholesale from Real Life and Most Wanted. The only anomaly is that this race car has two seats.
  • Many of the newly added cars, especially ones from the late 2010s-onwards got the model year wrong.
    • One example is the Lotus Emira, which is marketed as a 2021 model. While it was announced on July of that year, production of the Emira didn't start until a year later.
    • Another is the 2018 Lamborghini Huracán LP 580-2 (and its Spyder variant) from Heat, which appears as the Lamborghini Huracán RWD and it is marketed as a 2015 model, despite production of that car starting a year later. Also when there is a "RWD" on the moniker, it's mostly referred to the facelifed Huracán EVO RWD than the LP 580-2.
• A Taste of Power: The prologue lets the player choose between a 1969 Dodge Charger, a 1988 Lamborghini Countach, and a Nissan S14 Silvia to restore, tune-up and drive for a few races until Yaz drives off with it when Rydell's car collection is stolen.
• Bears Are Bad News: Downplayed. Bear Champs, which are collectibles in a form of a bear with boxing gloves and wearing a crown. Just simply drive over them and it's added to your collectible progress. The Vol. 2 update add Bear Champs as available items for your banner.
• Benevolent Architecture: The smashable billboards around the city are always conveniently surrounded by ramped surfaces.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Alec at first is the lone Big Bad of the story, but later in the story, it reveals Tess showing her true colors that she is tied with Alec. Both are also considered Non-Action Big Bads since neither Alec (being 100% The Ghost) and Tess battle against the player.
• Big Eater:
  • Yaz tried to invoke this in a story where she ordered a "Jumbo Chili Sub with all the trimmings" and kept eating it until she threw up on Rydell.
  • Rydell himself qualifies this trope straight. Just simply mention the word "burger" is enough to get him to crave for a bacon double cheeseburger.
• Bittersweet Ending: The player emerges victorious in the Grand and left Alec penniless for the things he had done for the garage heist. Yaz reconciles with the player and Rydell who accept their share of the blame in having driven Yaz away from them. However Tess, who is the mastermind of the garage heist, gets away scot-free with all the money she won from gambling against other racers, including the player, Rydell's Rydes isn't the garage it used to be back then as some of the cars in his garage that got stolen from earlier are still at large, and the fate of Lakeshore's future remains unknown as the mayoral election is Left Hanging.
• Book Ends: Unbound starts with your Player Character and Yaz arriving at Rydell's Rydes with their starter junker and it ends at the same characters above arriving at a now-diminishing Rydell's Rydes with their junker already souped-up.
• Bowdlerize:
  • Subverted. The official reveal trailer features an original song called "Shittin' Me" by A$AP Rocky. The swearing in both the title and the lyrics is uncensored in the video whereas the official website censors it.
  • Also subverted in the European Spanish dub in regards of Rydell's Arc Words/Character Catchphrase "Don't just say shit, win shit". When he first says so, it's translated as "Menos hablar y mas ganar" ("Less talking and more winning"), but when he repeats it again later to Yaz and the player during a call, they say a more exact translation of the original.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: Remember the "Keys to the Maps" DLC back in Heat? It's back. This DLC was released during March 2023's Vol. 2 update, which uncovers the locations of all collectibles scattered around Lakeshore City.
• Brick Joke: In the prologue, Rydell tries to make a Title Drop of the name of the franchise but can't remember the last word. At the end of the game, when the player is driving to the spot for the final race, he finally does.
  Rydell: Right. And I'm LeBron. Look, I'm not going to tell you not to race. I know what it's like to feel that need for... Uh, that... you know, the need for uh...
  Yaz: For what?
  Player: That's the gasoline talking.
  [later]
  Rydell: Hey Kid, I don't know if I ever told you this, but if you feel that need, you know that need for... umm. Wait, what was it? The Need for... Shit, I always forget this.
  Rydell: Oh!! SPEED. SPEED! THE NEED FOR SPEED!
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Various car models not seen since the "tuner era" of Need for Speed make their return in this game. One of the promotional images for the game includes a Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX which, unless you count the mobile No Limits, had previously only appeared in the Underground games (1, 2, and Underground Rivals).^note Other types of Eclipse went as far as to appear in Undercover and the now-defunct online World.
  • Bugatti as a brand makes its return to the series in Unbound after sitting out from three consecutive games after Rivals,^note aside from the mobile No Limits and Hot Pursuit Remastered, which as its name indicates, is a remastered version of the 2010 Hot Pursuit, with their Chiron making a non-mobile NFS debut.^note Posts made by a UI artist who worked on Heat revealed that the game's Black Market DLC was supposed to have a second drop that would have included the Chiron alongside the 2018 Lamborghini Aventador SV Roadster, but was canceled after Ghost Games lost their rights to develop NFS games.
• Call-Back:
  • Once again, the BMW M3 GTR from Most Wanted makes another comeback. Prior to the Vol 3 update, it is restricted to online only and you must be an EA Play member if you want your hands on this iconic car. One of the High Heat Deliveries lets the player drive the BMW M3 GTR. Yaz says the client is someone calling themselves "The Blacklist", told Yaz that the car is under heavy police attention, and Yaz later finds out the client was just released from jail and the car was the first thing he wanted, the latter implying that it's Clarence "Razor" Callahan, especially with the player saying that they feel like they're "living on the razor's edge" due to the danger of these assignments.
