All Achievements as of 8th of Jan 2026
NFS: Heat is still bogged down by the same problems the modern iterations of this series has. Annoying-personality-vacuum at best and forgettable at worst characters, nonsensical car unlocking progression, customization that, while impressive, relies on putting much more effort into to get something pleasing without just downloading someone else's livery, horrible UI/UX and insanely easy AI opponents. Not to mention this horrible early shifting of the automatic gearbox mode when driving any car with an upgraded engine from a full-throttle start, and has an obsession with forcing drift build cars into the next gear when that's the opposite of what you want mid-slide.
What this game does great however, are it's looks (art-style too, not just graphically), vehicle variety and atmosphere. The music I didn't gel too well with so I muted it for my own playlist, but I found myself making an entirely new playlist just for night driving and races purely because of how gorgeous the game looks. The light coronas, neon reflections, all combined with raindrops flying off the cars at speed all culminate in one of the most simple yet aesthetically pleasing racing games without feeling like it's trying hard to impress you.
While getting caught in pursuits is nowhere near as punishing as the height of this series with 2005's Most Wanted, the chases themselves are the perfect opposite of MW. That game's cops could be plowed right through if given enough speed and front bumper placement, not to mention the OP-ness of the slo-mo feature. Heat on the other hand goes in the opposite direction of making cop vehicles tanky whilst making your car weaker than you might initially expect, and it brings the kind of tension to pursuits of all heat levels you didn't really get in MW until after heat level 3. Yes, you can still just ram right through cop cars with the right speed, positioning and your own vehicle health, but every move feels important when you car can lose 1/3rd of it's health if you miscalculate a single action and not just if you're going fast. Every maneuver you execute can lead to your escape or your capture.
My biggest criticism however is despite the game finding plenty of opportunities to shower you in cash, the only punishment for being busted is a large reduction in Rep earned that night, a small cash fine and if you can't pay the fine in full they'll just take all the cash you have. No impound strikes, no eventually impounding your car, no permanent heat increases, nothing that actively feels like the system is fighting back on me for continuing to push against the cops. So while this might be more punishing than MW in the short-term, it's way more forgiving in the long-term. I would've thought that with the extraordinary amounts of cash you can earn from races that you would quickly be forced with the decision whether or not to re-purchase a car you once had but got impounded from one-two-many mistakes but no such system exists. Which is especially confusing as the game's story is about the cops illegally impounding cars from racers! Such a massive missed opportunity.
I also can't stress how little sense the car unlocking progression makes. To unlock one of the worst cars in the game, an old Volvo literally used as a joke at the end of the campaign, you have to reach level 20. Despite it being literally made fun of by the game itself, you still have to earn the right to purchase a shitbox. Yes, you can upgrade it to the point of it making all story missions a complete breeze to beat fairly quickly after unlocking it, but it's still viewed by the playerbase as a complete meme car. The vast majority of it's liveries made by the community were either Ikea sponsored Ricer designs, or variations of rust-buckets with mud dripping down the windows. And yet you can only participate in the fun once you reach level 20. Out of 50. Absolutely ridiculous.
Also a minor, but massively annoying problem; you can only sell your cars in a specific and obtuse menu. You can't sell any of the cars from the garage but instead have to go to the showcase tab, toggle it to show your cars rather than your crew's (online clan/group), put the car you want to sell into one of those showcase slots from the garage and then hit the sell car option. There's no reason why it has to have all those steps. It's just stupid and tedious, and you'll want that sell button when your garage is getting filled with preset cars you can't customize the looks of (not counting the 'Hero' cars based on iconic cars from previous games in the franchise).
Lastly, I don't recommend the grind to getting a crew to level 50 unless you have friends to play with. The Ferrari you get is ok but outclassed by other cars that are far easier to get, plus it has no body-part customisation besides the wheels and comes with an almost maxed out performance with no engine swap options. I did it purely because it was the last achievement I had missing and the game was a good enough of a vibe and 1 hour per-night time kill.
Pick it up if you're looking for a solid racing game that actually has some form of risk vs. reward systems that make cop chases exciting without being all that punishing, and if you love the neon-soaked night aesthetics.
