Solid, fast, controllable driving
Beautiful licensed cars with great-looking mods
The scoring system for the night is well designed
Samey gameplay that rarely excites
Surviving the night can feel more 🌟like luck than skill
All been done (better) before
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It’s fair to say Need For Speed Underground 2 remains the peak of the street racing side of the series. We’ve had better graphics, bigger environments, online integration and pretty much every other modern mechanism available, but stil🍎l it’s the one game that fans have longed to see rebooted the most. Well, Need for Speed Heat is here to have another stab at the formula, this time adding laid-back daytime driving to emphasise the action of the ღstreets at night. It’s a great idea, especially when you add the ‘Heat’ reputation multiplier to literally raise the stakes, but this game still feels like a modestly tuned engine starting from cold instead of a snarling beast revving at the limiter.
Release Date: November 8, 2019
Platform(s): PS4, Xbox One, PC
Developer/Publisher: Ghost Games / Electronic Arts
St💦ory-wise, it’s yet another ‘rookie racer looks to make a name for themselves’ narrative that’s so well-trodden it’s down to bedrock. You can choose any of the preset avatars be the lead role, even if what appears to be a spunky protagonist turns out to look like a complete idiot and hilariously out of their depth. Cut scenes like the ‘hiding behind stuff in the same room to eavesdrop’ bit are completely unbelievable, and only the middle of the main story has any emotional clout. It’s at least decently voiced and there’s always radio chatter to keep you company, but you never feel like you’re racing against an actual awe-inspiring league of ace drivers.
Ah yes, the street racing scene here is an odd one. By day, it’s very civilised as you enter race events to earn ‘bank’ (why can’t they just call it ‘money’?) and visit dealerships to buy new cars. It’s a decent racket, earning $25,000 for a five minute race, but you can’t buy decent upgrades unless the dealers respect you enough. You earn respect at night but - aha! - by night, the cops are out in force to take you down. Police intervention can happen at any time, whether it’s mid race, duri༒ng a drift challenge, or even while you’re sat looking at the map screen if you’re online, as the game carries on in the background since it can’t actually pause the action. At least you now have the choice between online and offline play, and it closes the map automatically when you&rs๊quo;re spotted so you at least have a chance to get away.
Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and r🥂acing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after S🧜ega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.
