What do people want from Need for Speed? How do they deliver it? The answer, at least for this game, seems to be a competent racer, nothing more, nothing less. If I’m confused about why this franchise still exists, these moves seem to ask the same question. Everything in the Need for Speed franchise has been compared to Most Wanted, its debut on the last console generation, to the point the series rebooted as Most Wanted in 2012, then again as simply Need For Speed in 2015. I can hardly blame Ghost Games for trying in this direction, given how much it’s been hectored and henpecked, over the past two iterations, for not living up to an ideal engraved on consoles 15 years old. Maybe that’s what’s bothering me? Need for Speed Heat doesn’t resemble a throwback, as much as it seems like a desperate reach for what made the series so successful in the first place. Palm City can be Miami, it can be Southern California. The strongest reactions I had to my surroundings were in the parts that most evoked Rockport, from the sainted Need for Speed : Most Wanted - a tunnel in Frontera Hills or the boardwalk in downtown. Palm City is a varied open-world racing environment, though, again, it does seem to lack character. There’s a sensible progression to the story missions, which didn’t involve a lot of grinding old races, as was the issue with Need For Speed Payback in 2017. No matter what else the game does well, all these issues make the whole thing feel rushed and barely finished.Īll of the systems seem fine, challenging even, as I re-acclimated myself to the cornering and feather-braking techniques that aren’t used in the simulation-style games that seem to define today’s racing genre. There is a lack of polish - close draw distances and pop-in, cars visibly spawning and bouncing at the start line, weird audio issues, the list goes on. I’m still troubled to explain why the game doesn’t grab me. The car fleet is varied and the means of painting, detailing, and tricking out these rides is deep, and none of it is exposed to microtransactions.

Its premise and main character are a little tentative - yet another outsider trying to make it big - but you don’t come to a celebration of street racing culture for big character arcs.

The game, otherwise a crowd-pleasing open-world arcade racer, gives the impression that it doubts itself, too. Why are we still seeing this franchise? Why are we seeing a new one, now? I’m just not sure what makes it a necessary one.

Need for speed 2015 pc review