The long-running Need for Speed franchise is stuck in a heat. The 2015 reboot, merely titled Demand for Speed, was criticized for its cringeworthy live-action cutscenes. Its successor two years ago, Demand for Speed Payback, had an irritating upgrade organisation congenital around collectible Speed Cards. The final game to broach the 80 marker on Metacritic, Need for Speed About Wanted, was developed past Criterion and released in 2012. The force per unit area is therefore rising around Ghost Games, the series' current steward, and its next entry, Need for Speed Estrus.

Unsurprisingly, the new game is vastly unlike to Payback. You lot no longer need Speed Cards, for instance, to upgrade your ride. "Speed cards were a little abstruse," Riley Cooper, creative managing director on Need for Speed Heat, told Engadget. "So we're leaning much more grounded and straightforward [this time]. You get coin, y'all buy the part you desire. And the part improves the performance of your vehicle in the means you would expect for that part."

And if you're worried about loot boxes, don't be. "In that location are no Loot boxes in Need for Speed Heat and there won't be," EA Community Manager Ben Walke wrote on Reddit last week.

Cars are no longer separated by class, either. In Heat, any vehicle can be tuned for drifting or speed. "We've pulled those 2 [styles] apart as much equally possible, so it'due south very articulate to the player what they're edifice with their cars," Bryn Alban, the game'due south vehicle art director told Engadget. Alternatively, you can build a "heroic" car that sits in the center of this customization spectrum. Your ride won't exist specialized plenty to dominate online, but it'll get yous to the end of the story mode, Riley promised. "You tin can take the heroic handling model from the starting time of the experience to the end," he explained. "If that's your cup of tea, you tin can do that."

To build up your cars and progress through the story, you'll need to compete at unlike times of the solar day. Unlike previous entries, Heat splits its campaign neatly in ii. When the sun is up, you'll be competing for cash in a series of race, drift and off-road events called the Speedhunter Showdown. Curiously, Ghost Games has dropped the directly-line drag races that were prevalent in Payback. They weren't the nearly compelling event blazon -- to win, you only watched a bar at the acme of the screen and pressed the correct push button when the cursor hovered over a dark-green section. Riley wouldn't say why the mode had been dropped, just hinted that it could render in the time to come. "It'south something we know our fans enjoy," he said. "So we're looking at different ways to give that to players."

At night, y'all'll be accruing a currency called reputation that unlocks new events, cars and parts. In general, you lot tin can choose how long you want to spend in each setting. The fastest way to progress through the game, though, is to regularly alternate between race times.

Need for Speed Heat

The day-dark cycle also influences the police presence in the urban center. Demand for Speed Payback restricted cop chases to specific Runner events and cinematic set pieces. Oestrus, meanwhile, makes the law an ongoing threat to your racing crown. During the day, officers volition generally exit you alone unless yous ram into the side of their car or break the law in a way they can't ignore. That makes it easier to complete side challenges and rails down collectibles in the open world.

At dark, the cops are noticeably more than aggressive. Yous also accept a estrus ranking that slowly rises every bit you complete after-dark events and earn reputation. The police force will increase their efforts in accordance with your estrus ranking, eventually deploying helicopters and heavily armored trucks. If you go caught, your nightly earnings will vanish as well. It'southward your decision, therefore, when to greenbacks out and bank your rep at a safe business firm. "How much you want to button a single night," Riley explained, "will have a large effect on how much rep you lot earn."

The concept sounds a little similar the high-risk Dark Zone from The Division. "Without naming games, there has definitely been inspiration from within the industry," Riley said with a grin.

Need for Speed Heat

In Payback, players were encouraged to ram into cop cars. Runner-class vehicles were built like tanks, essentially, and would keep yous safe unless the police managed to group up and box you in somewhere. Demand for Speed Estrus, meanwhile, switches the accent from contesting to escaping. Your car has durability -- a health bar, substantially -- that will whittle away every bit you jostle with law cars. Yous can fight back but frequent collisions will accelerate this depletion and ultimately force y'all to end the night early. "You can battle strategically," Riley said. "But you accept to be smart about it, because y'all're going to lose health in the process."

The new campaign structure is supported by a fresh setting, Palm City, that is loosely based on Miami and other parts of Southeastern United states of america. Ghost Games has also returned to the tuner culture that was prolific in the much-loved Need for Speed Underground and Carbon entries. That means lots (and I mean lots) of underbody neon lights, over the summit spoilers and side skirts. "Neon civilization is actually coming back into car civilization," Alban explained. You tin can fifty-fifty tweak the sound of your exhaust with four -- yes, four -- different sliders called tone, timbre, overrun and resonance.

In addition, Heat has a new arroyo to storytelling. With Payback, Ghost Games went for an activeness movie vibe with fully-voiced characters and a bombastic revenge plot that was clearly inspired by the last few Fast and Furious movies. Estrus, however, will let y'all race as 1 of 12 customizable avatars. You won't exist a silent protagonist -- the visitor tried that with its 2015 Need for Speed reboot -- merely yous won't be terribly talkative like Ty, Mac and Jess were in Payback, either. "Y'all're not a mute [in Heat]," Riley said. "Y'all do speak. But we let you define your experience much more."

Need for Speed Heat

There will exist a story, but the team is beingness coy with the details right now. "I call back people are going to exist very pleasantly surprised," Riley said. "Information technology's much more serious and much more grounded. It'southward focused on street racing and the surrounding feel of that. And information technology actually speaks to the game. So it'due south less like 'Oh at that place'due south the game and over here there's a story.' It's more similar, 'There's an experience, and the story is a function of that.'"

As a issue, Ghost Games has abased the moving-picture show-inspired ready pieces of Payback, which included stealing a Koenigsegg from a moving truck. "Information technology'south not to say those experiences don't have a identify in Demand for Speed, we only feel like we want to focus more on the core experience and build from at that place," Riley said. "Some 24-hour interval you may come across those experiences in Demand for Speed again, simply we but felt like there was so much nosotros could do simply around street racing, that we didn't need to reach that far."

Much has inverse, simply at its core Heat is notwithstanding an outgoing arcade racer. If you've played Need for Speed Payback, or any instalment developed by Ghost Games, you'll instantly feel comfortable with the effortless drifting and NOS-powered boosts. The game requires skill, of grade, but braking and turning is generally more forgiving than realistic 'sim' racers such every bit Forza Motorsport 7 and Gran Turismo Sport. "People volition feel that it's Demand for Speed," Alban promised. "It'll be, I dunno, your comfortable sofa at home. It'll feel like you're playing Need for Speed right from the go-get."

At beginning glance, it's a promising package. One that, at the very least, won't repeat the same mistakes as Need for Speed Payback. Heat could, of course, brand a whole host of new errors that disappoint or aggravate fans. But for now, I've seen plenty to be (very) cautiously optimistic.

Gallery: Demand for Speed Heat | 6 Photos