3.5/5 ★ – Vulcan_199's review of Need for Speed: Heat.

From Ghost’s languishing embers we got Heat. The studio’s final attempt at a Need For Speed game might be their best one yet, but it’s also its last. A late return to form couldn’t steer it clear from its demise. Bittersweet, indeed. Ghost had big shoes to fill with Criterion —even bigger with BlackBox. I almost pity them. They were held, at times, to impossibly high standards by desperate players craving to relive their early days with the franchise. It’s a fool’s errand to try and appease a nostalgia-driven crowd… For them, it’s never enough. I don’t intend to whitewash the studio’s image. They fucked up more than once, in particular with the utter disgrace that Payback came to be. But I think that, after all, there were commendable efforts to stand on the shoulders of giants and build upon the decades-old legacy of the Need For Speed pedigree. Preface aside, let’s talk about the game itself. First and foremost, the plot. For once, Ghost managed to devise a compelling —albeit somewhat cliché— storyline. I aim to keep this review relatively spoiler-free, so I won’t go into the nooks and crannies of it, but in short, it puts the player and his/her buddies in a quest for street racing glory while Palm City’s PD tries its best to shut the scene down. You can guess how that goes. The good news is that in Heat we get menacing antagonists for the first time in a good while, with previous entries leaving much to be desired in this regard. A good villain should feel unassailable, the struggle against them insurmountable, their power all-encompassing and impossible to undermine. And yet, these traits were conspicuous for their absence more than once. The prime example of this is Payback’s Lina Navarro: barely memorable, lackluster and bland, more of an annoyance than anything else. Now, cue in Officer Shaw, who immediately comes off as a raving, power-hungry lunatic. He’s unscrupulous, he’s vicious, and standing in stark contrast with Lina, he’s ACTUALLY INTIMIDATING. Fucking finally. Heat’s writing isn’t the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it shows significant improvement over past iterations. I do wish to express my disgust with the ending, which is ridiculously rushed. Just when things are getting spicy, a premature cliffhanger is thrown at the player’s face and everything comes to a screeching, sudden halt. I, for one, was caught entirely by surprise. An audible “that’s it?!” inadvertently came out of me as I stared at the usual “thank you for playing” message in disbelief. There was barely any build-up and the cast was tremendously underutilized and underdeveloped; it was all very frustrating to see. The story has never been Need For Speed’s main selling point, but that’s no excuse for such a wasteful use of resources. Furthermore, the choice to feature a certain car has also rubbed me the wrong way. One could argue it's a tribute to the series’ legacy, but frankly, it reeks of nostalgia bait. (Clue: the car’s name starts with a B and ends with -MW M3 GTR). The gameplay revolves around the day/night dichotomy, a brilliant addition that sets up two ever-present parallels. While things are kept neat and tidy during daytime with sanctioned events and lawful racing where you bring in the big bucks, after dark the streets go rogue, with the risk-and-reward part of the game weighing in as you build your rep(utation). Both are needed to unlock parts, upgrades and events, but thankfully, there’s no rigid linearity: you choose how to progress, with no set path to follow. The daytime roster includes on and off-road events, each category with its respective subplot. Since the names are self-explanatory, there’s not much to highlight, so I think this’d be a good time to talk about the physics. Oh, the physics. Frankly, Heat has the best handling model since Rivals. It’s snappy and precise, surfaces are well differentiated, and the cars feel heavy enough. My problem lies —entering subjective territory here— in the drift mechanic. I’ve found Heat’s brake-to-drift to be inconsistent and/or unresponsive, most frequently while at very high speeds. Driving the same car through the same corner can yield substantially different results. Sometimes a quick brake tap will suffice, but others a long hold (and a greater loss of speed) is needed. As a NFS tryhard, this grinds my gears pretty badly, even more so because of the grip playstyle’s utter uncompetitiveness (reoccurring issue since 2015, lads). I can envision the angry mob, pitchforks in hand, chanting “Skill issue! Get good!”