Need for Speed: Heat review: The best Need for Speed this generation, but the formula's well-worn

There’s a new Need for Speed game out as of last Friday. I know, I’m as surprised as you are. I’ve seen a lot of games sent out to die, but Need for Speed: Heat has been basically shoved out an airlock into the vacuum of space. EA only showed it to people once, to my knowledge—at Gamescom, in Europe. It wasn’t at E3. It wasn’t at PAX. There was no two-weeks-prior event to build hype. We got review code on release day.

And I don’t really know why, either.

Need for Speed: Heat certainly doesn’t do anything especially new or innovative, but it’s a totally passable open-world racing game. Most years, that wouldn’t be enough—but there’s no Forza this year, neither a Forza 8 nor a Forza Horizon 5. Need for Speed: Heat takes the podium by default.