Need for Speed™ Heat

Without EA App: 6/10
With EA App: 0/10

Either way, game is trash don't buy, pirate it instead.

The coolest phrase from the game: “Live fast, drive hard.”

Need for Speed Heat is a great game that has managed to revive the spirit of classic racing adventures. From the very first minutes, the game impresses with its colorful and diverse nature, offering both night and day races, which resembles a mix of Underground 2 and Most Wanted.

Neon lights, angry bugs and an exciting drive create a unique atmosphere are especially impressive. During the day, the world looks rich and beautiful, offering many opportunities to explore and customize cars and even the main character.

One of the main features of the game is the ability to choose the time of day for the races, which adds replay value. The cars are perfectly controlled, and the tuning allows you to create a unique style.

The plot is not bad and complements the gameplay, making it more intense. The police chases are done at a high level, and this is really one of the best parts of the series in recent times.

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Best nfs from the 2010's!
Decent car list, alright story, runs well.. nitros, well that one is weird a bit... but can get used to it.

if you want a modern nfs buy this one, when it's on its usual huge sale definitely worth every penny.

also look at player numbers... heat got more players still than unbound .. just saying...

Need for Speed Heat delivers fast-paced street racing with an open world to explore. Race by day for cash and by night for reputation, all while customizing your car to perfection. The smooth controls and exciting high-speed chases make every race a blast. It’s a must-play for racing fans!
Also while trying to be and represent your Crew running from POLICE!!!

So far one of the best NFS game, story line , car customization is awesome i love this game still worth playing.

Its one of the best NFS games, both story wise and content wise.. Though some people might find a bit short on the option for cars to choose from, the ones in the game are quite intriguing, and keeps you busy all the time upgrading and customizing. It is worth playing still in 2024-25..

worth playing even with minor desync issues, jumpy cars and weird ahh physics. most goated christmast gift ever.

MUTE the music in the game, open your Spotify/YT Music and listen your F&F/NFS MW 2005/NFS UNGRD2 playlists. Personally, I liked only 2 songs in the game. Gameplay is kinda funny and entertaining

Absolutely loved being busted form behind the cops backshots trying take me out of commission. The rhino is all talk, game.

The game is good, but bc of ea and their stupid separate launchers, its a thumps down.

Do not purchase. The game suffers from massive technical issues derived from the force usage of the EA client. This will manifest in a number of ways, including not letting you even play the game. Massively disappointing.

NFS Studio no longer works and the app is not available for download on play store or app store. Car customisation or paint job not possible inside the game.

If you are looking for this don't bother buying the game even if its free.

I honestly thought I'd hate this game completely. That's why I never bought it. Though I finally decided fuck it, what's so wrong with it, bought it on a steep discount and played it for a bit. Well 5 hours after buying it I was still playing it and going crazy.

This is certainly some of the better arcade like games I've played, the cops are annoying as hell, the NPC's are about as dumb as it could possible ever get but that's just funny I guess.

The cars customisation is immense and very, very delightful to see such detail. Forza could learn from this.. Just sayin-

If you’re looking for a game that makes you feel like a speed demon and a car enthusiast at the same time, then NFS Heat is the ticket to your personal Fast & Furious movie. I’ve clocked in 83 hours (yes, 83 hours—no shame here, just pure adrenaline), and let me tell you, it’s like living in a world where the only thing that matters is your ability to outrun the cops and your “need for speed” is never satisfied.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely—if you enjoy:

Endless car customization: Want to make your car look like it’s straight out of a sci-fi movie? NFS Heat’s got you covered. Who needs practicality when your car can have neon underglow that could be seen from space?

Street racing at night: If you ever wanted to experience what it feels like to live in every racing movie ever made, this is it. Picture this: you're racing through the city like the world is watching. (Spoiler: it’s just the AI, but still, feels cool.)

Cops that are way too dedicated: The game is like the cops in NFS Heat took “catching criminals” to a whole new level, which means you’ll be running for your life while listening to thumping bass. 10/10, would recommend.

So, if you’re okay with the occasional "Why am I being chased by a helicopter?!" moment, NFS Heat will be your perfect escape. Bonus points for pretending you're Vin Diesel while cruising down the highway. Grab it and go fast... really, really fast.

I was really happy that this AAA game was at 95% discount, which is rare for this tier of games but I know why it so.

