Recent reviews by Wolfvuki

Fun when it works, awful when it doesn't. Its becoming more obvious on why the enemy factions have been running rampant. The slow patches and constant nerfs has made this game gradually more frustrating to play.

The overall gameplay mechanics and chaos every round is a blast that has been missing from just about every game lately. Yet, I still see myself avoiding this game due to the lack of variety and never repeated issues.


In the current state of the game, playing with a group of friends is nearly impossible due to an odd corruption issue where items (usually backpacks) will randomly stop loading in resulting in pink/purple question marks which leads to crashing at some point and rejoining after crashing will corrupt your loadout that leads to the game cloning another player's loadout without the forced strategems like reinforcements and resupplies. There's also a good chance you'll repeatedly crash until the mission is abandoned or completed. I assume this will be fixed eventually, but eventually could be days to weeks.


Nerfs are hard in this game and will happen just about every patch with no matching buffs to be seen when about 70% to 90% of weapons could use it. In fact, the game desperately needs a full rebalance.
There are some cases in which nerfing was necessary like the release version of the railgun since it had the option to 1-shot bile titans.
However, the primary and secondary weapons lack purpose and/or effectiveness. Why use an arc weapon when lasers have practically infinite range and actually hurt enemies? Why have a primary SMG when the secondary is just as effective?
For example, the sniper rifle primary that's been useless since the beginning should at least be able to get through some armor even the anti-material rifle is in the same boat. For the longest time, incendiary shotguns being the only viable option for terminids for the longest time is ridiculous. The same situation for automatons being medium armor penetration rifles.
Strategem weapons are in a similar situation where I constantly feel like I'm stuck with a few options so heavy armor enemies can actually be damaged. Mainly leaving the quasar cannon for its infinite ammo or expendable anti-tank launchers for the constant availability otherwise you're just picking from a few support weapon options like the stalwart, grenade launcher, or autocannon.

It is worth noting that the overall incendiary nerf has left a good amount of options to become nearly useless which is an odd choice when they introduced a new warbond that is heavily focused on incendiary usage.


Armor could use some work as well. I do like the variety they've slowly built up but I feel like it could be polished more like having the option to adjust color and more variety in stats. When it comes to gameplay, it's hard to justify using medium armor when extra speed or defense are more viable. I feel like helmets and capes should offer something to the mix too like bonuses in damage type or resistance to different attacks.


Overall, I personally don't see why them keep choosing the easy option that's hurting the player base. There's still plenty of areas that need work but I never see the initiative being taken to implement anything. My suggestion would be to implement publicly available experimental/test builds like a good amount of games provide so they can get feedback on changes before fully committing to them.

My initial review was negative and I still believe those points still take account. However, after beating the game on hard I believe I have a few answers or workarounds to those problems.

Overall, Unbound is pretty great. It's pretty much Heat but with improvements, especially the music. The $69.99 tag is questionable though. I did get about 30 hours out of the story so I guess it's not that bad.
First thing is that the performance is okay. I do have a decent spec PC with a 12700k and 3060ti using an ultrawide monitor. I did run into countless crashes at first until I dropped all the graphics to medium. There's some sort of issue where the game simply doesn't handle being limited in any form. It still does crash occasionally when alt-tabbed. Could use a complete overhaul to say the least.
I found the game to be pretty challenging which was surprising as the last few games didn't give much. The amount you invest into each vehicle actually means something in this game as you'll notice after the prologue. I still found cops to be completely insane in this game once you max out your heat and it simply doesn't get better unless you invest into getting your garage to tier 3 (gold/yellow parts). The police are the real challenge in this game. They do some AI magic by being able to ram through roadblocks, pass through unbreakable barriers while they're not in your view, and being able to do a 180 then match your speed in seconds. On hard, it makes you pick and choose which events to compete in since Heat 5 in the early to mid game makes it almost impossible to make it to a safehouse unless you use an exploit or spend an absurd amount of time to get away.
The car selection is alright. I feel like B and A class cars could've used a little bit more work as no matter what they feel very sluggish in comparison to what you race against even when you max out that class. Once you hit A+ then you start feeling like you're able to take on the competition and police much easier.
IMO car customization could've been better. The new effects feature is one for all your vehicles which I don't understand at all. The bodykits are more unique for some cars but others it feels like we've lost more than what we had in Heat. Everything else is okay. They didn't do much with the underglow, horns, etc. In fact, horns are useless unless you're messing around in multiplayer.
One miscellaneous thing I questioned, why is there no special scene for when you 1v1 against A$AP Rocky? It seems he was suppose to be a big part of the game but he isn't. Only 1 quick drive with him then a 1v1 later on.

