Need For Speed Unbound Players Can Customize Driving VFXs

In a new Need For Speed Unbound blogpost, devs Criterion highlighted the art style and special visual effects that erupt from in-game vehicles. Called “tags,” these driving VFXs that manifest as graffiti-like art around the lines of cars–are triggered by players activating boosting powers.

Players can earn boosting powers by executing certain actions like jumps, drifting, and more. “Need for Speed Unbound’s realistic-looking world and cars really help ground the visuals,” stated art director Darren White. “Taking inspiration from street art and other media, we creatively subvert the characters and visual effects, turning them into expressionistic illustrations of ‘you’ and ‘your actions.’ It’s literally ‘graffiti-coming-to-life.'”

Street artists like Sentrock and JC Rivera contributed to not only tags, but also wraps–car customization options that include a unique “transparency” option where you can expose certain parts of the cars’ innards.

Players will have plenty of options to customize their driving tags on. So far, there have been 140 cars announced for Need For Speed Unbound.

The upcoming racing game opens with a robbed car at a family auto-shop. Players are then tasked with getting the stolen car back and participating in The Grand, a street racing challenge set in Lakeshore.

Need For Speed Unbound was first announced on October 6 and A$AP Rocky headlined the debut trailer. Need For Speed Unbound’s release date is December 2 and will launch on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. A 10-hour trial version will become available on November 29.