Grind asphalt, skid, smash protective curbs, knock down barriers and then run away from the police as if there was no tomorrow. The humid heat of the Florida, the neon lights of Palm City, the wind that blows your hand out the window as you say goodbye to your crew mate and go to throw down a billboard scattered somewhere. Burnout Paradise, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit e Need For Speed Most Wanted; the tuning of NFS Underground and the visual imagery of a Fast & Furious made better than movies.
In a slightly controlled stream of consciousness, these are the first things that came to mind after my experience with the new chapter of the most famous racing game of Electronic Arts. Need For Speed Heat is a reboot for the series, light years away from the wacky compulsive loot of Need For Speed ​​Payback and much closer to the playful roots of the saga. There are supercars of Need For Speed ​​Hot Pursuit, beautiful and very colorful; there are the aesthetic and performance changes of Need For Speed ​​Underground; there is the open world and the hard arm of the law as in Need For Speed Most Wanted.
Traveling outside the cities you feel the insights taken from Forza Horizon, one perceives the inspiration of the title to an absolute cornerstone such as Burnout Paradise, you smell the tire smell when you find yourself drifting down the mountain roads that I miss Need For Speed ​​Carbon or Initial D, you feel the sense of speed when to escape the police you jump at more than two hundred kilometers per hour from a ramp positioned on the top of a hill.
The substance appears to be one: Need For Speed ​​Heat is the result of a painstaking work by Ghost Games and it is the best chapter of the saga from many points of view released over the last few years.
Let's see why this is in more detail.
Social climbing.
Need For Speed ​​Heat, abandon the super cinematic impulses of his older brother Payback, decides to keep it simple and offers players a functional and linear plot, perfectly in the stylistic breath of a Fast & Furious or of an Need For Speed Most Wanted. Alongside Ana, Lucas, Wayne and other characters we will find ourselves slowly climbing what is the social fabric that belongs to the world of road racing, in an attempt to enter the elite of the environment: the so-called League.
Because yes, Palm City, the city where the events of the game are set is none other than the favorite amusement park of all the American / world street racing subculture, both legal and illegal. The city at morning organizes motoring events on circuits obtained from city streets, at night it changes in a jungle of illegal races, chases and other such amenities. To try to rebalance this precarious security situation, especially from the point of view for the inhabitants, the city police arrive with a policy that can be summed up in a very violent iron fist.
This narrative choice is reflected in the gameplay of the title, split halfway between life a Palm City during the day and at night. During the day the town will be comparable to the nations painted in the various Forza Horizon, magnificent places where you can run around almost freely with your car surrounded by people interested in the phenomenon. These races, comparable to those we find in more canonical driving titles like GRID, they are characterized by the presence of protections such as curbs or guardrails, by the absence of traffic and by rather small prize pools; at night, as expected, everything will change.
When the moon shines high in the sky, Palm City will reveal its darker side: the prize pools will become juicier, the races less controlled, the traffic intense and the police will continually peep out, ready to interrupt our fun. As in the old chapters of the saga, or in a more recent one Grande Theft Auto, the arrival of the law on the roads of Palm City it will complicate dealing with police cars everywhere ready to vent their frustration on our cars.
Escape from the skidding police.
If during the day we find ourselves in our hands a rather classic driving video game, during the night the title will re-propose the playful structure that made Most Wanted's fortune. The Palm City police, angry as never before, will not really miss an opportunity to come after us with the sirens going in an attempt to stop our climb. These pursuits, if nullified with a stylish escape, will lead to an increase in our level of reputation within the world of clandestine racing by paving the way for new components, new cars to buy or new races to participate in.
In this sense, it is very soon understood how the game progression within Need For Speed ​​Heat is connected to both macrocosms: without the reputation obtained during the night escapes it will not be possible to unlock the upgrades or the cars; these, once unlocked, will be purchased with the money earned in a simple way with the daytime races or sweaty through the night competitions. The progression of the title, linked to the presence of a long series of narrative missions with the supporting actors described above, is characterized by a continuous coming and going between the two macro sections of the title for a very interesting mix that will attack the player to the screen for twenty comfortable hours limiting itself solely to the single player sector.
Fortunately for us, a similar progression system comes with a driving system who, net of some doubts, manages to defend himself very well and who knows how to be fun. The title is a arcade racing spurio, with some simracer ambitions. Making a car cross for a spectacular drift is a matter of a double tap on the brake or accelerator and the presence of live tuning for the hardness of the steering, for the downforce and for the traction control allow the most geek player to create his ideal driving environment, also making life easier for novices.
Despite all these characteristics, at a first approach it is undeniable talk about heaviness when, pad in hand, it will give soul to the gas. The feeling of heaviness and lack of reactivity will be mitigated as the power of the cars increases but it remains, perhaps, the biggest issue of the title: the arcade soul of the title appears greatly weakened during the early stages and never reaches the playfulness of Playground Games titles or the aforementioned Burnout Paradise; the soul of the title seems to want to please both arcade and non-arcade players, putting their foot in two brackets without really excelling.
Almost completely absent is the elastic effect that haunts the competitions of many sports video games: with skill it will be possible to overcome one's opponents and progressively gain greater advantages; slightly different speech should be made instead for the meetings with the police, whose cars seem animated by engines of unprecedented power that will give us more than a headache.