Tips from my experience:
- Purchase Undercover Racer for your vehicles. Makes getting around unbelievably easier between races and afterwards.
- Build your car to around 20-25% Drift for the early to mid game. The car will perform well during races and handle the events with no problem.
- Installing Grip and Drift boost will make it easier to keep up during races as that's what you'll be doing most of the time. I don't recommend keeping it in the long term unless you're on Easy or Normal.
- Don't neglect your lower spec cars. Even in the final week, you'll still run into B and A class races.
- You can change up your handling in the pause menu between races.
- (Hard only?) Pick and choose your races. I found that only choosing 2-3 races during the day worked best then using the night to go for the high earning and car rewarding races only are the best options. Keep in mind you earn heat ONLY from races and events so the side tasks you're given via phone call are easy money and should never be turned down.

There's no way I can recommend this game.
Got it in preparation for the Steam Deck but ended up playing on my main system instead and waiting a while before doing so. This game has many issues that I seem to always run into.

Note, I was playing on Hard the entire playthrough and it only took about 13 hours to complete with about half the side quests done before I got too bored and decided to wait until NG+.

The combat is kinda disappointing.
There's not really a build variety as the armor and weapon systems are basic. I didn't find much of a reason to change armor through half the game and even then it didn't feel like it did much except for the small bonus points in your stats.
Most weapons felt useless as the stats didn't buff anything in particular so for most of the game I stuck with a shotgun and the most recent AR or Minigun I bought/found. Nothing else in the game was nearly as effective as these.
The enemies surprisingly had some variety. No matter what they didn't do much in terms of strategy. They either run up to you, hid behind cover, or in a random direction. The few bosses were the only ones were challenging but by the end I preferred fighting them since it wasn't as annoying as the normal enemies. I still believe the robots and turrets could use a slight nerf as there's only a few weapons that are effective against them and their damage gets ridiculous at times.

The bugs...
I can't believe there's still crashing and even SOFT LOCKING when this game came out in mid-2021. They both happened numerous times during my playthrough. I heard it's only worse when playing with others. The only good thing I can say is that autosaving in this game is on point so loading back in brought you back to where you were before crashing. The soft locking was simply quitting to the main menu and reloading.
I'm also not sure why but half the time the enemies were attacking off screen and their pathing did run into issues here and there.
The quest tracker/path also gets bugged out at random times so you'll be left to using the map to find your way around until it decides to fix itself.

I forgot half the story by the time I was done. I still feel like some parts weren't explained well but honestly I compare it to The Division where the story was just to explain what's happening next then it's forgotten.

Even with the discounted preorder pricing this is no where near the price it should be. I'd estimate this to be around $10 to $15 at most.

There's so little content in this "upgrade" that this seems like an excuse to make the "full" game $60 again even though there's little to no player base left and anyone who's on now definitely won't be staying in about a month or so.

-There's only 1 trials area which is split into about 12 sub sections. These sections give you options of which enemies to face then you fight a boss. This is repeat 3 times before you beat the trials mode. You also get a limited amount of lives which is fair for it to be more challenging.
-The campaign extension is only 3 hours long. You can beat it in less than an hour if someone carries you. The story is good continuation of the main campaign but for the price I was expecting it to be at least twice the current length.
-The new enemies are only in the DLC campaign and new trials mode. Some add more challenge such as locking you out of your abilities temporarily, a few are completely new, and the rest are essential large, elite versions of the already existing enemies. Oh and melee enemies can completely stun lock you now which may result in you dying with no way to counter this.
-The new apocalypse drops, mini skill tree, and ascension points make builds significantly more viable. However, the current problem still exists where nothing has really changed when it comes to meta. You will still be running the same builds with very small changes from the launch of the game and New Horizons update. These skill tree addons they made only reinforce these same builds as they benefit them more than anything.

On top of all of this, if you play the any character while owning the DLC then refund the DLC after realizing what it has to offer, you will not be able to use that character until you buy the DLC again.

Many problems still exists such as co-op scaling being completely broken for average players.

Updated for post game completion:

The only game that came out great on release despite some expected bugs. Definitely takes significantly more time to get through the campaign compared to the first game. There's a good amount of content for a new release and there's expected to be much more content coming in the future. Can't wait to see what they'll add to the game as the previous title was incredible. I'll simply put a list here for anyone still deciding:

Good:
- The story is great, I guess around 12 hours if you rush through it on hard
- Your choices affect many parts of the game (not sure about side missions)
- There's many endings to the game
- Compared to DL1, you can start off on hard and not be completely useless but the game is pretty challenging
- Co-op is actually co-op and not completely restricted like some games (Don't believe the final mission is co-op though)
- The game autosaves very often so no need to worry if anything happens
- Many side activities and missions to keep you entertained
- The game takes time to grind for better gear and skills
- You honestly don't have to play the first game to understand what's going on except for small, unrelated parts of the intro.
- The game is fully playable on release, except co-op that was quickly fixed (Sadly have to mention this due to how many releases have been lately)

