A fully-fledged console iteration of Game Freak’s Pokemon series has been a long time coming. Fans have waited decades to see how the RPG series would fare on a platform with more power, no longer held back by the constraints of a handheld – Pokemon Sword and Shield is that long-awaited evolution.

The duo of titles push the series further than it’s ever gone before. However, in the end, isn’t quite enough to blaze the futuristic trial it must walk going forward. 

However, what we have here is a new benchmark for the series, evolving the formula with ample quality of life improvements and a sprawling world I’ve spent hours exploring. Sword and Shield is a triumph for the franchise, even if it doesn’t push the envelope far enough. 

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The opening moments of Sword and Shield are everything you would expect. After creating an ambitious young trainer you’re given the usual exposition of Pokemon, their integral role in society and how they exist alongside humans in a world that prospers from their presence. They’re one big happy family, even hours are spent making them fight in elaborate combat tournaments. 

From here, you pick between three new starters – Sobble, Scorbunny and Grookey. We’re #TeamSobble here at Trusted Reviews, but there isn’t a wrong choice to be made. This trio are just a few among hundreds of new Pokemon you’ll encounter across Sword and Shield. The majority of the original catalogue of pocket monsters is sadly absent, a controversy which has had fans in uproar ahead of release. But, if I’m brutally honest, I seldom missed them. 

Sword and Shield innovates within the franchise on so many levels it doesn’t need to hang desperately to the legacy of what came before it, carving a path in the region of Galar all of its own. Inspired by the United Kingdom, the continent you explore is positively vast, with massive cities, quaint towns and humble countryside plains being just some of the locales you’ll stumble upon. For the most part, it looks lovely, boasting a fully three-dimensional experience which brings Pokemon to life like never before.

However, it can look somewhat rough in places, with textures on distant buildings and foliage looking particularly irksome in docked mode. It’s far from a dealbreaker, and the overall art design shines through, but the visual benchmark set by the likes of Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey isn’t reached here. Game Freak’s origin as a portable game developer is very clear, with Sword and Shield awash with its fair share of teething problems. 

Related: Google Stadia Review

Even with a handful of graphical quirks, Galar is a beautiful addition to the Pokemon universe with every corner filled with British cultural references and cutesy colloquialisms that poke fun at the nation. Your room has a ‘telly’ while you’ll stumble upon ‘coppers’ on your travels eager to do battle. Even the trains are delayed in the opening hours, painting an eerily accurate picture of everyday life. 

Starting in an adorable little town inspired by Scotland, travels will eventually take you to gargantuan castles pulled straight from a Welsh fairytale or a boulevard deliberately aping Piccadilly Circus. This isn’t the first time Game Freak has recreated real-life locations in Pokemon, and certainly won’t be the last, but seeing them envisioned with such vivid detail never gets old. So, it’s doubly unfortunate that many of the building interiors you visit feel like weak copy-and-paste jobs of the same room. Aside from tiny snippets of dialogue and the occasional item, there’s rarely a good reason to explore every nook and cranny of each location.

Given how often Sword and Shield enjoys holding your hand through irksome tutorials, it’s best to push on until you’re given more control over everything after the first handful of gym encounters. This is a game designed for children and adults alike, so the hand-holding makes sense to a degree, but cripples the pacing in a way that makes certain aspects a slog. 

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The battle system in Pokemon Sword and Shield hasn’t changed, which I definitely think is for the best. It’s the tried-and-true turn-based affair we’ve enjoyed for decades, refined with additional animations and menu alterations that simply make it easier to digest. Actions such as throwing PokeBalls and using items are now hotkeyed, saving you from digging into the bag to search for the same thing again and again during the same encounter. 

Aside from small improvements it’s business as usual. Victory is easily achieved by countering your opponent’s Pokemon type or carefully juggling the use of moves and items to ensure your team never suffers from an unpredictable fatality. The context in which you participate in combat throughout Sword and Shield is what makes it so compelling. The biggest change comes in the form of Wild Areas – vast, open spaces where you can participate in Raid Battles and capture Pokemon far beyond your current level requirements. 

Raid Battles follow you and a handful of fellow trainers as you take on an incredibly powerful ‘Dynamax’ Pokemon, which essentially means they’ve grown to gargantuan size and require more than a single individual to take them down. One player can Dynamax their own Pokemon to even the odds, working alongside their team by throwing out a blistering wave of attacks. Communication is key here, so the distinct lack of it can make Raid Battles outside of a local setting difficult to parse. 

Catching a rare Pokemon at the end of Raids is more than worth it, though. My biggest gripe is the underutilisation of Dynamax throughout Sword and Shield. They emerge in Raid Battles and Gym encounters, occasions that are frequent enough that the mechanic feels thoroughly fleshed out, but restrictive in a way that Mega-Evolutions in previous games simply weren’t. I can’t help but feel some of these ideas aren’t being used to their full potential. 

