SHOW UP AND SHOW OFF

Need for Speed™ Unbound is built on the foundation of Need for Speed gameplay you know and love, but cranks the dial to eleven on individual expression. It’s not just about how your car looks and drives, but what style your driver reps at the end of a race, and the flair and style while you’re burning up the roads.

In this Under the Hood article, we’re gonna dive into customization for your driver, your car (both visual and performance), and Driving Effects. And when you’re all done, take a Snapshot.

Real talk, you can drive a beater through Lakeshore City and leave your opponents in the dust, but if you want to win in style, you’ll need to do more than slap some paint on a fender and call it a day.

But first up, let’s focus on you.

Driver Customization

In Lakeshore City, it’s about speed and style.

When you first jump into Need for Speed Unbound, you’ll need to create your character. We’ve added more options than ever before for you to give your driver a uniqueness never before seen in the Need for Speed franchise. 

The first thing you’ll do is select a Model - the template for your driver. Go through the options and select a starting point to make your Lakeshore racer

Now to customize - unless you want to stick with the default character models. Where’s the fun in that? So let’s get to customizing your driver character.

Decisions, decisions. Start with your Model Select - Head. You’ll have an assortment of Head options to choose from, so once you select one you like, you’ll notice that the preview updates based on your decision. Now let’s check those eyes. What Eye Color do you want? Baby blue, deep brown, or something more adventurous? Choose your Skin Color, then your Presentation - this is where you decide your Voice option and a slider to adjust the pitch. All done there? Great. Let’s move on to the next set of character customization options.

Back up to the main Character customization window and select Head. This is where you can really express your personality. You’ll have Hair options to choose your style, Hair Color (and new to NFS, we added tints that allow you to dye the tips of your hair), and Facial Hair options and Facial Hair Color. Face Details allow you to add  face tattoos, makeup, dirt, or a bandage pack because maybe you’re a bit rough and tumble, and more. Then, because the spotlight is always on you, you may want to grab some shades from the wide selection of Sunglasses.

Time to get dressed, so go to Clothing to choose your threads. Now we do have some fashion partners in Need for Speed Unbound, and we’ll be talking about them in future Drops. You can choose a Brand Collection (and keep your gear on point with the same Brand) or you can check out All Clothing to mix, match, and create your style. From the All Clothing option, you’ll have choices in Coats & Jackets, Tops, Bottoms, Shoes, and Hats & Caps. Take your time - but don’t worry - you’re not locked in. At any point when you’re not in a pursuit, you can hit up a Safe House to swap out your style. If you want to be the best, you may want to look like a Legend of the Lake.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. You can select Poses for your driver to stunt on your competitors when you win events in Need for Speed Unbound. Unlock more by completing challenges, snatching collectibles, and progressing the story.

Want to change your look? Don’t forget that you can also update, customize, and get new driver gear by hitting your Safe House.

Car Customization

In Need for Speed Heat, we pushed the limits of customization and y’all delivered with amazing wraps and designs in the community. So, for Need for Speed Unbound, we wanted to go even further to give you the freedom to create modified cars that are distinct and unruly. Car Customization is found under Rides when you’re in a Safe House. That first screen gives you four options: Style (how your car looks), Performance (how your car races), Buy and Sell (to get a new whip or sell that junker for some quick cash to Bank), and All My Rides (your showcase of collected cars).

Remember: when starting out, you want to win races, meaning you want to look at Performance upgrades as soon as possible. A flashy car with no power ain’t gonna cut it, but you do you. Let’s go with Style first.

After selecting the Body option, you’ll be able to edit your ride shape and add/remove body panels (on some cars). Get that raw exposed look that turns heads, go full-on with a body kit, or customize each part of the car to create your own monster of the road.  You can choose premade Body Kits that make it easy for the undecided to drop a style on their ride with a quickness, or you can go deep and work with each part of the car - from new Rims and real-world Tires and the color of your Window Tint and Headlights (with no limitations), Taillights, Front and Rear Bumpers, Side Skirts, brake calipers, even your license plate (Text, Background, and Frame can be personalized). And, of course, you can tune the stance of your car for that aggressive feel.

Of course you can paint the car - and the Wrap editor is filled with new decal content from fashion brands, manufacturer brands, new fonts, street art, decals from the EA universe, and more. And you can unlock more decals as you find them in Lakeshore City.

You can also save your Designs and Share them with the Community, or check out and download your favorite community submissions. Note: Community sharing is per platform.

We’re also introducing Legendary Customs - the most extreme expression of customization ever seen in the Need for Speed franchise, featuring silhouette-changing parts that transform a car’s appearance into a one-of-a-kind custom.

