Need for Speed ​​Heat looks like the biggest hits in the series – Gamescom 2019

On paper, the 2017 Need For Speed ​​Payback was superb. The promise of a game truly open to the world with incentives for exploration and discovery seemed to be a solid step forward for the series. The problem was that the overall performance was flat. No element was really his main title, and he arrived without a real personality. From what I played Need For Speed ​​Heat, it seems that the goal of Ghost Games is to remedy this lack of sensations by creating a new take. on the series that is inspired by the greatest successes of Need for Speed. Unfortunately, I am not sure that they have reached it.

During my brief period of practice, I was able to taste two races: one round during the day and another at night. Unfortunately, the day race (named Speed ​​Hunter Showdowns) looks like a very standard race affair and is extremely similar to the latest Need For Speed ​​games. It is a great speed, beautiful (even if it is a little devoid of inspiration, the shipping docks are always a source of visual pollution) and has an intense car scramble. The evening race is one in which Heat shines a little more, truly entering a neo-lite atmosphere of the 80s in Miami. This is a new place called Palm City, and even if there is a real place, it's a fictional Miami, much like the Payback's Fortune Valley, which is an ode to Las Vegas from Ghost Game.

Although the races are available in the evening and during the day, it is unclear for the moment whether the game runs on a 24-hour cycle (a first series for the 2017 Payback). What was clear is that there is a real distinction between day and night. Heat looks almost like a game of two halves, each period offering a slightly different style of play. Hope you can manually change the time of day, because at night, Palm City is the perfect place.

The evening races are reminiscent of the well-known classic, Need For Speed ​​Underground, which marked the highlight of the series before former Burnout developers Criterion Games took power in 2010. It seems that the developers also want to feel Underground. given the focus on customizing the car and the characters. These features are something that has always evoked the street racing personalities seen in the early Fast and Furious movies and lost in the newer Need For Speed ​​games. The official revelation revealed on Gamescom's first night, Opening Night Live, was based on this idea, so much so that there was even a pre-release application available to fully prepare your car and character for the launch of the game. game in november.

The evening races still apply the same basic rules and racing rules as those observed during the day, but in addition to the Underground inspirations, what I sampled looked more like more modern and popular entries in the series: Most Wanted and Hot Pursuit. Yes, there is a race, but it is almost secondary compared to the constant threat of cops pursuing you without mercy and who are always brave. The title of the game is personified by your desired level and the extent to which you are pursued is measured by your "heat".

Lawsuits by the police are one of my favorite items in the Need For Speed ​​series and I am happy to see a dedicated return. At the beginning of the match, the police feel pretty aggressive, but it's hard to know where she will go in the final match. The caravan teases the Rhino armored vehicles and helicopters, but maybe I was too good to get the big guns out of the cops.

Most Wanted and Hot Pursuit seem to be the inspirations of the night race (as well as the visual aspects of Underground), but I have hardly seen any sign of the unique and memorable ways to avoid the law in these games. As such, it is hard to believe that it is not simply a basic application of these ideas, rather than the required evolution. During my practice, I received a Killswitch from an AI near the end of the race (a drop resembling a PEM that disrupts the navigation systems), which clearly indicates that there is something inside when he leaves on November 8th. Let's hope it's not just a hunt for mechanics with a new layer of neon paint.

All in all, from my small sample, Need For Speed ​​Heat appears as a hit album rather than as a single take for Need for Speed. It seems to combine elements from all previous entries in the series successfully and combine them to create a fun experience. But I'm afraid he does not have a single "single" (apart from the fact that the 80's neon style in Miami looks "cool") to hold his hat.

Dale Driver is a lead video producer for IGN and he loves Burnout Paradise more than his future unborn children. Tell him that he's wrong Twitter @_daledriver.