More Cops, More Craziness: Need for Speed is Back this Fall with NFS: Heat
Before there was Gran Turismo or Forza there was Need for Speed—EA's long-running racing franchise that's reinvented and rebooted itself several times in the last decade with mixed results. After taking a short hiatus following 2017's Need for Speed:Payback, the series will be returning this fall with a new game titled Need for Speed:Heat.
Perhaps not surprisingly, NFS:Heat has the series returning with the same things it's been known for in recent years—including a heavy dose of street racing, police chases and a story that takes itself rather seriously. Rather than the Las Vegas-based city featured in the previous game, Heat takes place in the fictional Palm City, which looks heavily based on Miami.
This time the game will focus on both sanctioned racing events held during daylight hours and the underground gatherings held at night time, with different leveling systems in place for each type of racing.
Wild police chases have been a part of Need for Speed games for decades, and Heat seems to go heavy on running from the law with the trailer showing the cops driving everything from old Crown Vics to modified Corvettes.
While the gameplay has been far from realistic, the last couple NFS games have been heavy on car customization featuring tons of real life brands and Heat seems feature extensive car customization options once again. A little more unexpected is the fact the game seems to be using a Volvo Polestar 1 as its hero car, although plenty of more traditional tuner and exotic cars are featured as well.
When we played the last Need for Speed game, we found it offered a unique mix of cars and modification options, a cool city to play in but its driving physics and especially its upgrade system were quite frustrating. Here's hoping the new game has seen some improvements in those areas.
You can watch the debut trailer for Need for Speed:Heat above. It will launch on November 8 for PlayStation 4, XBox One and Windows PC.
If you are looking for an entirely different kind of racing game experience, be sure to check out our impressions on a wild game called BeamNG.