Bad:
- There is no new game+ (yet?)
- The new character is almost a clone from DL1, seems to have the same exact personality and very similar voice (had to actually check if they used a different voice actor, yes they did) just a different name and appearance
- The parkour is nowhere as smooth as DL1
- Using ropes/grappling hook is honestly terrible. No matter how much momentum or distance, I always struggle and resort to finding a different method to get around if it takes too long

Many minor or annoying bugs in the game right now, I'm confident these will be fully patched within 2 months (probably less).
==== What I've ran into (as of 2/6/2022):
===== Random objects rendering through walls (very, very rare and have only occurred in a few missions). Some being objects like voice actor/sounds rendering as a t-posed mannequin (VNC Tower) and white rectangles (IIRC Tunnel mission, involving the protagonist) showing through grates.
===== FPS drops to 5-10 after a few hours and requires restarting the game to fix (seems to be a lighting issue)
===== Enemies going through walls (1 or 2 every 6 hours, maybe)
===== You and enemies can melee through certain objects (most notably poles) and other enemies
===== Enemies can detect you through certain objects
===== Cutscene audio bugs out so they talk a little late and dialogue gets cut off
===== Active landing is... questionable at times. You can either float then die (common in Old Villedor when using this against buildings) or be perfectly fine. Sometimes a bit of both.
===== The parkour is also questionable at times. You'll teleport sometimes or have an awkward magnetization/floating effect. I've even been stuck permanently floating in a single spot until I fast travel or reload my save.
===== Zombies have a chance to strangle you after you perform a takedown
===== Enemies can still have a panic/in pain animation after being beheaded (have to hit them again to loot)
===== [Unsure] Enemies will, on rare occasions, spam melee attacks that kill you within a second

6/10

I've had the game since open beta (Bethesda Launcher) and this game has significantly improved since then. Absolutely unbelievable.

A few issues are still occurring in this game, but overall it's a good experience solo or with friends.
They've improved the grind in the game so you don't have to make multiple characters for each build which was one of the biggest issues and even added some storylines that are... more interesting... *cough* kinda. There's people in the game and not just voice messages or notes. Simply put, if you want a story from the game, you should look elsewhere. Your decisions have no changes what so ever but the rewards are decent for the most part and it's the fastest way to level up.

This however, is an excellent grind game. Having a ton of perks to play with and the ability to save and switch out the builds is amazing. Not only that but they also have a miniature settlement feature called Camps which in comparison to Fallout 4 isn't as big but they can be moved around the map to trade and be used to craft and such. These can also be saved and swapped out.

The biggest issue with the game is the lack of balance/cheated weapons and pay to win focus. Ranging from weapons that have been locked from players who weren't around at the beginning to get them as these specific weapon legendaries no longer drop (Explosive laser/gamma) aka Legacy Weapons which are the most powerful legit weapons in the game and modded weapons spawned by cheaters such as a minigun that shoots mininukes. The pay to win is through the atom shop such a scraptron that'll collect materials for you and other random things that'll give you an upperhand that is strictly through the atom shop. Not to forget about lunchboxes (xp boost and buff), repair kits (repair any item without materials), and even the new carryweight boost that's only in the shop. They do give one or two items for free each day which is nice. Usually 1 utility item and a random skin.

It's a set of legendary games for $40 with significant improvements compared to the originals. Do you really need to know more?

Quest 2 controls do not work properly. The hard drop is SUPER sensitive and you cannot rebind it for whatever reason it just assumes you cancelled trying to bind it. Some of the controls do not seem to work either.

I really wanted to like this but there's some minor issues I can't seem to get around and mods seems to be only limited to custom songs as of this review.

-The missing note indicator is very distracting and prevents you from seeing the next set of notes in some cases. You can disable this (which is kinda necessary) but without it you're completely lost.
-There's no indication of whether your doing well or failing so you may end up failing a song out of no where.
-The choose random song option after completing a song goes to any song and any difficulty (I assume due to custom songs not having all difficulty options setup by the song creator) and there's no way to restrict/filter it.
-It's only songs. No campaign or progression system for new players. Just select the song, difficulty, modifiers, and start.
-The game has a dull feeling to it. I don't see much need to move around much even in higher difficulty options and modifiers to try and make it intense. Kinda wish there was a random challenge options to make it more physically challenging.

I hope to return to this in the future in hope there's some changes made.

The only reason you should consider playing this is because the multiplayer is free and the campaign is on game pass. However, the majority of development seems to only have been focused on revamping gun play into an inconsistent mess and trying to squeeze whatever profit they can from a failed product in comparison to previous titles in the series. The multiplayer maps are okay at best, the campaign (although good) is a fraction of what it should be (literally is, google it), and the majority of all the customization is behind a paywall. I don't understand what happened to make this mess of a game, but if the entire game had a $60 price tag like the previous titles, I, and I'm sure many others, would've been more than happy to pay if it resulted in a better game overall.