  • Confirmed with the Vol. 4 update, it adds the legacy custom cars over the franchise, such as Eddie's Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 from Underground, Rachel Teller's Nissan 350Z from Underground 2 and Joe's Polestar 1 from Heat. This time, these legendary cars are part of a Premium Downloadable Content and are locked behind a paywall.
  • The Y2 ROADMAP in which they emphasize kaizen ^note A Japanese term that means change for better or continuous improvement. reveals future game modes fore every volume, such as Drift & Drag inspired by Underground, ^note Weirdly enough, the roadmap mentioned that drift events will be back even though the base game already had drift, though it's implied among the criticisms the game got was the drifting mechanics, so maybe they refer to an improvement on that. and a Cops vs. Racers mode inspired by Hot Pursuit.
  • Newly added to Vol. 6 adds this NFS legend, and that would be Darius's Legends-inspired custom R8 Coupé (2019), a modern take on his ride in Carbon.
    • Also in Vol. 6 has a multiplayer PvP pool called "The Need for Speed", which is indeed an inspiration of 1994's The Need for Speed, the franchise's very first game. Even the banner imitates the cover art, featuring the Ferrari Testarossa in it. ^note In the original game, the car used is actually a Ferrari 512 TR, a revised variant of the said Testarossa. One of the race events is even called "Road & Track", a reference to the popular automotive magazine that once collaborated with EA for that game.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Everyone, including the Player Character, tends to talk about social media, self-expression and lots of pop-culture gossip while they are supposed to be focused on illegal street racing.
• Character Customization: Character customization from Heat returns. While you are given 8 presets, your avatar can be altered now with different hairstyles, masks, and clothing, but now you can also individually choose the skin tone, hairstyle, eye and hair color and facial hair (included also for female avatar), as opposed to the previous where you need to select another preset just to change the skin tone. You can now also even change your profile banner and your character's Victory Pose.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: No Audi and Toyota for you, as those two brands are completely absent from the car lineup. For the latter's case, this has been the case after Need for Speed (2015). In Audi's case it was ultimately averted when a Vol. 6 update saw the return of the Audi R8 and S5 Sportback, last seen in Heat, plus a new generation 2020 RS 6 Avant added on the bundle.
• Collection Sidequest: Returning from Payback and Heat has activities like smashing billboards and hitting speed traps, as well as colletibles such as street are and bear champs. Completing certain sidequest to unlock special items.
• Color-Coded Item Tiers: Driving effects, vanity items, banners and winning poses are divided into 4 tiers of rarity levels; green for common, blue for rare, purple for epic and yellow for legendary.
• Color Motif: The game loves the color green. One of Need for Speed's promotional tactics for the game was to change the covers of Hot Pursuit Remastered (2020), Heat (2019), and Payback (2017)—the last three games released prior to Unbound—on Steam, PlayStation (Store and consoles), and Xbox (Games Store and consoles) into grey versions of them except for their main cover car and featured each respective game's logo in white (for Need for Speed/NFS) and green (for the subtitle), the same color scheme as Unbound's logo.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The AI rubberbanding can be rather egregious on Intense difficulty. One example is a race against A$AP Rocky, where he ends up building a 2 kilometer lead on the player who's driving a heavily upgraded Nissan GT-R and finishes a race in 3 minutes and 11 seconds. After a restart, Rocky manages to shave 14 seconds for a race time of 2 minutes and 57 seconds.
• Continuity Nod:
  • As with Heat, the game features a fictional custom aftermarket part brand named "The Alchemist", which people who played Payback will recognize as the nickname of Rav, the mechanic of Tyler Morgan and his crew from that game. It still has its custom aftermarket parts available for use, as well as a handful of new parts as well, plus other fictional custom part brands from Payback, like Chidori and Carbon.
  • The Street Art collectibles from Heat which become decals once collected have carried over to Unbound as regular decals available for use.
  • There's a Codemasters (who provided support of) decal category, featuring designs that were used in ONRUSH and DiRT 5.
• Cool Car: It ain't Need for Speed without cool cars.
  • Among the returning cars from Heat, there are more convertible variants of existing models, (including the Ford Mustang GT Convertible in its 2019 post-facelifted model), A$AP Rocky's Mercedes 190E as seen in the cover, and the Bugatti Chiron Sport, one of the hypercars that can battle with the likes of the Regera and the FXX-K Evo. Amongst the new cars of the 2020s, it adds the Lotus Emira and the Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4,^note the latter which also appeared in No Limits, 4 months before Unbound's release making their debuts in the franchise.
  • For every "Vol. X" major update, it comes with one brand new car added in the lineup.
    • The Vol. 2 update hyped up the addition of a so-called "Ultimate Luxury" car. And that turned out to be "the most luxurious car in the world", the Mercedes Maybach S 680.
    • The Vol. 3 update adds a blast from the past; the DMC DeLorean, complete with Burning Rubber driving effect. Great Scott indeed. As bonus points, you can fit it with a time machine Expy body kit!^note This is not the first time the franchise adds a DeLorean, as this car also appeared in No Limits as part of the Future Past update in December 2020.
