Need For Speed Unbound is living up to its name with its latest Vol. 9 update. The game isn’t just a car racing game anymore, it now has bikes. Well, one motorcycle. But hey, it’s still a first for Need For Speed.
The ninth content update, Vol. 9 Lockdown, is inspired by Need For Speed Most Wanted (2005), the game that converged the tuner culture-focused titles from NFS Underground 1 and 2, and the series’s roots of high-speed racing in exotic supercars, regularly while being chased by cops. As such, the iconic BMW M3 GTR features prominently in the trailer. The thumbnail of the silver-and-blue Beemer going sideways is a direct throwback to the NFSMW’s cover art.
But that’s not the only BMW that was featured. The other one bike is a BMW S 1000 RR, available to ride in the new Lockdown mode as well as special PVP and Free Roam playlists.
While this may be the first time Need For Speed to feature motorcycles (motorbikes), developer Criterion Games have done this to Burnout Paradise, also a game primarily defined by car racing, as DLC.
The titular Lockdown mode is also rather peculiar, and fits the spirit of Unbound. It’s a PVPVE multiplayer mode, featuring extraction gameplay. It’s Tarkov with cars and a bike.
In Lockdown, you work together with your crew to complete Contracts and break into Lockups to loot Hot Rides. Once in a Hot Ride, it must be driven to an Extraction Truck.
So, what’s the challenge with looting and extracting when you don’t have guns or any weapons? Well, cops are chasing, with Pursuit Tech available to stop you. And NFS Unbound already has health bars. And the cops can engage The Zone in locations with high loot rewards. Racers take damage over time from the EMP wall tech, but you also immediately gain Heat Level 5 while in The Zone.
All the Hot Rides are inspired by the 15 cars from NFS Most Wanted (2005)’s Blacklist. And that includes the iconic BMW. The Hot Rides will be available to keep in your garage for use in Free Roam, PVP modes and also Lockdown if you can extract them. The cars in Lockups will change every week, so there’s at least 15 weeks of content drip there.
NFS Unbound Vol. 9 is straight-up experimental compared to the previous update which adds a familiar Hot Pursuit mode where players can be the cops chasing other racers.
Need For Speed Unbound Vol. 9 New Cars
Two new cars are added to Need For Speed Unbound in the Vol. 9 update:
- Honda Integra Type R
- Subaru Impreza WRX STI
Need For Speed Unbound Vol. 9 update goes live on November 26. The game is out now on PS5, PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, EA App) and Xbox Series X|S. Check out our review of the game here.
Source: Need For Speed