Need for Speed Unbound Online Multiplayer Details Revealed
EA and Criterion have released a new Under The Hood article, this time deep-diving into the multiplayer world of Lakeshore Online - the online multiplayer experience for Need for Speed Unbound and what to expect from it at launch.
You’ll jump into the Lakeshore Online garage needing to create a character and select a starter car, much like when starting any other Need for Speed campaign. From the Lakeshore Online garage you can customize your cars and character, and invite friends to your party before matchmaking into an online server and dropping into Lakeshore.
Banners, a form of customization previously mentioned from Palace Edition and preorder bonuses, are multiplayer specific and let you show off your profile to players online. Banners let you show off your car and driver with certain customizable frames, stickers and audio.
Lakeshore Online Meetups will allow you and your party to enter into PvP race playlists, with multiple types requiring different tiers of cars meaning Single Tier Race Playlists will require a car of one specific tier, while Mixed Tier Playlists will need multiple (eg. An S+ tier car and a B tier car). Loaner cars are also available to use if you don’t have a car in that specific tier.
Race Playlists will consist of multiple events such as Street Races, Speed Races and Corner King races. Street Races are primarily circuit style races. Speed Races are more Point A to B style, and Corner King are races that have a ton of turns with emphasis on turning/drifting.
At launch, Lakeshore Online supports party sizes of up to 4 players, with servers allowing for online freeroam with 16 players and online race events allowing for up to 8 players - all with Crossplay functionality. At launch, Online freeroam is only set to day and does not change, however race playlists will have variable weather and time of day.
Things such as Cops, Takeover events, Pinkslip bets or sidebets are also not present in Lakeshore Online. These do seem subject to change post-launch, with EA clarifying ‘not available at launch’ suggesting these will come to Lakeshore Online sometime in the future with post-launch content updates.
As previously revealed, Need for Speed Unbounds single-player and multiplayer are two separate experiences, each with their own specific progression. However, completing certain milestones in story such as completing The Qualifers and The Grand, finding all the collectibles and winning specific events will unlock rewards in multiplayer - including custom cars, driving effects, poses and underglows.
Activities and Collectibles progress is also shared between single player and multiplayer, though their bank rewards for completing them will only be in the mode you earned it in, so choose carefully if you want to invest the time building up cash for your Single Player wallet or Lakeshore Online wallet.
Lakeshore Online also features unique skill, playlist and rank based challenges separate to the campaign. Completing some of these challenges will unlock new cars to purchase, different to how cars are unlocked to purchase in the story. Rank Based Challenges have the biggest XP and cash payouts in Online, and can be pinned in the in-game menu to easily track their progress.
Need for Speed Unbound launches on December 2nd, 2022 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, or three days earlier on November 29th for the Palace Edition purchasers and EA Play subscribers.
If you missed it, be sure to check out our dedicated Need for Speed Unbound Games page where you can find all our articles covering the latest news including the reveal, full car list, weekly drops, new Under The Hood details and more as we get it!
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