    • To celebrate 75 years of Porsche, Vol. 4 adds the 2022 Porsche Taycan Turbo S, the first electric car since the Tesla Roadster from Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012).^note The in-game update description stated that the Taycan is "the first electric vehicle to join the Need for Speed roster. Looks like Criterion Games has forgotten their own game history. Since it is an electric car, the Taycan has a unique upgrade tree, such as battery cooling, power system, motor components and overcharge which replaces induction, fuel system, exhaust and nitrous respectively.
    • While the BMW M2 Competition from Heat is already in the game, Vol. 5 now adds the second-gen BMW M2 (G87), included with boxy body kit designs from Avante Design House.
    • With an Audi-themed update for Vol. 6 marking the brand's return, enjoy the Vorsprung durch technik experience with the return of the S5 Sportback, the 2019 R8 Coupé, and fresh off the boat, the new 2020 Audi RS 6 Avant. Body kits of said Avant allows it to resemble the Group B Sport Quattro rally car.
• Cool Garage: Rydell's Rydes, which also plays significance to the story.
• Cool People Rebel Against Authority: Many rival racers like Cha Cha and Anechka express disdain toward Mayor Morgan Stevenson. The former wishing to steal funds to give an opportunity to his community and the latter graffiting her campaign billboards, labeling the mayor as a "FAKER".
• Cowboy Cop: The LPD is this in spades, as the cops put in some colorful language, act unprofessionally, become impatient and often use aggressive language when pursuing racers. While some cops often call suspects as "perp" (short for "perpetrator"), others will use rather insulting ones like "clown" or "moron".
  Officer: Pull over, asshole!
  Officer: 2240 shook me, dammit!
  Officer: [furious, when you damage their car] MY CAR!!! You assholes!/You dingleberries!
  Dispatch: [angrily] Find this perp at all costs.
• Crapsaccharine World: Downplayed. Lakeshore City appears to be a decent urban city, but underneath is far grittier and more corrupt than Palm City, due to the surge of street racing and having a corrupt mayor who is failing in her job. The Lake is no doubt full of Cowboy Cops who use lots of aggressive tactics and a very colorful mouth to boot.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Well, not death, but rather getting arrested. Getting a huge fine after getting busted? Nah. They still won't impound your car.
• Demoted to Extra: The police, unlike in Payback or Heat plays no significance in the main story, other than to pester you during races. Racer SOS or High Heat Deliveries though feature or mention the LPD, though these are side missions, which are optional for you to take.
• Denser and Wackier: Lots of crazy things are happening in Unbound, mainly in regard of overexagerrated customization options, Cel Shading characters, customizable Victory Poses, over-the-top driving effects and tags, and so on.
• Duel Boss: While there is already a head-to-head in single player, especially that one with A$AP Rocky, Vol. 6 also inclues head-to-head races for multiplayer as well.
• Endless Daytime: You can drive during the day all you want and it will never become nighttime. If you return to Rydell's Rydes or a nearby safehouse, it'll switch to nighttime.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Subverted. Majority of the racers in Lakeshore are of various nationalities from outside the U.S., and all are there just to simply race and express themselves freely. Not to the fact that street racing is obviously illegal.
• Escort Mission: Racer SOS missions consist in helping out one of your rival racers in trouble with the LPD and drive them to a safe house. Completing them unlocks the safe house where you can stop at to bank your money at the end of a session.
• Everything-Is-Smashable Area: Carrying over from Heat, it allows you can smash barriers to lamp posts, even palm trees, telephone poles, and stone walls without taking damage or losing too much speed. Shame you can't do that to pedestrians though.
• Exact Words: When the player shows Tess Rydell's garage, she is admiring a wrench taken from a tool cabinet when Rydell jumps out with a baseball bat and she drops it. When she picks it up, Rydell says "No touching!" and she drops it again instead of putting it back. Subverted in the same cutscene as she then finds the book Rydell bought and holds on to it even after he repeats his no touching rule.
• Excuse Plot: Unbound's premise: The garage you worked and lived in (Rydell's Rydes) gets raided and your friend may or may not be involved, but nonetheless abandons you after [[letting fame go to her head]] in favor of a new, "cooler" crowd Your solution? Go street racing for fame and money and a chance of defeating her. There's also something or other about the corrupt mayor being very moronic in doing her duty, but it does not affect your story and is squarely on the background.
• Experience Booster: The Vol. 4 update adds "Boosted Events" where cash and experience you accumulated from Linkups and Playlists will be "boosted" for a limited time. And no, we're not talking about Boost the Occidental Otaku.
• Fake Difficulty: Unbound's difficulty can be quite broken, whether on Relaxed difficulty, there is Rubber-Band A.I., or whether on Intense difficulty, there is Artificial Stupidity, and vice versa.
• Fisher King: The Vol. 4 update, which is focused on Porsche, has the Kennedy Test Track getting a Porsche makeover with banners and art of the titular manufacturer scattered around the area, reflecting the 75th anniversary of the brand.
• Foreshadowing: During the prologue, Rydell states his displeasure of her keeping secrets from him and cutting corners by having the player drive to meetups at Cyrill Heights are in hindsight clear indicators of her siding with Alec, with the information she gives Alec eventually leading to the Rydell's Rydes heist. Another is when Yaz stated that her wish is to one day host the meetups herself, which she eventually does when hosting The Grand.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • The game's heat stays the same regardless if you buy a new car or switch to a different one. It seems that the LPD has some way to detecting you even if you drive a car that has no criminal record.
