Need for Speed Heat Review (PS4)

Once upon a time Need for Speed was the poster boy of the arcade racing genre, Underground reaching a cult status reserved only for the Olympian Gods. And let’s not forget NFS Porsche, a simulator which convinced fans around the world that this franchise is the pinnacle of racing games. Unfortunately, those times are long gone, and the fame of the series has tarnished considerably, especially if we take into account the last two entries.

EA has a reputation of taking solid gold and turn it into lead, as they had proved us time and time again. While trying to milk dry the titles from their portfolio, they either completely ignore some legendary franchises like C&C, or keep un pushing despite stinging criticism. As such, after the disaster called Payback, where they mixed ideas borrowed from Forza Horizon with slot machines giving out car upgrades, Need for Speed returns with a new episode which tries to steer into safer waters.

NFS Heat drops the elements taken from other franchises, the casino mechanics and some of the other superfluous elements and tries to focus on its own heritage, combining legal street races with cop chases. As a player you can decide if you want to race by day and earn money, or if you want to partake in the illegal activities during the night, earning the reputation to unlock new things to spend the money on. You will have to do your best in all the races, both in the sunlight and the moonlight, but you will be able to choose in which order you will tackle them.

All players have to follow the well-known route from rookie to pro racer, getting better cars and better car parts to win their way to the top. The grinding process is not so long as in other entries of the series, but the cars you can initially choose from are bricks on wheels. No matter which one you choose from the initial line up of four rides, the handling will feel just awful. The pain the but to win enough races to have the means to purchase a better ride is discouraging to most players, especially that things seem hardened artificially.

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This hurdle is much easier on those who pre-ordered the game or have purchased the Deluxe version, thus having early access to a tuned-up Mitsubishi which can crush the competition in the first races. In a sense, it is a pay to win formula, but much more subtle than the ones in Payback. After you have enough funds to invest in a better ride, you will feel a tremendous change, even the mid-tier cars offering a dizzying sense of speed.

The change of pace between the night and day races are welcome since at the beginning you will feel overwhelmed not just by your underperforming ride, but also the sheer number and the power of the cops trying to hunt down illegal racers. Their IQ is not a problem, but it will feel rather unfair that you are limited to only three repairs each night. Because like it or not, in Need for Speed Heat you cannot turn off the damage, even on lower difficulty settings. While during the day races your car will suffer mostly cosmetical damages which can be fixed by a visit to one of your hideouts, at night you will be brutalized by those sworn to serve and protect.

Continuing the tradition of previous games, you can fix the damage by driving through a gas station, but in NFS Heat the producers decided to limit this action to three times per night. This is their way to try and implement a risk and reward management system: the more nighttime activities you complete successfully the more reputation you will gain. Reputation will be converted into tiers, each tier granting access to better toys. At the same time the more time you spend out of your garage after sundown, the higher the chances are to get caught by the police. But if you manage to evade them your multiplier increases and at the end of the night, you can get a serious boost to your reputation. It’s a system that rewards the bold and the agile, but also the lucky.

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If during a chase you manage to steer the Five-O towards players who have more heat on their tails, there is a high chance that the boys in blue will leave you alone and go after the more precious prey. That is if you play online. If you play alone and you get caught, the night ends with you in the garage, banking the gathered reputation without any multipliers and you paying a hefty fee for the trouble of the officers chasing you. Since Heat presents most of the lawman as a corrupt and more dangerous bunch than the racers themselves if your heat level is not too high at the beginning of a chase you can wiggle your way out of the tedious process by paying a bribe. This often can be cheaper than being caught.

If we spoke about corruption and being cheap we can also talk about the story that tries to be the reason behind all the activities in the game. It’s a revenge story, again, the racers are the gold-hearted outlaws seeking adventures, again, and the cops posing as protectors of the innocents, are actually brutes drunk on their power, again. All in all the story is rather dull and predictable, even if the developers tried to tie it in more with the racing itself. They created special events that can forward the plot or can detail your relationship with various characters, usually rewarding you with bonus upgrades or cars.

The plot is somewhat of a good excuse to make you take part in the race after race after race, but nothing more. Trying to offer a more rich experience are also the superfluous elements which though are reduced, they did not disappear completely. You no longer are required to go through old barns or abandoned airfields to find wrecks of legendary cars, but you can still hunt for billboards to crush, speed traps to beat, long jumps to take and graffiti to collect. The last ones will unlock new customization options for your cars. You can also spend your hard-earned money on customizing your in-game avatar, by choosing from various accessories, shirts, pants and boots, all manufactured by well-known brands. Just like the story, this customization part feels flat, the offer targeting millennials and other youngsters seemingly alien with the concept of good looks. It is even more hilarious that all the clothes are gender-neutral, so you can dress your male avatar in tops and skirts if you like.

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The list of shortcomings continues with the soundtrack. Long gone are the songs which became anthems, like Riders on the Storm or Get Low. Even the somewhat memorable tracks from Payback are gone, Heat presenting itself with a selection of contemporary artists. To follow the story you will hear a lot of Latino themed songs. The tracks are different based on the time of the day, night-time activities having more upbeat tunes. The greatest issue is that the soundtrack is lacking variety, and even if you can resonate maybe with a few of the songs, they will repeat so often that you will get tired of them.

ou are better off listening to your own tunes or the sound of the engine. The music and the fashion choices included in the game, makes you wonder if the producers tried to imagine what is cool or hip in the underground racing world by watching some unrelated politically correct Netflix series. The same lack of variety can be said about the environment. That does not mean that the game looks bad. It can actually look rather pleasing during the rain when the night lights come to life. But no matter in which corner of the map you will find yourself, you will feel that you are racing in the very same neighborhood.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion