Need for Speed Unbound is a solid entry in the series, but it's held back by wasted potential and some major flaws. I personally love the new cell shaded artstyle and driving effects, the driving physics are greatly improved over previous entries, and the new Takeover events are pretty fun.

The game's story, while having themes of forgiveness and accepting found family, falls flat in execution because of poor pacing and unenthusiastic voice acting. There is also a background story about political rivals that doesn't really add anything to the game. Unbound's career progression is very structured and linear, resulting in a tedious and formulaic experience.

I still think Unbound is the best of the modern NFS games (2015 and onwards), but I think there's a lot of work to be done in terms of replayability, difficulty, and core gameplay loop.