  • No matter what, whenever you return to either of the safehouses, you end up in Rydell's Rydes nonetheless.
• The Ghost: Alec, the game's Big Bad alongside Tess who is constantly mentioned and referred to by numerous characters, but he's never seen or heard.
• Halloween Episode: Vol. 5's Trick or Street pack is essentially a video game equivalent, as it comes with a Rewards Pass full of ghost and Calacas decals, a Halloween-themed Mini Cooper Countryman and a Skeleton head mask.
• Hammerspace Police Force: To an even bigger degree than Most Wanted (2005). At Heat Level 5, cops have a very short spawn time and very quickly swarm towards the player — to the point you might sometimes be tracked down by two helicopters at the same time.
• Happy Ending Override: The ending of Heat had the BMW M3 GTR, after it somehow ended in the hands of the main antagonist Lt. Frank Mercer, being taken by the protagonist after Mercer is defeated. However, here the M3 GTR reappears as one of the delivery mission cars, and the dialogue during the mission strongly imples that the person who commisioned the car to be delivered to them is none other than Razor, the antagonist from Most Wanted (2005) himself.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: LPD's Undercover units are black, unmarked Chevrolet Camaro Z28s, akin to Danny Shaw's car in Heat. They're not visible on your map and blend in with the traffic, especially at night, making these units a pain to deal with when not in pursuit. Oh, and look out for spike strips too.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: The game's levels are Relaxed, Challenging, and Intense, representing Easy, Normal, and Hard, respectively.
• Interface Screw: The game's HUD glitches whenever you collide or land from a jump.
• Invulnerable Civilians: For the first time in an NFS game, this game introduces pedestrians, scattered around the urban areas of Lakeshore. They will dodge and run back when you attempt to run them over. They'll also call you out for this.
• Itasha: Anime decals are available to be applied in you car via Wrap editor. One notable example is the Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX wrapped in a kawaii anime design◊, which belongs to Boost, a racer who is in love with anime itself.
• Left Hanging: There are many loose-ends at the end of the storyline... we don't get to see who won the mayoral election after the ending, and Tess gets away scot-free. It is unknown whether the resolution would come in future major updates.
• Level Grinding: Each Qualifier requires at least a certain amount of cash needed for a buy-in and at least a car of a specified class. It maybe a chore to earn enough, due to the fact that some races require buy-ins and having to tackle with LPD's heat for each day. The Grand on the other hand requires 4 cars of a specified class for each and at least $200k for the buy-in.
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to Heat, the cops here doesn't resort to imprisonment, brutal (though offscreen) beatdowns, and near-murder when dealing with racers. In fact the "city officials" side of characters here are shown as comical caricatures of American politics.
• Lightning Bruiser: At Heat Level 5, be on a lookout for Heavy units joining the pursuit. They appear as modified Ford F-150 Raptors and you expect them to be slow and easy to outrun due their size, but they turn out to be absurdly fast and capable of driving off road easily. Simply put, they're Unbound's equivalent of the Supercharged Rhino SUVs from Most Wanted.
• Lightning Glare: The end of the third week of the qualifier shows a cutscene with you and Yaz tensely glare at each other, complete with lightning effects arcing back and forth between their eyes, indicating how much friction between the two had developed over the course following the garage raid.
• Local Hangout: Meetups are hangout spots from where multiple events are raced at. Simply put, they're like the race days from ProStreet but in illicit street racing form.
• Logo Joke:
  • Shortly before the reveal of Need for Speed Unbound, EA changed the app artwork of Need for Speed Payback, Need for Speed Heat, and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered^note except for the Switch version of that one so that their logos had the same white/green color scheme as Unbound's logo and made the rest of their artwork greyscale except for their main cover cars.
  • In the game's start screen, various Electronic Arts, Criterion Games, and Frostbite logos glitch in and out with street art à la Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, with blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearances of past logos of all three. Plus, the Need for Speed speedometer 'N' logo used from Undercover to No Limits appears at the beginning and end of the start screen's video of a bumper cam drive through downtown Lakeshore.
• Lured into a Trap: The prologue has Alec contacting Yaz and the player about a Nissan Z Prototype that needs to be delivered. While Yaz accepts the offer and the player picks it up, it turns out it was a scam when this job lured the player away from the garage, left Yaz in possession of the player's car, and allowed the catalytic heist to occur.
• Made of Plasticine: The cop cars in Unbound are far more fragile than Heat, where even a slightest brush would cause their car to get destroyed. It's possible for even a supercar to easily takedown an AWD or a Heavy head-on and not receive any damage from your car.
• Marathon Level: Basically any Endurance event falls under this trope. It's basically a simple street race on an excessively long distanced route.
• Mayor Pain: The game features radio ads and podcasts showing how Mayor Morgan Stevenson is a disgraceful asshole to Lakeshore, ranging from Nepotism to showing callousness regarding the safety of the Lake's citizens, to even firing her own campaign team and hiring a new one that can only come up with asinine ads that don't work.
• Mission-Pack Sequel: Not so much the game itself, but the car lineup. Basically, about all of the cars from Heat, including almost all of the bonus cars, except Audi, are carried over in the base release of Unbound with just a few added cars (and Audi would eventually be added in an update).
