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After revisiting Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 I felt the itch to check what new Need for Speed games had the same excitement. Need for Speed Heat caught my eye over Carbon and figured I'd give it a shot. In short, visually appealing, a fun cross between arcade and simulation (more so on the arcade side), however it comes up short on the Hot Pursuit side. Certainly worth it on sale - full price is way too steep for what it is. The open world concept is awesome, but doesn't feel like it was fully utilized.
Need for Speed Heat's gameplay is decently solid all around, but depending on whose playing is going to decide whether that's a good or bad way to describe a game. Need for Speed Heat (NfSH) delivers a very solid experience upon start up; it makes an effort to immerse the player into the game very quickly. Immediately into the game the player is thrown into a night race in Palm City. Upon finishing the race there is a quick cinematic sequence that explains the premise of the game, which of course involves racers and police. The twist is (without trying to ruin it too much) the police aren't exactly what they claim to be, especially when it comes to dealing with racers. Beyond the story the game follows a day and night system. Day allows the player to be in sanction races and police aren't really paying attention unless the player outwardly breaks the law right in front of them. At night the police are on high alert and completing races will generally raise heat on the player. Day provides opportunities to make money while night provides opportunities to increase rep. Money obviously is used to upgrade and purchase new parts or vehicles, but without Rep the player cannot purchase new parts or vehicles. Little insidious if you think about it. The driving itself is alright and feels like Heat follows more of a drifting scheme. Most races will require the player to drift through turns and rarely will require players to use their actual brakes. The racing for the most part feels fine once the player adjusts to the control scheme, however the game does leave a bit of a feeling like something extra is missing from the racing formula.
The biggest issue I have with the game is the way the crash system is set up. One would think after years of pumping out NfS games that there would be a better collision system. It's difficult to describe the system here as there is impact, but it doesn't equate to what should happen to the car - even for an arcade leaning style game. Burnout did a phenomenal job of creating crash scenarios where most of the time everything felt balanced if a player was bumped into a barrier. Heck, Flatout also did awesome with their collision engine. Here... just feels like rectangular blocks hitting one another. This is an issue especially when the game relies on incorporating police cars chasing down and bumping the player cars. Further, the police seem to jump in and out of no where. It's sort of difficult to pinpoint the best way to lose the police, but it seems like a solid nitro boost and jump are usually the best way to get away (until they magically somehow catch up). To take it even further there is absolutely no way to play as police in NfSH, which is ironic. It's unfortunate that the last good Need for Speed game that came out was Hot Pursuit 2 from 2002 where the player can be both a racer and a police vehicle. I was hopeful for this NfS, but my world quickly came crashing down after I wanted to try taking down other players. Huge missed opportunity - or as Family Guy liked to say, "swing and a miss".
The graphics and visuals are absolutely stunning. The neon 70's Miami colour theme was an awesome choice for the game, and holds itself true whether in-game or moving about in the menus. The user interface is quick and simple to use, and was also really well designed. Switching from day and night mode is very easy to do and pausing mid game will literally freeze the player's car and show a sagittal view of the car. The game absolutely nailed the design scheme across the board in the game. The environment and cars don't take too much damage, but players are able to burst through some trees, signs, and fences. Cars of course are customizable whether its style or performance. The sounds and music were well done. The soundtrack is pretty solid (as most EA games do choose their music wisely) and a lot of sound effects are included in the game. Whether the car sounds are accurate or not will depend on the person revving the engine. A few of the cars that I recognize or have been around do sound close to the actual sound they would make it real life. Overall, this domain was done a lot better than the gameplay domain.
Overall, a decent game. It's fun, it has it's moments. Races are easy to find, the player can teleport between garages once they're discovered, cars are varied and allow for a lot of customizable options, and there is a variation between races. The races aren't exactly daunting to complete and aren't days long either. The issue? I think it is way overpriced for a game that came out years ago, in addition to it lacking the ability to do a Hot Pursuit mode (where the player can become the police). As usual, EA is being EA - and it sort of sucks to see because they used to be an amazing company that created extremely fun games (Nightfire, Fifa Street, Medal of Honour, SSX Tricky, Burnout, etc...). NfSH seems like a lot of flashy lights, but when those lights turn off, then the real image behind the lights is finally displayed - and its not exactly pretty, and its not exactly ugly. This one is getting a thumbs down not because it sucks, but because it let me down. Was fun to play through especially with its sale price, but just left me wanting to go back to NfS Hot Pursuit 2 to be both a racer and a cop-per. Don't see why playing online wouldn't involve trying to pull over your friends.


RATING: 7.45/10




      Gameplay
      B-


      Story / Campaign
      B-


      Visuals / User Interface
      A-


      Sounds / Music
      B-


      Replay-ability
      C+


      Overall
      C+