Need for Speed Heat Standard Edition - Xbox One

One of the funnest racing games ive played in a while. The game engine reminds me of older NFS installments, especially NFS most wanted. It is a bit more "arcade" feeling, which is refreshing after playing Forza Horizon, (not that im complaining about forza haha.) Great car selection and unique take on the cop system. Graphics are impressive for a 2019 release. 4 stars only because it does not have a local multi-player option.

Need For Speed Heat is a nice return to form to arcade and action fun that makes a great Need For Speed game. The game takes place in a fictional city that is based in Miami. The visuals and graphics are great and during the night time it shines due to the neon lights and rain. The physics have been improved since Need For Speed Payback and each car has weight and does not have the floaty and ice feel like prior Need For Spee Games. Also, the live tuning from Payback is brought back into the game and you can change your cars handling on the fly. Another feature, is allowing you to change your performance parts in the menu options; so you can change from a Grip to Rally build instantly. The gameplay is divided into Morning and Night. In the morning, you are competing in sanctioned race events. It is here is where you earn money to buy new cars and upgrades. This gameplay is akin to Need For Speed Prostreet where you compete in race days. There are cops but if you do not start any trouble they will turn a blind eye to you driving in the day. However, at night that's where the Cops and Race come to live. You will be racing to earn reputation to progress the story and cops will come out in full force to stop and shut you down. The longer you will race at night, the more reputation you will earn but the stronger the cops will be to end your night. If you get caught by the Police then you lose all the acquired reputation and money you got that night. So, it is a nice fun risk and reward element to entice players to keep on playing. There are great amount of customization and parts for the cars. Rather than tuning your cars through the controversial card pack mechanic from Payback it goes back to the more traditional tuning system. Also, in Heat you can even do Engine swaps to your car. So, you can put a Rotary engine in your Honda NSX or even put a giant V8 to gives player more choices. Another nice feature is you can change the Exhaust sound for your cars. Only problem I found in the games is there is some mild form of Rubberbanding/Catchup. There will be one car that will always be in the lead and it'll be very difficult to overtake them. However, the problem is mitigated if you exceed the recommended Performance Level rating for each race. Also, there is some minor pop up and texture not rendering when driving. I am playing this on a Xbox 1X when writing this review and your mileage may vary when playing on a regular Xbox 1S. However, despite the minor issues I had, Need For Speed Heat is a great arcade racer and took in a lot of elements that worked in the previous Need For Speed Games. Also, there is no Microtransactions or Lootboxes in this game!!! So, you can earn everything through natural gameplay progression.

I’ve really like the last two NFS games they’ve released the last two years, and for most part this is another good one. Cars, graphics, customization, driving etc are all great. If you’re on next gen with 4K UHD, it’s beautiful how crisp and clear it is. The one thing I still am unsure how I feel about is the Day vs Night racing. Day Races earn $ and Night Racing earns Rep(which you need in order to unlock good parts to spend $from Day racing) however the Cops are no joke at night. Still it’s early for me in game so I’ll post back with an update and final verdict. So far, good game, worth it.

One of the best games in the iconic NFS line up. Definitely recommend if you’re into high intensity racing + tuning/engine swap

The story mode and graphics are pretty good. Alot of cars to choose from.