This game is so bad that it literally melted my brain, the game starts with a so barebones generic ahh cutscene of some NPCs saying to the media, "we are cops and very very corrupt, and we say this on national tv". The race after the cutscene is purely scripted and doesn't matter at all and who in their right fucking mind binds the tab key to pause menu by default in their game, you must have to sick in the head to do that, fuck you that EA dev.

The optimisation is so poor in this game that you can see lod models of grass, bushes, poles, buildings etc even when you are static and running at ultra graphics preset at 60 fps. I would gladly poke my eyes with a fucking chopstick if it prevents me from looking at this game.

I couldn't even play this for a whole hour due to its issues. Refunded immediately

There is zero chance they are not paying people to write positive reviews. This game is garbage.

Forgot to mention- not even worth the 3$ I paid for it.

Is an excellent game. Few issues though. HDR is sometimes on 'auto' by default which can cause extra greyness on screens that don't support HDR. EA App/Launcher is required to use the game. EA App must be in the background while playing. EA account required. Some controllers (such as PlayStation) may not be identified by the game and it will show Xbox prompts. WASD can't be used to navigate the menu. Mouse can't be used to look around your car (you must use arrow keys instead). Performance may be terrible when launching this game, to fix this create a text file in windows notepad named user.cfg with this inside it:

Thread.ProcessorCount 4
Thread.MaxProcessorCount 4
Thread.MinFreeProcessorCount 0
Thread.JobThreadPriority 0
GstRender.Thread.MaxProcessorCount 8

This should fix most performance issues. Overall it is an excellent game, just a bad pc port. Most of these issues can be bypassed by applying the user.cfg fix, using a controller and turning off HDR if not supported. Just the stupid EA app ones cant be fixed.

Note: also game is a bit grindy

very poor port of the game.. low fps on a high end pc.. i can run all other games around 70 to 100 fps.. but this one is a no go.. i have tried to do the cpu mod with no noticable changes.. avoid this game if you dont own a 1 million $$ tesla build pc!

This game is just horrible. Cringe dialogue, cringe characters, and driving feels like shit. Even on sale, it's not worth it.

First, it IS very annoying that EA forces you to install yet another launcher. Also annoying that it is EA in general. This game is on par with EA's "Give them what they want to maximize profit instead of focusing on satisfying gameplay, storyline, and mechanics" motto. You can feel the AI reacting to you, and your controller's input throughout the entire game very transparently.

Second, the dynamic AI makes the game seem very inorganic. Both in races, and car chases. For example, if you enter a race that is recommended 180 with a 200 rating car, all of the racers except one fall way behind. So you're only ever racing against 1 other AI. This makes it feel like it's not a good race. Might as well be only 2 cars in the race. The one car that you're racing against seems to have just a faster engine, so you have to beat them in your racing lines to get ahead of them, and they'll gain on you on straights.

When you're getting chased by cops, it's obvious that the AI is reacting to your controller input. I'm sorry, but a cop maintaining a position in front of you over 100MPH would never happen. You can have one cop in front, one left, one right, and if you break all three of them brake at the same time you do. They're glued to you the entire time unless you're way faster than they are, which doesn't happen until later in the game. The mechanics are easily broken by driving through tight spaces and taking jumps instead of losing them because of how you take turns or how good of a driver you are. If you're caught in the open with no buildings around and no jumps, unless you have a 300+ vehicle that can outrun them, and below heat level 3, you're just caught.

It also seems like you can't pit the cops at all. In what world would street racing cars be able to damage cop cars more than cop cars damaged them in a collision? Crashes in general seem fake, and unsatisfying. Almost like a cheesy arcade game that is trying to be a serious racing game.

I also watched the cops after a few night races, and every time after I lost them, the AI immediately either went to drive by the closest safehouse, or if I was hiding in some buildings, they circled like they knew I was there, but couldn't drive off the main roads to come get me. So they'll circle 1/2 times, then leave. So after a chase, I basically just have to sit there for them to circle me a bit, then drive by the safehouse before I move out, or risk getting seen again. It was so predictable that I was able to tail the last cop in the line to get to the safehouse.

All these things are immersion-breaking and imho ruin the game feel. There's no point in having the wizard behind the curtain if the curtain is transparent.

