Since its controversial announcement, Need for Speed: Heat has left racing fans stalling at the starting block. Many racing aficionados have wondered why EA has been so quiet about the game. At E3 2019, Need for Speed: Heat was nowhere to be seen, despite the game being leaked. With no official word, many started to question the supposed leak as a rumor and ultimately dismissed it. This dismissal would then be blown away in the August heat when EA would officially announce Need for Speed: Heat. Why would EA wait so long to announce a game launching later this year?
On October 11th, EA announced that Need for Speed: Heat had gone Gold. This phrasing, for those unaware, means that the first copies of NFS Heat have gone to be printed and then distributed. In celebration of this event, EA released two new clips to celebrate. The first clip details the new car repair system using gas stations and the other a car doing a donut.
🎵 You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round 🎵🍩 delivery in #NFSHeat pic.twitter.com/EX8F2E84rp
— Ben Walke (@BenWalke) October 9, 2019
Feeling the heat 🔥 Gas stations have you covered 🛠️ #NFSHeat pic.twitter.com/LnxilLeyuI
— Ben Walke (@BenWalke) October 10, 2019
Both clips do a great job of showing the visuals of the game. Since the official Gold announcement, Ben Walke has shared additional clips, as well as the visual layout of the map. Below is an excerpt from EA DICE stating why they believe Need for Speed: Heat to contain their “Best World”.
Before driving games became open-world, designers could craft race routes to perfection, packaging high speed straights, technically challenging sequences and epic scenery to dramatic effect.
With NFS Heat, our approach was to start by building a solid set of race routes, then tune and craft them to the landscape around them. We incorporated epic scale landmarks, spectacular vista reveals, sequences of perfectly-driftable turns and dramatic changes of scenery to try and focus the experience on amazing racing.
We then set about adding more challenging, technical routes because they were more fun, and focused our efforts on reducing the frustration when you got it wrong.
We removed blind turns, so you’d always have time to react to the challenges in the route, and we removed hard-stops in the scenery. We wanted to make something fast, fluid and uninterrupted – a rewind-free experience that demanded more forgiving route design.
We loaded run-off areas with destructible scenery, so even if you make a mistake and slide off a particularly challenging corner, you don’t need to respawn – you just barrel through a load of props and keep going. It’s fast, fun and easily the most visceral driving experience we’ve ever built.
Impressions
After reading the developer’s statements regarding Need for Speed: Heat, we are excited to see what Ghost Games and EA have to show. In anticipation of NFS Heat, I decided to download Need for Speed Payback and see what people did not like about the game as it didn’t score well at all. After an hour of racing, I was able to understand the controversy behind the game. Upgrades were on a rotating timer and cosmetics were behind a loot box system. Ghost Games has stated that the new game will not have any loot boxes or microtransactions. However, there will be a time-save pack, which will show all the collectibles on the map. The story for Payback was interesting and reminded us of the faction system of Need for Speed: Carbon.
Ghost stated that they want Need for Speed: Heat to feel like fan favorites in the Need for Speed franchise, most notably Most Wanted ‘05 and Underground. As a long-time Need for Speed fan, the last few titles of the franchise have been rather lackluster. Either the story has been interesting and the customization lackluster or vice-versa. Need for Speed (2015) gave the impression that Need for Speed was back and heading in the right direction but Payback was a setback. The visual appearance of NFS Heat looks amazing and as realistic as possible.
Hopefully, if all this is true, Need for Speed: Heat might be the game to revive the tarnished Need for Speed reputation. The lack of marketing and ads for Heat feels like EA may not have faith in it. If Heat goes over well, we could see Need For Speed: Heat usher in a new era of Need for Speed. Will NFS Heat exceed expectations or will it be a burnout? We will just have to wait and see.
For more Need for Speed: Heat news, check out the formal announcement.
Don't blow your load all at once, use the fun button wisely #NFSHeat pic.twitter.com/u8khokMVhZ
— Ben Walke (@BenWalke) October 12, 2019