• The Mountains of Illinois: Lakeshore City is a very obvious Expy of Chicago, except that it happens to reside besides mountainous and hillside roads, instead of the flat plain Chicago actually sits on.

Tropes N to Z

• Nerf: Remember the Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 2.8, a notorious Game-Breaker from the previous three games? Here, it's given substantially slower acceleration, weaker top speed, and sluggish steering angle. Plus, attempting to compete with more powerful cars like the Koenigsegg Regera and Bugatti Chiron in the S+ Class will result in the RSR getting curbstomped by the latter two.^note Originally (as in, up until Heat), the RSR was able to reach 240 MPH when maxed out. In Unbound, its top speed got capped to around 225 MPH (while the Regera and Chiron can reach 245, the game's top speed limit).
• Nice Day, Deadly Night:
  • Unbound's plays a downplayed version of Heat, as the format goes more into a "more rewards for higher risk" premise. Nighttime races net you bigger payouts but may attract higher heat from the LPD, despite that there are no heat mulipliers. Heat accumulated from the day session is carried over into the night session. After your night session, your heat level resets back to 0 on the next day.
  • This also carries over to there being two different delivery missions depending on the time of day. Low Heat Delivery missions that are offered by Rydell only occur during daytime where there the purpose is to deliver the customer's car to its destination within a given time. High Heat Delivery missions provided by Tess (and later by Yaz) occur only at night and this is where the aggressive cops attempt to stop you whilst delivering the car to its place without denting it.
• Nitro Boost: This time, it works in a slightly different way. While there is normal nitrous (indicated in blue) which is filled up over time or by using a gas station, there are also three bars of Burst Nitrous (indicated in yellow) that are filled up by doing stunts like near misses, drifts, and jumps, and can be used in conjunction with the normal boost to reach even higher speeds or to have a quick burst of acceleration out of a corner.
• No-Damage Run: High Heat delivery missions require you to deliver the car to its destination whilst escaping from the cops without taking any damage. However, if the car gets beaten up, you can just simply drive to a gas station for a full repair before reaching the destination to get the full payout being offered. Since these have no time limits, you can take your time to drive carefully to its destination whilst being cautious for cops around the area.
• No Party Given: Neither the incumbent mayor of Lakeshore nor the candidate challenging her are assigned a named political party, though both of their platform combine aspects from both sides of the American political spectrum.
• Noodle Incident: When a live podcast that focuses on the political landscape of Lakeshore is interrupted by the host's mother, the player compares it to being as awkward as the time Rydell served his brisket at a vegan food festival.
• Old Save Bonus: For those who have played Need for Speed Heat, as bonus, you get rewarded the custom McLaren F1, complete with its special Black Market body kit.
• Only One Name: Majority of the characters and racers are only known by their given names. Averted for the two politicians, Mayor Morgan Stevenson (and if you also count the podcaster, Aaliyah Michelle Stevenson, who is actually the mayor's daughter) and Holden Parker III as they are the only 2 two to have a surname.
• Optional Traffic Laws: As long as you don't hit any cops and within no heat, the LPD will ignore you even if you speed, drive the oncoming lane or hit traffic.
• Palette Swap: The convertible and track-only variants of the base models (e.g. the roadster version of the BMW i8 or the Performante version of the Lamborghini Hurácan) return from Heat (including its Downloadable Content). The lineup (including the custom, Palace Edition and major updates) now has six different Lamborghini Aventadors and six different AMG GTs.
• The Philosopher: Majority of the Lake's racers use street racing as means of "self-expression".
• Pimped-Out Car:
  • The game's cover features a Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution (which in the game appears to belong to A$AP Rocky), which if not for the fact that it's not what you'd exactly call cheap, would basically count as a Rice Burner, as its customization includes a huge spoiler, being painted half-black and half-white, a gilded grille, taped headlights, and having its rear bumper completely removed.
  • The car customization itself goes insanely further. If you thought vanity items like flashy car neons or rainbow tire smoke ain't enough, here, the game introduces "Driving Effects", a new customization feature that allows players to express or represent themselves with Tags floating above the car's roof, and street art-inspired effects such as cartoon tire smoke and artistic wings when you're airborne, in a similar vein as The Crew 2. Prior to the Vol. 2 update, effects were applied to all of your cars and applied by default until the said update gives you the ability to apply effects to each individual car, allowing you to pick a unique style for each of the cars you own.
    • With the December 2023 update, you can choose the "Original" Driving Effect, which means realistic smoke without the Animesque street art coming out of your drift, which would subvert this trope. Vol 6. also adds realistic colorful tire smoke obtained via Rewards Pass, something the previous two games already did. Realistic or stylistic? All up to you.
  • "The World Is Your Canvas" Gameplay Trailer features an absurdly souped-up S14 Silvia, with the "Driving Effects" as mentioned above, complete with a huge spoiler and appendage, a roll cage visible and its roof completely chopped off. This car is later to be revealed as one of the 3 main starter cars for the player.
  • The "Pull Up, Ride Out" deep dive on customization shows more of the available customization options, with one of the standouts being a Bōsōzoku style bodykit for the Nissan 240ZG. It is driven by Waru, an Australian-Japanese driver and one of the AI-controlled rivals. The Vol. 2 update makes this car Promoted to Playable, however it's restricted to EA Play members.
