Two car lengths in the right direction
Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure I have played every Need for Speed game that has released since Hot Pursuit on the PS1. That’s a lot of games. In the past few years, the Need for Speed franchise has tried to change things up, stick to something familiar, and even reboot itself. While none of them has been overly bad, the series has sort of grown stale, and with some pretty blatant microtransactions in the last game, Payback, I was getting tired of the series. Here comes Need for Speed: Heat, and while I still feel there needs to be an overhaul of the series, Heat actually is a big step in the right direction.
Players control a new up and coming street racer who has just arrived in Palm City, a city where the local police department is cracking down on street racers – to the point they are willing to kill and cover up some of the notorious racers. It’s out there as far as the narrative goes, but it’s a video game so, whatever. Starting out, players must earn money and reputation to get the best cars in tip top shape to take on the best racers in town as well as stay ahead of the police force trying to take them down.
MSRP: $59.99
Price I’d pay: $59.99
Platforms: PS4, XB1, PC
Set in an open world, players choose when to race – during the day or at night. Racing during the day will have players competing in sanctioned events. Placing in these events will earn the player “Bank” – that’s what the street savvy call money. Here’s the deal, I couldn’t just use my money to buy upgrades to my cars. The performance part stores only sell to racers that have street credit. That’s where racing at night comes into play. Night racing is the illegal kind. Competing in these mean I earned “Rep” that goes towards a player level. The more rep I earned, the more parts and cars I would unlock. Then I could spend my hard earned Bank on some new upgrades for my cars. It’s an interesting mechanic that is obviously there to pad out the game a bit but never make it feel grindy.
On top of gaining Rep through racing at night, getting into chases with cops and escaping would add a multiplier to my Rep earned and possibly double or triple the amount. Granted, this all means I need to make it back to a safe house without getting caught. Getting caught meant I’d lose my Rep and part of my Bank to get out of jail. So there is a nice risk/reward system in play that works pretty well.
Another aspect that works really well is the upgrading of the cars. I was struggling to win races at the beginning of the game, but after adding a few upgrades to my ride, I was able to hang with all those cars that would have beaten me. The senseof progression and improvement is very well done here, and when switching to a different car with better specs, it really felt like a major upgrade.
Need for Speed has always been the arcade style racing experience, and Heat is no different. It feels pretty responsive and the simple controls really make it very accessible. To drift around a turn, players simply release the accelerator, then press it again while turning. It’s nice to not have to worry about so much when in the middle of a race.
They also took a few things from the Burnout series and added it here. There are multiple collectables to get throughout the world like billboards to bust trough or new graphics for my cars to collect. It tries to add other things to chase other than extra money and reputation. Plus, it gave me something to do while I was grinding a bit to do the next story mission. Since story missions are locked behind player level and car power level; it was a good idea for me to do some more standard races in order to get the money and rep I needed for a few upgrades.
It seems that Ghost Games has figured out the Frostbite 3 Engine, because apart from a few graphical glitches, Heat looks and runs fantastic. One of the coolest parts of the game is the transition from day to night. Rain and wet pavement effects look incredible, and the night sky with the neon of signs pops. While the console versions even on the Xbox One X ran only at 30 frames per second, it was a solid 30 that never dipped.
Multiplayer is here, but I feel that it was squandered. Players can choose to play in a solo world or an online world. While online, players can run into other players in the open world and can invite players in their world to a race, but almost every time I started a race and invited anyone to join me, no one would. It seemed like most people just wanted to do their own thing.
Ultimately, Need for Speed: Heat is a decent racer. In fact, I would say it is a great playing one. It’s just missing something new. Since Most Wanted on the 360, the formula hasn’t changed much. Payback tried to, but never really came into its own. Heat has everything that is needed to make a fun racing game, and it does so very well. Maybe I’m just looking for something and don’t really know what it is. I enjoyed my time with Heat and I’m sure other arcade racing fans will too. It’s a solid game that plays and looks great, even with the little grind that may come along with it.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
