Looking back on the first time I “met” Need for Speed, it was in the fifth game in the series, Need for Speed ​​5: Porsche Journey. It was also from that time that my biggest feeling and understanding of this racing game was that Need for Speed ​​was the best storyteller among the same type of games.

As for why so many players like racing games, it is probably because, in addition to being able to get in touch with your favorite car without spending a lot of money to buy it, the greatest fun of this type of game is to be able to modify a racing car according to your own ideas and thoughts as much as possible and drive it on the road to compete with AI or other players. What’s more, the “Need for Speed” series not only conveys the racing or sports car culture to all players, but also shows us in different works such as the underground racing world, police and gangster chases, and other driving situations that ordinary people will never encounter in reality.

Yes, the greatest charm of the “Need for Speed” series, in addition to presenting players with wonderful growth stories of legendary racing drivers, comes from the design of chasing and being chased scenes that are not simply competitive. The same is true for the newly launched “Need for Speed ​​21: Heat”.

Intense during the day, crazy at night

From the first time players encountered police intervention in illegal racing in the city in “Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit” and the subsequent stories about police undercover in racing gangs, the confrontation between police and drivers on the road has become a major selling point of the entire “Need for Speed” series, and also the special feature of this work that distinguishes it from other similar racing games.

In the new “Need for Speed ​​21: Heat”, they use the natural way of distinguishing driving environments, day and night, to create two completely different driving environments and gameplay for players, so that serious track racing and illegal night racing gameplay are organically and seamlessly combined in this way. It is also through the natural switching between night and day that “Need for Speed ​​21: Heat” allows players to fully experience the glamorous life of drivers in the game with the “accompaniment” of music, screen special effects and engine roar.

When entering the game, players did not encounter the “face-shaping system” that has been popular in recent years in games of all sizes on the character creation interface. Instead, they were given 12 simple and straightforward drivers with different styles and personalities to choose from. In other words, Need for Speed ​​21: Heat directly tells players to pick the one they like and get in the car to race.

As the previous works of “Need for Speed ​​21: Heat” have not been so successful in trying to regain the attention and love of players through formal competitions, returning to the setting of entanglement between the police and the drivers seems to be a foregone conclusion.

At the beginning of the game, there is another classic “Need for Speed” opening: the player drives a sports car to join a chase, and in the fierce confrontation, the police suddenly appear and arrest the player. The player who gave away a car for nothing has to start from scratch, driving an ordinary car to start from scratch, constantly searching for competitions throughout the city, accumulating funds, and modifying the car until it returns to the top again. The only drawback is that the game does not break through the settings of the previous works in terms of plot extension, so that players cannot experience more fresh gameplay in the later stages of the game, and will more or less feel some fatigue.

The regular track has almost no boundaries, which greatly improves the player’s control tolerance.

However, the familiar plot does not make the gameplay of “Need for Speed ​​21: Heat” fall into clichés. The most important thing is the freshness presented by the two different gameplays under the alternating settings of day and night. During the day, in the entire map, players can win the bonus needed to buy new cars or modify cars by searching for various regular competitions. At night, the entire city enters a period of no drag racing. The ubiquitous police cars and the rising heat index will also make your drag racing journey more exciting.

This generation of police is not easy to mess with

But what is more exciting is not just the roar of the engine, but the close contact between vehicles, chasing each other to the end. In “Need for Speed ​​21: Heat”, the vehicles driven by the police are far superior to the vehicles driven by the players in terms of acceleration characteristics and crash resistance. In night mode, the player’s vehicle has a white health bar. If it is hit by the police and returns to zero, the player will be arrested and the vehicle will be confiscated immediately, and the gas station only provides three blood recovery functions. In other words, as the heat index continues to rise, when the vehicles driven by the players are not invincible, the ability of the police car has been greatly improved in this game, and the players’ experience and immersion have also been greatly improved.

Modification is the essence! Yes, the kind that doesn’t cost krypton gold!

When it comes to modifying vehicles in a racing game, I’m afraid many people will have the same feeling as I do. The overly complicated modification system and various professional parameters will discourage ordinary players, so they can only use the original car to experience the competition and the game, which to some extent loses the fun of modifying the vehicle.

In “Need for Speed ​​21: Heat”, the vehicle modification system is set up as a simple and easy-to-understand gameplay idea. Players only need to modify the engine, chassis, transmission and auxiliary items. Among these four major systems, players can also optimize specific parts such as turbo modification, installation of nitrogen acceleration, tire replacement, adjustment of gearbox, etc. according to their own needs. Although it looks a bit complicated, the actual modification process is more like the upgrade method of racing mobile games to perform simple modifications in order to achieve the goal of improving the vehicle’s driving performance as efficiently as possible.

Although the entire modification system has been simply optimized, Need for Speed ​​21: Heat still provides players with a lot of personalized modification gameplay. For example, in the modification of the exhaust system, players can make the roar of the vehicle more pleasant or deep according to the settings of the engine, supercharger components and exhaust pipes. At the same time, players can also design decals for the car body according to their own preferences. More importantly, in the entire modification system, players will not encounter krypton gold or open boxes. As long as your driving skills are strong enough to get more bonuses, you can change the car into whatever you want.

However, the optimization and adjustment of the modification system does not mean that “Need for Speed ​​21: Heat” has more targeted and optimized the specific driving feel of the vehicle. Especially in track competitions, due to the game’s almost “borderless” track design concept, players can hardly feel the difference in the operating feel brought by different car models when driving different vehicles. The overly stiff or soft driving feel will be transmitted to the player’s driving experience from time to time, which also makes this racing game, which is very colorful in plot and gameplay, slightly lose its luster.

Conclusion: Fast and Furious, The Fugitive

Under the gorgeous appearance and fierce confrontation, “Need for Speed ​​​​21: Heat” has created a completely different yet familiar driver’s career for players who love this series or racing cars. The method of separating and connecting formal competitions and illegal racing with day and night can be regarded as a major innovation.

Although the game provides online racing gameplay, the single-player plot and the dealings with the police are the biggest charm of this work. Coupled with the optimized modified car system, it is enough for players to experience the thrill of racing and the desperate feeling in the city in “Need for Speed ​​21: Heat”. Exciting, refreshing, fun, and accumulating energy are all the fresh breath brought by Heat. However, the superficial gameplay and the lack of depth of content still lay the foundation for this work; coupled with the not-so-smooth control, this work still failed to run out of the style of the year.