I have played almost every single Need for speed game there has been. From the highs of being a teenager and going to my friends house to smash Underground 1 and 2, to sitting back and enjoying the brilliance that was the OG Most wanted, to a few average games like rivals or the need for speed remake. Need for speed heat is for me one of laziest, dullest most depressing need for speed games I've ever played. It starts.... and that's it, you pick a car and you race, no story, no reason to race, just there you go... go race some sloppy, dull tracks and get cash to buy a few menial upgrades to make your car look shiny and drive abit faster. That's fine for 5-10 hours of gameplay but when it's one copy paste track after another the appeal of the game wears off pretty fast. Now I haven't read any other reviews for this game but I'm sure some of them will say the day/night cycle is a "revolution" or it's a breath of fresh air. It's not. Daytime you get cash, night you get rep. Hardly an era defining invention. Daytime is fine, very boring, like a much worse, poorer quality version of Forza but acceptable. Night on the other hand is a hot stinking used diaper wrapped up in a dead fish. It's sucks. Now the cops start out fine, the thrill of avoiding cops and getting your races in is better than day, but all of sudden without blinking an eye I go from trying to do just 2, 2!!! Races and I have level 5 cops in corvettes ramming me and a rhino police van smashing into me head on. I had zero chance of escape, none. I had the starter Nissan 240 car, Albeit modded a fair amount for my low level. Ok I thought that's fine I got busted, my bad, my fault, maybe I need to drive better in future (Despite the fact I can beat razor in most wanted with one hand) but sure it's on me. Then... wait a second, where's all my money ?, Gone!!!. Sank down the drain like this game. They don't just take the money you earned for that day night cycle, they take it ALL. So I would have to go and complete all those awful stupid little circuits and sprints again just to earn my money back. Around 8 hours completely thrown out of the window because I can't escape what seemed to me like a Bugatti cheron police assault with my starter car. To me that is zero fun whatsoever. It's the equivalent of trying to play through red dead 2 and its 80+ hour campaign and if you die just once you have to start from the very beginning. I want to be punished for getting busted, but not to the point where I would be better off deleting my game save. Poor excuse for a game, bang average customisation, poor gameplay and no story whatsoever. 3/10.