  • The Porsche Cayman GT4 and the 718 Boxster Spyder have a crazy body kit that resembles the 991.2 911 GT3 RS, headlights included. Both also have a rear fender option that resembles the extended tail on the 2019 Porsche 935.
  • Colored window tints make a return since Shift 2: Unleashed, but it doesn't stop there: Now you can even color your headlights.
  • Apart from customizing the exhaust sound, you can now adjust the sound and volume of your forced induction.
  • Subverted for pre-tuned and specialty vehicles which have no body kits, and you can only change the license plate, wheels, colors, wraps, stance and driving effects. Cars like the McLaren P1 GTR, the Lamborghini Huracán Performante, the Ferrari 488 Pista and even the new Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4 get this treatment.
  • Vol. 3 adds a glyph-patterned glow-in-the-dark Legendary Customs Dodge SRT Viper with a color-shifted turbofan front wheels and its turbocharge sticking out of the exhaust◊. Alongside the said Viper adds... a ridiculously modified Mazda RX-7 with a Gundam-style body kit... and a Legendary Customs Ford Mustang with animated taillights and a body kit akin to the Aston Martin Victor. And a disco-style Volkswagen Golf GTI, too. Finally, for those with EA Play subscription... behold, the Custom Nissan R32 Skyline with a GT-R LM style body kit◊. The Pimped out part? Half of the bonnet is cut off, revealing its exposed engine.
  • The Legendary Customs Lotus Exige◊ in the Vol. 4 update gets a monstrous treatment. Literally. Also the Hip Hop Origin Swag Pack Mercedes-AMG G 63◊ gets not just a widebody, but also windshield stickers that completely obstruct the driver's vision. And it doesn't stop there. The Legendary Custom Porsche 993 Carrera in the Vol. 4 update gets also the 935 treatment too, complete with graffiti text of the names of the cities of past NFS games.
  • Vol. 5 adds a Legendary Customs Mini Cooper Countryman JCW, with a body kit and spoiler reminiscent of a Pikes Peak Hillclimber◊ and a pimped out Volkswagen Beetle. Other custom cars adds the Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, the Mercedes-AMG C63 Coupe and the BMW i8◊, all in its custom body kits that were actually K.S. Edition kits from the Deluxe Edition from Heat. Also, EA Play players get a custom purple Mercury Cougar. Last, reach level 50 in the Rewards Pass and you get a Drag-spec Buick GNX, complete with braking parachute and exhausts on the bonnet.
  • Introduced in Vol. 6 is the "Michèle" - Custom RS 6 Avant◊, with its body kit and livery design inspired by the Group B Audi Quattro S1 E2 that was driven by Michèle Mouton (hence the name) when she competed in the 1985 World Rally Championship. Other Audis added in the bundle has the Nextech Tourenwagen S5 and a 2019 Audi R8 Coupé, complete with a wrap to resemble Darius's car.
• Play Every Day:
  • In-Universe, and through an in-game calendar set in a span of 4 weeks. The Grand is the ultimate challenge Lakeshore has to offer, with $1,000,000 as the grand prize. To do so, you must participate in a Qualifier event every first 3 Saturdays of the month in-game before being able to be invited to The Grand which is held on the fourth week, in which Yaz holds keys to your souped-up junker used in the prologue.
  • This trope would play straight with Rewards Pass for Vol. 3 and onwards (see below).
• Playing Both Sides: Tess of all openly brags about it. She usually reminds the player that she bets both on them and against them to always get a bit of cash in return from the betting. This also helps her get away largely scot-free after her plans with Alec are thwarted.
• Product Placement: Like with Heat, players can customize their characters with licensed clothing from brands like Puma, Versace, Napapijri, Namilia, Vans and Palace Skateboards. The latter most does a special collaborative with this game for the deluxe release.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: The upgrade system (alongside its engine swaps) make a comeback from Heat. With the right upgrades, your car's level will be displayed as S+/400+. The Koenigsegg Regera and the Bugatti Chiron are the only cars at stock performance to have an S+ tier and a 400+ rating.
• Resurrect the Wreck: A soon as you start the game, after you finished creating your character, the game then asks you to choose a beaten-up car to restore. Once selected, the opening cutscene will show your selected car fully refurbished.
• Rewards Pass: The Vol. 3 Update adds the so-called "Speed Pass" where you get free driving effects, underglows, clothes, winning poses, etc., etc. All you gotta do is complete daily and weekly challenges between the certain time period. New Speed Passes were added for the major "Vol. X" updates. Missing out either of those and you'd rather catch up by purchasing the previous passes.
• Rice Burner:
  • Big Country Labs, spoilers that are ridiculously taller than the roof, make a comeback here. And here adds more KS edition body kits from hidden cars from Heat. Take that Lamborghini Aventador for example.
  • Some of the Legendary Customs body kits would have different spoilers in such ridiculous forms.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: The game uses Cel Shading Animesque characters akin to those in Nitro or even the Lindbergh Era of Initial D Arcade Stage, combined with realistic environments.
• Scunthorpe Problem: The license plate name generator when customizing cars censors usage of swear words and insults, works which also includes hidden swear words inside of harmless ones. Even phrases and names from third-party works such as "Toretto" or "Takumi" would be considered "profanity" though it's justified as means of copyright prevention.
