OG MW is still peak. The way the game comes together is better than the sum of its parts.
BUT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT Unbound.
I played though half of Heat around two years ago. And Ill say it suprised me how nice the driving and the world looked gorgeous, but I didn't get far. This was a great attempt at modernizing the franchise, and I think it set the groundwork well for...
Fast forward to 2024 and Im playing Unbound and loving it. The map is large, expansive, and fun to explore. I legit was able to start mapping it in my head the same way I would with MW. They have such a big range of cars from classic to modern. Alebit the body kit and overall customization is slightly lacking, there's enough variety that I find myself shopping for new rides because I want to.
And Unbound is dripping with that ASAP ROCKY, manga ass, trippy trap style that permiated the culture a few years back. The neon and drift visual effects I fuck with heavy, because it actually leans into that fun arcadey humor. The characters are cell shaded just like the overlaying style graphics, and I think it juxtaposes the photorealistic vibe if the cars and world well.
The open World Map is much improved too. Its literred with collectables, art to collect, mini world events (speed traps are BACK, along with hot lap and drift challenges). I don't think its as good as Rockford, but its good in its own right.
Im a little torn on how the game progression is set up. Essentially, the player gets a "week" to run races and escape from cops to earn as much cash as possible, upgrading your ride along the way, coalescing in a more important qualifier or story race on Saturday. The player can choose to participate in as many races during a day/night as they want before turning in all that cash at a Safe House, proceeding to the next day/night phase. Rinse and repeat. The player will have had to level up a car to a certain class of car (Classes are split into B, A, A+ S, S+), and the races a player can choose to take part in will fall into one of these categories. So its highly advised and even required to have a full stable of cars, not just get locked into one. For that I appriciate it, but this leads me to my next point...
The cop chases. Ugh. Early game they're fun and add a lot to the tension, especially when you have a shitbox for a car. But they feel less integrated into story mode than before, as you don't ever HAVE to really deal with the police in a mission sense. They exist and will always be there to pester you but that's just it - theyre more of a pest than fun. I could go deeper, but constant high level cop chases make me not want to keep playing some days.
The story is take it or leave it. Pretty run of the mill, but it didn't actively make me hate it either, so I would says that pretty fucking solid. You can completely ignore it, but its juuuust campy enough I've stayed involved.
Probably going to beat it this weekend, but overall, my thoughts are that I'm excited for the next one. Heat and Unbound FEEL like the first two in a mid-franchise trilogy, kind of like Resident evil 7 & 8, and I'm totally ready for the next one.
The bot said "nah you are stain on the fabric of humanity, I'm done with this, byeee"