Studio Ghost, creator of the new NFS, immediately admitted that Heat tried to combine elements of the three most successful Need for Speed. Street-racing and tuning from Underground, daytime races “by the rules” from Pro Street and road battles with the police from Most Wanted – all this is in Heat. Before the release it seemed that this mishmash of successful ideas will not work, but it turned out great. For the first time in many years, there is nothing in the new NFS that would ruin everything.
Day and Night
New game Need For Speed Heat is divided into two large blocks – day and night. There are legal races during the day, and at night all riders turn into street racers outlawed. It is in the dark time of the day that the police brutalizes so that after a failed chase you can lose half of your earned money and lose your reputation. The time of day does not change dynamically, and if desired, you can ride as much as you want in the sun-drenched streets. And at night, too. “Switch” between day and night will be in the garage (sometimes it happens automatically during the plot missions). It sounds very strange, but it still works – largely due to the clear structure of the game and a clear progression system.
During the day, you get money for winning the races, and at night – reputation. It is the same experience: you gain the right amount of reputation points and move to a new level, from which you open the machines, parts, races and tasks. Everything is as simple as possible: during the day you win races and get money, at night you increase your reputation and open new content, then spend your earned money on it – and everything is new.
For the sake of convenience, the developers even came up with “an indicator of the total power of your machine. Some cars have it lower, others have it higher (here everything is logical and depends on what kind of car it is), but you can increase it through tuning. Every race or story mission is also marked with such indicators. And if you and the car with a capacity of 130 climbed into the race, which says 140 +, it’s your fault. You can win, of course, but it’s extremely difficult.
You have to get used to Need for Speed: Heat physics, but it’s worth it. The behavior of the machines in the new NFS is something between Need for Speed: Heat and Payback. Sports cars are still very easy to skid if they are released in a corner and then pressed with force, but on the whole they feel heavier than in the previous part of the series. At first, physics is confusing, but once you stop fighting it and accept the rules of the game, everything gets better. Especially as time goes by, faster and more maneuverable cars appear, you get used to driving, you start to enjoy it and learn to enter the curves in the skid because it is important here.
First of all, most tracks in Heat have extremely wide turns, which are only skidding and you need to enter – otherwise you will be overtaken by them. Secondly, in this NFS, you won’t be able to turn with the bumpers – they either don’t turn at all, or they fly away when you touch the body. So, the skidding in corners should really be trained – it will be useful in the drift as well.
In Need for Speed: Heat are worthy opponents, and the cops are really scary beasts. Yes, AI opponents often cheat (say, almost do not lose speed at collision with traffic), but against them it is interesting and difficult to race – especially when between the capacity of your car and the capacity necessary for the race, the minimum gap. Opponents cleverly go through turns and when they break forward, do not let you overtake yourself.
If you like games with weapons, we recommend you to try the cool Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 game.