• Shout-Out: Unbound sure has lots of references to boot.
  • This is what you get from a Criterion-developed game. Expect some Burnout references.
    • If you crashed your car but landed on all four wheels attached and they are still functioning, you'll be given a message saying "Driveaway".
    • In the garage menu, you can clearly see a neon sign reading "Burnout" with a neon tube forming an image of the Carson Annihilator, one of the many lookalikes to real-life cars ^note in this case, a combination of the 1971 Plymouth Road Runner (front and midsection) and 1971 Dodge Charger (rear) used in Burnout Paradise. ^note This is actually the same neon sign used in Criterion's Real Life office
    • If you head out to Yams Park, you'll be seeing an abandoned car lying out in the open, complete with a Paradise City license plate.
    • If you change your profile picture, one of the profile images features a car, which is clearly a screenshot of the Carson 500 GT in the car select menu.
  • The HUD resembles the one from GRID more than any other Need for Speed games, with heavy use of Eurostile font. ^note This is not the first time NFS uses Eurostile, however, as said font was previously used in Most Wanted, the PSP version of ProStreet and Hot Pursuit (2010). Appropiately enough, GRID's developer Codemasters assisted Criterion in development of this game.
  • High Heat Deliveries can have a reference of its own:
    • The Ferrari Testarossa delivery his aptly titled "Outrunner". Besides this mission, the gas stations' brand in the game is named "OutRun", like in Heat.
    • The Crown Victoria mission has this in courtesy of being proud of the location has one called "Save Ferris".
    • In the "Eastbound and Down" event, where you deliver a classic 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, once you finished it, Tess will claim that the delivery was a PR campaign for "a reboot of an old movie about some wise-cracking mustachioed driver on the run from the law". In "Rebooted", where you deliver the same Firebird after it's revealed that in the first mission it was actually stolen, Yaz states that the reboot didn't happen.
    • The Subaru Impreza High heat delivery has the aptly called "Ready Player Two", with the iconic blue and yellow design Expy as the Subaru WRT that was driven by Petter Solberg, complete with a WRC 2006 body kit.
  • One of the delivery missions has you driving a gold Range Rover with a black top. This is identical to the Range Rover◊ shown in the teaser trailer for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, which wasn't even released yet at the time of Unbound's release.
  • One race is named "The Boomdocks".
  • In regards of Driving Effects:
    • One of the driving effects named Akina's Ghost.
    • Another driving effect, which has a blue and yellow color scheme, is named "Heróyam Sláva", a variation of "Slava Ukraini", hence the effect's colors.
  • Boost, who's established to be an Occidental Otaku, tells the player that he watched an anime (which goes unnamed) about two street racers who drove around the mountains of Japan until one of them betrayed the other. This is pretty much the synopsis of Initial D aside of being an apt description of the plot of this very game (except for the Japan setting). Even Boost will Title Drop this when you rear-ended him!
    Boost: Initial D would not like that!
  • The first radio campaign you hear about Mayor Morgan Stevenson is relating to "making Lakeshore great again".
  • Two of the sub-regions in Lakeshore are called Yams Park and Lake Virgil, references after the late A$AP Yams — the founder of A$AP Mob of which A$AP Rocky comes from — and Virgil Abloh.
  • During the prologue, when you catch air during a race, Yaz proclaims that "We got more air than Jordan". Guess she learned much from Nike.
    • Also during the prologue, there is a Mazda MX-5 (NA) parked in Rydell's Rydes, wrapped in an orange and green pattern akin to the Mazda 787B that won the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans. This is not the first time the franchise has done this, as there is a crew in Carbon named Rotor-4 that drive Mazda rotary cars wrapped in the same orange and green pattern.
  • Rydell mentioned about watching a Real Life Vine meme. "Road work ahead, I sure hope it does!"
  • Whenever a Heavy unit arrives, they exclaime that they'll be "here to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And we're all outta bubblegum." which is a reference to either They Live! or Duke Nukem.
  • Tess mentioning when she need to know more about the crew Yaz hangs with, she says she is "gonna go all Mystery Machine out there".
  • The Vol. 3 adding the DMC DeLorean is a clear reference to Back to the Future. Bonus points if you drive exactly 88 mph for 3 seconds and the DeLorean will leave a trail of Burning Rubber.
  • Vol. 4 has several:
    • The Porsche focus on the DLC goes through the history of the brand. The colorfully graffitied Taycan is based on the Porsche Taycan's "Dream in Colour" livery◊, while the Legendary Custom Porsche 911 Carrera S (993) is based on the iconic pig pink livery of the Porsche 917/20◊ (which was already referenced in The Run as a livery◊). And regarding the brand's history with Need for Speed specifically, there's the race playlist named Porsche Unleashed, which is an obvious one to an older entry in the series.
    • One of the victory poses in the Vol. 4 Rewards Pass (upon reaching Level 28) has the Player Character doing the "Night, Night" pose, the signature celebration toast of the Golden State Warriors player, Stephen Curry.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Remember back in Heat when hard profanity was used, mainly by cops who say "shit" or "assholes"? You can expect more of it in this game, as the majority of the characters will drop colorful language all the time, and one of the events is even named "This Shit is Tight". Even the music in the game has its swearing largely uncensored, in contrast to Black Box-era games' famous bowdlerised edits. More vulgar words like "fuck" still remain unused, though.