I want this here, this here.
What do you do in Need for Speed when you don't have your butt positioned on the sports seat of your car?
You position yourself in the garage in an attempt to get the best possible version of your car, all by analyzing statistics, changing colors and observing the smallest details.
Where Need For Speed ​​Heat is unrivaled in the customization sector, with practically any component of the machine modifiable according to a considerable range of products. Spoilers, ailerons, side skirts, bonnets, air intakes, chrome plating, aesthetic kits, numbers, bonnets, roofs and so on and so forth.
In living memory the title is also one of the very few that allows players to modify the noise produced by the engine according to four different parameters, giving a touch truly unique to each vehicle.
To this we must reasonably add a system of upgrades with about fifteen different slots, including a couple of customizations dedicated to our arguments with the hard arm of the law; through considerable amounts of money it will be possible to transform even the least performing car into a vehicle worthy of a race at high speed, with dedication and pennies. As if all this weren't enough, in Need For Speed ​​Heat it will also be possible customize your avatar through the presence of special clothing and bizarre hairstyles, to be proudly shown to one's opponents at each of our first positions.
Speaking of vehicles, on the other hand, we are dealing with a cornucopia of possibilities: the title has, without dlc, one hundred and twenty-seven cars of which thirty can be unlocked through collectibles.
These vehicles see big brands give them a good reason: from the European supercars of Ferrari e Lamborghini, to the hypercars of Keonisegg e Mclaren without forgetting everything that is almost commercially affordable for human beings. The sense of title progression will be even more accentuated by having mediocre cars like 180 Nissan 1996SX Type X Coupe o old beetles in a sporty version as starting points, to then reach almost four hundred kilometers per hour riding beasts worth millions of euros appropriately modified.
In such an open world, the player he will find himself competing in events scattered throughout the neighborhoods, remembering to explore the crevices to find graffiti to apply on your car or to knock down road signs in order to earn respect and money; an arcade intuition that will tickle the tummy of all passionate completists and that allows you to unplug between races.
Style and colors.
Need For Speed ​​Heat immediately presents itself to the player with a beautiful glance: a visual identity made of neon lights, bold characters and inyourface aesthetics accompany a geographically interesting city, made up of different neighborhoods separated by an almost bucolic hinterland. Palm City and a little' Miami and a little Los Angeles, with intricate neighborhoods full of interchanges and fast-paced streets. The open world, big enough, gives a certain variety to game situations, ranging from the refineries in the west to the more touristic districts of the east; from the roads wrapped by the containers of the port area to the ups and downs of the hills that recall the bean sprouts of Japanese memory.
Il Frostbite Engine 3, exploited here in a painstaking way, also offers on Playstation 4 base a good graphics quality with vibrant colors and distant horizons; despite some smudging due to visible aliasing or strange polygonal interpenetrations, the title maintains the thirty frames per second with a certain constancy. These 30FPS per second slightly cripple the sensation of speed but still win in solidity, managing not to affect the feeling of fun that you get while playing. The effect of the rain is also very good, giving even more atmosphere to what is one of the most fascinating nights that we have happened to face in the world of video games; traveling on the highways, surrounded by neon lights and speeding cars, will surely succeed in detaching the player's smiles due to the pleasantness of the whole.
Curiously handled is the soundtrack: the title presence substantially cinque playlist made from a dozen pieces: two playlists are for open world (day and night), two for races (day and night) and one for customization and the garage in general. It is possible to skip track by pressing a convenient button but it is also impossible to modify in any way the contents of the same, giving the feeling of a step backwards compared to the titles of the brand of ten years ago with interesting customization options. In any case, the songs range from American trap, modern electro house and vintage drum and bass; a very interesting blend that will be able to break through with some pieces even in the hearts of the layman and that are well suited to the proposed situations.
Electronic Arts e Ghost Studios they have done a good job from the point of view of accessibility options, giving the title a good number of customizations to meet the less fortunate players and that it lacks only specific options for motor problems; undoubtedly the path followed by the brand in this sense is the right one.
And the multiplayer?
Need For Speed ​​Heat also has a multiplayer compartment which we tried without going into detail. You can form your own crew to compete with and challenge other players on the game map in races, chases and other activities. The potential of this sector can be immediately understood, thanks to the game map and the playful possibilities, but due to time constraints it was not possible for us to test its characteristics; we can only confirm the robustness of the game servers, free from crashes and slowdowns.
After the launch of the game, when the servers are more populated, we will try the multiplayer sector again in order to be able to come up with an overall judgment.
Need For Speed ​​Heat is the video game of the series that we feel dispassionately recommend a little to everyone: newcomers to driving games, fans of the brand and experts looking for a vast fleet of cars mixed with a gameplay able to become intriguing with the right settings. The title has a really not bad graphic sector, with an unexpectedly solid framerate on Playstation 4 (base) and with a really interesting glance thanks also to the visual identity of the series. To make the nose turn up a bit is the gameplay with some imperfections, such as the lack of reactivity that at times conveys a sense of heaviness. Fortunately, this is mitigated by the interesting progression system, divided into two large macro categories of challenges and by the impressive car customization system, with upgrades and customizations for all tastes. The title, in essence, is a surprise for all those who had been burned by the last chapter of the saga with great potential also from the multiplayer point of view.