. You’re free to judge, and I understand if you’re skeptical, but I’m fairly confident that after thousands of hours in many, many racing games I’m not as incompetent at playing them as these claims may make it seem. I have my complaints with the full-fledged drift trials (odd physics) and the offroad events (why is there a speed limiter???) as well, but I’ll spare you that part. ‘Tis only under the veil of night that the cops come out of their lairs. With each completed race more eyes are laid on you, and before long the sirens will be on your tail. The game encourages audacity, inciting you to raise the stakes with high-heat races and enticing rewards, so there are enough incentives to go all-out against a police force that finally poses a challenge again. Sadly, however, the thrills are sorely hampered by some salient balancing deficiencies. The sweet spot is in the mid-game, a small window in which the pursuits are most exciting, but otherwise, they’re not as good as early reviews made them out to be. With the first couple clunkers, they’re nigh impossible to deal with due to the absence of Heat Level caps —while these were present in games such as MW ‘05, here you can get Heat 5 cops after you right from the get-go— but worry not: slap some Ultimate + parts into your shitbox and you’ll be untouchable. The latter scenario is particularly worrying, since it’s where you should spend most of your time after the (very short) campaign is finished. If your car is fast enough, the chases lose their charm, even with max Heat. They’re no pushovers, don’t get me wrong, but they’re simply not good enough to keep things interesting on the long run. Moreover, other issues make the experience less enjoyable. Are the rhinos piloted by lobotomized orangutans? Not a single one managed to hit its target (namely, my car) in 60+ hours of game time. And why in the flying fuck do I get a warning when they’re coming up?! I want them to take me by surprise! They’re already bad as is… And why is the damage system so fickle? Little taps from a cop will knock off a quarter of my health bar, but I can take a 200-mile-an-hour head-on collision with a sixteen-wheeler like it’s nothing? Respectfully, bollocks. Moving on, we have the map. Vast, open flatlands connect with weaving hillsides and sharp city turns to give life to Palm City. The game’s fantastic track design relies on the variety to seamlessly flow from high-speed highways to slower, more technical sections, so the roads themselves are suited to host great racing. Despite this, though, their surroundings can feel barren, and that’s due, I feel, to the limited reach of the art direction’s work. The stunning neon-drenched aesthetic has a lot going for it, as seen in the menus, loading screens, and events. It’s a shame that it lacks cohesion with the rest of the game. Its presence is not overarching, as it was in games like ProStreet; some parts of the map, like the Downtown and Eden Shores, are ostentatious and fit squarely into the vibe, while most others, if anything, just plaster street art on the nearest wall, seemingly at random. The atmosphere suffered by the hand of these insipid sections, with the mostly appalling and out-of-place OST not doing it any favors either. Customization-wise, Need For Speed always delivers. It’s as deep and engaging as ever, with great additions such as wide-ranging suspension, differential and tire compound setups, engine swaps, and exhaust tuning. I have, nevertheless, a bone to pick here once again. I hold my biggest grudge against the innacuracy of the stats, which are not entirely representative of performance. Weight, for example, seems to play a big role, but one that is unaccounted for. This is most evident when playing around with engine swaps. There’s also the tedious navigation of the garage menus. Wanna put some Work rims on your car? You gotta scroll for a gazillion hours until you get there. Simple filters could’ve avoided that. For a game with so much customization at the player’s disposal, Heat has a sizable car list, even if it is quite bloated with variants (the same car can appear two or three times if Cabrios and Special Editions are considered). If you wish to be competitive, however, you’re forever stuck with the same three or four meta cars, because the RSR is STILL FUCKING BROKEN and the performance gap between cars is RIDICULOUS. I don’t expect all cars to be exactly equal, but for the love of God, TRY to level the playing field. Growing accustomed to the meta cars completely sucks the joy out of driving anything else. Lastly, the elephant in the room. Heat’s longevity is severely crippled by its practically nonexistent post-game appeal. Yes, there are collectibles and activities scattered around the map, but they are to be engaged with sporadically rather than systematically (completing them in bulk is not at all enjoyable). Yes, you can test and develop new builds, but most of them will end up feeling like slowpokes because of the meta cars. Yes, there are time trials, and crews, and a half-assed multiplayer, but they’re no replacement for proper PvP. None of this will be changing anytime soon. EA pulled the plug on Ghost and Heat died with it. It now lies dormant, forever doomed, never to become what it should have been. If you’re still reading at this point, you probably think I dislike this game. I do not. Not at all. I am simply disheartened with the sisyphean cycle of modern NFS games. Great ideas, not so great execution, rushed development, underwhelming results, despair. Rinse and repeat. Corporate greed has shattered my gaming hopes and dreams time and again, and I’m sick and tired of seeing it. When will it end. I don't know how many fuck-it-we-balls I got left in me. Thank you, Ghost, for this parting gift. You tried your best. (Played on PS4)