• Socialization Bonus: Vol. 3 adds Linkups for Lakeshore Online, where you work together with other players in completing stunts and other activities for rewards. Take it as Freeburn Challenges or Horizon Arcade with cops.
  Player: Always happy to help out another racer.
• Special Guest: Unbound features American rapper A$AP Rocky, in which he has his own spotlight in the game.
• Starter Mon:
  • As soon as you finish creating your Player Character, the game then asks you to pick a junker to restore, which will serve as your starter car for the game's story proper. The choice of cars are either a 1969 Dodge Charger, a Nissan Silvia S14, or a Lamborghini Countach.
  • After losing the aformentioned junker, starting with the Sunday of the first week, you're forced to buy new starter car.
  • Its online counterpart instead offers you 3 different starter cars: A Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport, a Mercedes AMG G 63 Wagon or an R32 Nissan Skyline. Unlike the main story, you get to keep your starting car.
• Subverted Catchphrase: More like Subverted Title Drop. In the prologue, Rydell mentions to know what it's like to feel "the need for...", inplying that he's about to pronounce the name of the franchise, but can't remember the last word. As a Brick Joke, at the end of the game, he tries it again and he finally remembers.
• Suddenly Voiced: While Heat has the first Blank Slate Player Character to speak, Unbound takes this trope to new heights by now having each of the regular opponents having a voice and personality mid-race, the first time since the Outrun opponents from Underground 2.
• Take That!: In the cutscene for the final race, the player's character takes a jab at The Fast and the Furious.
  Player: I dunno. Put a crew together, save the world, race home, pop a cold one, talk about "family", eat barbecue, do the same thing only different, like 8, 9 times?
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: The racers of Lakeshore City. While some racers like Rüdiger, Cha Cha and Anechka are reasonable, not all of them would fit the mold. Thanks to Product Placement for clothes, many of them like Harlow, Eléonore, Chase, Medusa and Lyric are more like fashion models for a Vogue magazine than street racers. Justicia is more of a social media influencer encoraging in her "Insta" to do something illegal, and Boost is nothing but an Occidental Otaku who just loves to gossip about anime.
• Through His Stomach: Yaz thinks Rydell is attempting this as an apology for a disagreement as she points out that he didn't call her to ask if she was interested in having some of his barbecue brisket.
  Yaz: Then why didn't he call me? I put in the work, now dude thinks he can win me over with brisket? Nah, bruh.
• Time Skip: The game jumps forward two years after Rydell's Rydes was raided in the prologue. Ironically, the rivals' age remain the same.
• Title Drop: Rydell tries to make one but it becomes a Brick Joke.
• Unwitting Pawn: The Player Character entrusts Tess to help bankroll Rydell's Rydes, only to discover that she was only using them to finance her gambling ring by betting for and against the player for money.
• Vanity License Plate: As with past NFS games (particularly the Ghost Games entries), you can change the license plate text, frame, and backgrounds, which includes the background designs used since Need for Speed Rivals. However, for the first time ever, you can now use real designs from across the United States,^note although California's design (which has two variants in this game) appeared in the 2015 reboot, since that game's setting, the fictional Ventura Bay, was stated to be located in that state, including American Samoa, as well as a couple of Japanese plates (including one with a diagonal red line across the plate that indicates an unregistered car with a temporary registration, which has a history with JDM culture).
• Victory Pose: Unbound exhibits this trope a lot, as the game lets you choose a victory emote for your Player Character when winning an event. Poses like a V-Sign, Knuckle Cracking, Talk to the Hand, Pec Flex, or a Zombie Gait in the Vol. 2 update.
• Villain Has a Point: Despite the police being an antagonistic presence both in-game and in-narrative, some LPD officers at least justify their actions under the pretense of wanting to uphold public safety. They will occasionally call the player character out on their erratic driving over their PA systems while in pursuit, as well as among themselves on their scanners.
  Officer: I swear they're crashing into people on purpose!
  Officer: You are putting people's lives at risk! Pull over, NOW!
  Officer: Stop, you're gonna kill someone!
• Visibility Meter: The police now has a spotting meter that fills up when exposed to the cops' visual range. If the meter is full, then you're engaged in a pursuit. An auxiliary item makes cops spotting you even harder.
• Wacky Racing: Lakeshore's street-racing scene features eccentric opponents (even for this series' standards) and outrageous locations, all mixed with wacky art styles and driving effects. All for the sake of Rule of Cool.
• Wide-Open Sandbox: Following Heat, it's the second time in the NFS series that the game's open world allows players to drive off-road anywhere in the Lakeshore City countryside.
• You Break It, You Profit: Added in Vol. 3, you now have the ability to earn money for wrecking cops.
• You Have Researched Breathing: For some reason, you need to pay to be able to remove certain parts of your car such as the front and rear bumpers. Inverted with bonus cars that you can unlock for completing certain races that lack specific parts that come as default, as you can install those for free.
• Younger and Hipper: The game mostly features Generation Z characters (or zoomers), with some of them being as young as 19. This was possibly an attempt to capture a young generation who are new to NFS games.

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"The Lake better watch out."

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