Regarding the delux edition: I accidentally bought the deluxe edition from the steam winter sale which came with some free cars. These cars completely invalidate any of the other cars you have access to while you progress, so there's no point in using any of the other cars to progress the storyline until you unlock all the cars, and all the parts because none of them come close to the deluxe edition cars. This made it feel like everything was too easy. Sure, you don't have to use them, but who wouldn't if it gives you an edge right? Even if you don't use them, then it feels like you're intentionally nerfing yourself just to enjoy the game, which doesn't feel good either. It just feels like you paid to beat the game, again making everything feel inorganic and definitely P2W.

I got a job away from IT so I wouldn't have to deal with trying to connect a half dozen corporate systems together. Thanks to EA, I can now have that experience while playing a game! My inbox was empty, but now I have hundreds of authentication emails to treasure! Thanks, EA! ♥️

Poorly optimized, constantly stutters even on low settings and i have a rtx 4060. Wouldn't wast your time or money on this even on sale.

Leaving some bugs aside, this game is stupid when it comes to loose the cops. Go anywhere above heat 2 and you're in for no fun. If this doesn't bother you, it's ok, but prepare to rage.
Later edit after more play: This game is completely retarded! Do 200 mph if you want, cops will be coming and ramming you from behind as if you're parked. Also, hit nos, and they will warp with you, same as the AI opponents. Don't waste your money even if it's on sale, unless you're some die hard fan.

so hard even I already choose the easy mode, I can t even pass the first agility check

Played this game on release, can't remember it was this shit.

Such a pain to control with a drunken camera, you either go from 300 kph to 150kph in corners by breaking in a second, or from 300kph to 150kph in corners by using the handbrake IN A SECOND. I am honestly stunned that I've played this before and didn't leave a review.

Sure the game was 3.49EUR, but I would rather buy 349 banana's.

EA forces you to download their launcher, create an account on their system, spend 20 minutes chosing an ID, sell your soul and then you can try to open the game you had bought half an hour ago.

In game first thing you will notice is that you can't navigate the menus with WASD. There is no way to change this.
If you start the solo campaign you will be forced to watch 7 minutes of cutscenes of the most boring, middle of the road, flat characters posturing about themselves like "We're the cops but we're clearly corrupt hehe."

You're dropped into a race where you cant change the possition of the camera. You will race only knowing what you have 30 feet in front of you because the camera is on your ass. Nothing matters in this race, it's scripted and it doesn't matter if you're in front, behind or sideways the police will do 230 to 300 in a second. If you try to pause the game to change the settings, look for key bindings or anything of the sort, don't bother. ESC does nothing.

After the race there's 5 more minutes of melodramatic cutscene where the cops try to shoot you to send a message to your crew so they stop racing (???). Everything is very stupid and you still can't access any menu.

I'm on character SELECTION, still can't acces menus. I literally had to Alt+F4 to change language. Had to tab out to vent and let people know, this game so far is nothing but an excuse to sell your data to EA through an obnoxious and bad port of a console game to pc, frustration, cringe, tasteless music and wasted time. I would not have bought it if I had known but I'll give it a couple of hours.

It's online btw, you can't just play, EA *MUST* monitor you every second. How are they gonna know where to squeeze profit from if they don't?

TL;DR: Got it on 95% discount (3,49€) and I can't recommend buying it for a price above it.

CONS
- The amount of grinding in this game is absolutely ridiculous: money & rep
- The storyline is incredibly cringe and everyone is on the edge all the time, was it directed by Michael Bay?
- The exit option from the menu sometimes doesn't work, just ALT + F4
- It connects to your EA account and that stuff, why bro?
- Why don't paintjobs show on car previews?

- Why are all characters ugly? why can I switch between them but don't save their outfits? Why are there so many outfits that are recolors of one another but still like 4 haircuts (from 100 something) (clothes are also pretty ugly since they are recolors)

- Cops are insanely overpowered, like you will not outrun them, never, you genuinely have a mod to cap their speed at 190 km/h, 1 9 0 KM/H, HOW BRO? How does a stock police car outrun a Corvette? They are not even affected by the difficulty level of the game

- Poorly optimized, there are performance issues and it is hard to reach 60 avg fps for my poor toaster, also, are there any difference between low and high quality? Am I blind? you gain 12 avg FPS increase by doing so, so i'ts something I guess.