We’re not done yet! With Need for Speed Unbound, you will be able to add and customize Vanity Items on your vehicles like Underglow, the sound of your Horn, and if you have the Bank, you can add Air Suspension. Want to add some growl to your ride? We've overhauled the Exhaust Sounds from Need for Speed Heat to give you more control and personalization by adding settings for Timber, Tone, Overrun, and strength of the Forced Induction (if you have a turbo installed).

Lakeshore City is your canvas, and you’ll paint the town with your customized Driving Effects.

Driving Effects consists of two categories - Tags and Samples. Tags are the stylized graphics that explode off your ride as you hit jumps, burnout, drift, or otherwise drive it like you stole it. The harder you drive, the more you’ll activate the Tags, and the more your Burst Nitrous will charge. Samples are a layer of stylized audio that's played over the top of the car to heighten key moments like gear changes and high speed - and you can customize that as well. As you complete Challenges and find Hidden Items or bust through billboards, you’ll unlock more Tags and Samples to further customize your machine. For those that want to keep it more low-key, you can use “Cloaked” versions of the Tags, reducing the visuals to just tire smoke and trails, or select the Silent Sample to reduce the stylized audio. But if you got it, flaunt it, right?

Performance Customization

Looking good in last place is no way to live, and you need to win races to get to the Qualifiers. Let’s get into Performance Customization.

Now, like the Body Kits, you can do it all in one go or you can be a Michaelangelo of Motors, customizing your engine piece by piece to tune it exactly how you want for exactly how you race. Engine Swaps are the first category under Performance customization, and you can choose an engine based on the Tier you want to achieve (which is important as some events require certain Tiers). But let’s be honest, swapping out an entire engine is a lot more costly than swapping out individual parts.

For those among you that want total control of what goes in your ride, you’ll hit the Parts menu and see an array of options from which to choose. Induction, ECU, Fuel Systems, Exhaust, Turbo Chargers, Nitrous, Suspension, Brakes, Tires, Clutch, Transmission, and Differential are all options for you to upgrade to ensure you’re not looking at taillights the whole time. As you upgrade parts from Stock to Pro and beyond, you’ll see your car’s stats change and shift. Get the right balance for your driving style and you’ll be unstoppable. When you need a little extra edge (and once you’ve got some Bank and have unlocked the option), check out Auxiliary. From Impact Protection and Repair Kits to Damage Increase, Radio Jammers, and gadgets to fill your Nitrous faster based on how you’re driving, you’ll have an assortment of toys to choose from to keep the cops and other racers out of your way.

With all that new power under the hood, you’ll want to ensure you can tame that beast, so check out the Handling menu to adjust to your tastes. As you upgrade your Tiers, Suspension, and Differential categories, your Handling slider availability range will increase, allowing you to adjust your Handling to have more Grip or be more likely to Drift, you can tweak your Steering Sensitivity to hit those tight corners just right, and you can adjust the Downforce to help increase grip. Traction Control can be switched On or Off, and you have options for Drift Entry. In addition to using the handbrake/e-brake to initiate a drift, you can choose from Gas or Brake Tap (on by default), Gas Tap, or Brake Tap, or you can turn those options off. You will still be able to initiate a handbrake/e-brake drift if the other options are disabled.

LIke you, your Garage starts at the bottom, and it’s gonna take some Bank and unlocking tiered parts to upgrade your Garage from Basic to Elite. As you upgrade your Garage, you get access to better parts.

The Shop & The Showcase

The last two options under Rides focus on the complete package of a vehicle. You can Buy And Sell cars - especially when you’re looking to purchase a new vehicle after unlocking it from winning Meetups and Takeovers, or if you need some cash to Bank so you can pony up the dough for those high-stakes race entry fees, you can sell some of the vehicles in your garage. Remember, you can’t walk in these races, so don’t try to sell yourself out of your only set of wheels. Also, you need four different tiers of vehicles to enter The Grand. So start collecting.

If you want to take a peek at all the mechanical marvels in your possession, go check them out under All My Rides. You can see what you’ve got, check out their stats, think about what you want, and switch out your car before you hit Lakeshore City streets for some more mayhem and motor vehicle madness.

Once you’re done, hit the streets and take a Snapshot. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, what will your picture say? Use the in-game Snapshot tool to grab a picture of your glorious machine, and save it using your platforms’ default content capture features. (Make sure to disable the UI to get the cleanest pic.)

There’s more to explore as you build your car, so dive in. Remember, you gotta pay the cost to be the boss in Lakeshore City. We’ll be back with another Under the Hood soon, and next time we’ll focus on driving (and driving to win!!).