- You have an orientative rating to see if you are prepared for a race or not.. man, did someone genuinely use Math.Random()? I have a 250 car that loses a 140 race but easily wins a 230 one... bear in mind upgrades can give you from 8-12 of this points and you need 2-3 races to buy an upgrade

- The controls? This is the single worst thing I've experienced. Drifting and accelerating is on the same trigger and inputs won't sometimes register, I won't say having my rx7 trying to drift and suddenly accelerating off a cliff ain't funny... but I'm getting really tired.

PROS
- Mods can fix the police and there are various mods that multiply reputation and money
- Car personalization is really cool and there's a lot of variation
- 144 cars, pretty good
- Community painting jobs are insane, you guys make some insane stuff (specially Initial D stuff, huge fan)
- Is acceleration OP?

The irony that this game is priced at $70 and then goes on sale for $3.50 every few months is a red flag for the experience you're going to have playing this game. I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who actually forked over $70 of their hard earned money for this game. Every aspect of this game strives to prop up the facade of a $70 AAA title, and every moment of experience feels like a $3.50 game at best.

All of the racing games that I've played from EA are sub par but this is by far the most pathetic. I don't understand what it is with the trope that all of these racing games insist on sharing. They all have the exact same plot: you're on top of the world, racing in your prime on your last race to victory, then things turn bad, the cops show up, your ride breaks down, you were cheated, you lose the race, you lose your ride, you go to prison, [insert deus ex machina], you're back on your feet, you've got just enough money to buy some POS 80's Nissan or a Ford Mustang, and then you restart your career to reclaim your former glory. The story is god awful and that's the least of the games problems.

YAWN.

They have to do this because they know that the game's racing mechanic can't stand on its own, they have to tease you during the intro with the whole "look how fun it is to race with expensive cars" gimmick to try to keep you on the hook while you spend the next 10 hours racing in trash that you hate.0

The "racing" -- you know, the entire purpose and motivating factor to play the game to begin with -- feels like you're steering a brick through the mud. The "drifting" feature feels like Mario Kart but requires less skill. There is literally zero realism in any way shape or form attributed to any function of this game. "120 MPH" feels more like 70 MPH. If this is racing, it makes Mario Kart 8 feel like Gran Turismo.

Road obstacles are completely inconsequential. You just hit a concrete pillar, tree, light post, or literally any obstacle in the road that would cause immediate and total destruction to your vehicle. No a problem at all, just plow straight through that baby, it will crumble like a piece of dried toast.

The police chasing you at the start of the game is foreshadowing to the remainder of the gameplay outside of the structured "legal" races. You cannot escape. Cops run up on you at 180+ mph, catching up to you without a moment of hesitation or struggle, and then immediately reduce their speed to match yours in order to... i dunno... yell at you? Wag their finger? They poorly sideswipe your car while yelling that you're breaking laws. These fictional super-cop-cars have essentially infinite acceleration and power compared to any of the vehicles that you own. Its an amazingly overpowered show of force that makes you feel both completely incapable of escape and like there are still no consequences your actions; both of which make the police feel completely pointless to the entire premise.

I'm bored even talking about how awful this game is. I had more fun playing Need For Speed Hot Pursuit in like 1998 or whatever year that was. I'll just do that again instead.

But more seriously, if you want an over-the-top action racer that does its job right, go play Paradise City Remastered. It's at least fun to play.

This game is not very fun, at least, not for the limited amount of time I played it. The speed is really weird in this game, where the speedometer will say you're going 60mph when you're clearly going 40 at best. The understeer is atrocious and I mean that at all speeds. I found there was a right turn that I just could NOT take right despite only going 20mph. I was trying to cruise around and enjoy the scenery but the driving is too jank for that. Also, the drift mechanics are weird! The game will try to force you into a drift whenever possible but it's often completely unnecessary and worse than trying to deal with the understeer. Basically, you're always fighting between rampant oversteer or dominating understeer. The cars feel like they're skating on ice, even when it's dry out with clear conditions. Lastly, why is there no first-person POV? I don't want to be a camera attached to the hood of my car, I want to be a cool street racer sitting in the seat of a tricked-out ride.

I was very disappointed by this. I'd like to refund it but I don't want Steam to get mad at me for my third refund in two days. Plus, it was $3. But frankly I'd rather have my $3 back. Maybe I'll give refunding it a shot but we'll see.

The music is awful, too. It's so loud at random moments in time, meaning a fairly inconsistent volume. I decided to turn it off which ended up making another problem worse, that being having to listen to the dialogue. Once I realized the point of the loud music was to drown out the crappy dialouge, I decided I was better off turning off my sound entirely.

I also dislike the way the cars sound in this game. They're always within a 1000rpm of their redline, meaning if you're trying to cruise around at 20mph or so and enjoy the sights, the game will keep you in 1st gear so that all you can hear is your motor screaming for mercy at 6000rpm while it farts relentlessly every time you let off the gas. It's really shocking to see how little consideration joyriding is given in a game all about street culture.

Short and simple, I don't recommend this game. The bones are bad. GTA V does everything this game tries to do but much better, and it came out 7yrs earlier, I believe.

You buy this game on sale to do nighttime cop chases with your friends over console crossplay. It's a pretty simple racer with more arcade handling, and is paired with the typical modern racing game voice acting that makes me instantly mute the "Voice" category in the options menu. Since getting caught at night means losing all of the XP and cash that you could've gotten, seeing your friends get into a bad crash and get cornered as you barely speed past actually has a feeling of tension and excitement not many racing games are able of doing. Otherwise you're breaking up the pace with some simple daytime races.

Super chill game funn to relax and play gets very easy once you've maxed but can still be fun if you have others to play with

Why does my accelerator control my speed and drifting when I also have a handbrake and brake buttons. The quit game button also seems like it's just a suggestion since it takes a few tries to actually quit the game. I got this stupid cheap and still feel like it was kind of a waste, I like the cheesy story thing it has going on but the controls and racing feel terrible. Just spend the extra money and buy Forza instead.

Need for speed as the franchise is one of the best, and Heat brings it back to life after its drop.

There isn't much to say. At least once in your life, you heard about Need for Speed and how great it is, but it fell off a bit, didn't it? Well, Heat is the perfect game if you like older NFS games. It's like them, a classic arcade racing game that has great graphics just like the real need for speed should be.

Worth the price, or just get it on sale then it's even more worth the price.

Altho the new gen NFS players say this is the worst NFS, but I found it to be interesting and good

Not the best racing game out there but it is the first one i played so its kinda have a special place. Good game play, quite a nice story but the sub mission could be longer the drift one is so short and i guess it's just does not have a lot variety of car to choose from. But overall would recommend

well...i been playing the game for a while...and i stop because im busy sometime not always got time.but what do ya know..."Corrupted save file" for me it twice already happen...just made me lose any feel to play because once it says Corrupted...and u press any button...it will consider it to restart option...and thus gone my save game...how many time do i need to grind for the car bro...
so if u see this game sale...maybe u can buy, but also consider if u always want to restart fresh again...just because u didn't play like a week...

Littered with game breaking bugs, just like every other EA game

loved the police ai and difficulty of the races.... was a challenging yet fun experience ... would reccomend 100%

Even though I paid only 1.99€ for this game, it is still not worth it. The game is super buggy, and it does not run smoothly at all. I know it is not my PC, since it is not a bad one. The car customization options are really limited, and that is disappointing for a racing game. When there are games like The Crew Motorfest or Forza Horizon 5 out there, this just feels like a waste of both money and time. Overall, my experience has been pretty frustrating and disappointing.

it's underrated game , you can chill and play it from time to time , it's not complicated or stressful , i feel it's better than the realistic games like Forza

pretty good racing game.
also why am i getting news for NFS unbound if I dont even have it? stop posting unbound patches on heat. oh yeah, also FUCK YOU EA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Game gets stuck on infinite loading screen so I never got to play it.. Even after getting it for 2.99€ I feel robbed.

its fun. my brain turns off enough to go fast and race. :)

This is a simple NFS.
And that's great.
Just a regular arcade driving game where you win races, buy new cars or new parts and becomes faster.
It feels like a Underground2 / Most Wanted gameplay dynamic.

One of the best NFS open map games, likes how there's a story but u can still do stuff after u finished it.

nice game. nice to play. but ea launcher is not launching without internet.

The first modern Need for Speed™ game that I had fun playing, it had promising graphics and modifications that I loved, even spending more time modifying cars than racing.

cant evenplay the game anymore... as it is not launching properly

Be smart, don't purchase this game. Can't set own controller layout, borderline unplayable physics

I like the night time heat system and the risk vs reward feel of it.