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While exploring Galar you can set up Pokemon Camps – a makeshift base of operations where Pokemon are free to explore and befriend one another while you’re busy cooking up a delicious dish for everyone to feast on. This is where the Currydex comes in – an encyclopaedia that chronicles your cullinary efforts. It’s a wonderfully silly addition adorned with adorable animations each time you and a partner sit down to eat – happiness or scorn depicted on their faces depending on the quality of each dish. Cooking rewards you with experience and a few other bonuses, too.

Should you buy Pokemon Sword and Shield?

Pokemon Sword and Shield is an excellent entry in Game Freak’s iconic franchise, pushing the series forward in some exciting ways while never forgetting the roots that made it so loved in the first place. While it underwhelms in its visuals and underbaked use of new ideas, the act of exploring Galar and catching creatures remains as delightfully compelling as it’s ever been – and that’s what really matters in the end.

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You arrive atop a tree, a big yellow beast in a uniform crops up and rants at you. You flee – tumbling down a slippery jungle. You bounce, wall run and scarper until… a large bird Pokémon* crashes out of the sky to save the day. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has so many wonderful moments like this, and despite its flaws, you’ll still have an absolute forcing blast. (*It isn’t really a Pokémon and, no, it isn’t a spoiler.)

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a melting pot of genres and mechanics pioneered by other games – some of which are born out of the previous exploits of this game’s developer – Respawn Entertainment.

This latest foray into Disney’s universe brings mixed results when it comes to the titles it draws from but – across the course of the game – manages to merge them into an experience all of its own.

The real flaws of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order comes in its performance and pacing. Fallen Order may leave you cold in the beginning – frustrated by the magically appearing enemies and inviting introductory levels. However, stick with it and you’ll be rewarded with gameplay and cinematic moments that combine to create the best Jedi simulator ever made.

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The main crux of Fallen Order is its combat – there’s plenty of Respawn-patented traversal, but we’ll get to that later. On a scale of complexity and flow, the combat falls somewhere in between Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Lightsaber-wielding definitely takes some getting used to and – if you approach Fallen Order like either of the aforementioned games – you could find yourself flat on your back more often than not. Yet, this isn’t a hard and fast rule – with some enemies charging in is your best bet, while others require a methodical parry and dodge approach.

The first hurdle you’ll encounter with the lightsaber is timing – it’s weird. The animations of your blocking movements are slow when compared to similar titles and you’ll often find yourself feeling like your perfectly timed parry was ineffective. 

Fallen Order asks you to consider the extra split second it takes you to raise your lightsaber for a block – it’s different but you learn to adapt as your trek amongst the stars goes on. Similar to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, you can’t spam parry either. If you furiously hammer said button, the enemy will take no notice of your attempts at self-defence.

While parrying is the best way to do some serious damage, Fallen Order is a game where you should embrace dodging and rolling. Enemies often carry out long attack sequences and if you can shimmy out of the way you can land several devastating blows.

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Fallen Order offers a decent range of enemies for you to dispatch with your newfound combat skills. From more advanced staff-wielding officers of The Empire to blundering monsters who pound and slam with little care for their surroundings. 

The difference in adversaries encourages you to adapt for maximum effectiveness – this plays out the most when you are tasked with a mish-mash of enemy types and, while it can be exhilarating to get it right, it also introduces one of the adventure’s bigger flaws.

Early on, you will find yourself surrounded by several enemies and your instinct will be to try to pull one away to make it more of a fair fight. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work well as enemies easily catch up and can attack simultaneously. The issue is more pronounced in tighter areas when you can feel at a loss as to what to do and the camera is rarely your friend.

All is not lost however and the game introduces some mechanics relatively early on that allow you to better combat these situations (You can also do a tad more exploration to level up sooner). The early problems inhibit your learning of the base combat style and so introducing these mechanics earlier – even in a weakened form – would be a welcome change.

Despite these flaws, the lightsaber battles  are a triumph. They really come into their own in some of the harder boss fights when you’ll dodge, parry and use your powers at a blistering pace with some exhilarating visual results.

Related: Google Stadia Review

While a lot of the excitement of Star War Jedi: Fallen Order comes from duelling and defeating a plethora of iconic foes, the platforming is another pivotal addition – even if it isn’t quite top-tier.

As you traverse the worlds in Fallen Order, you’ll be introduced to a fairly simplistic platforming style akin to an Uncharted or a Tomb Raider – with some puzzling along the way to boot. There is an added layer of complexity with a requirement to grab onto walls and vines as you first ascend a wall, and this can lead to some unwelcome deaths.

The basic platforming is mostly some fun downtime in between fighting but it shines when Respawn looks to its own past – in the form of Titanfall 2 – for inspiration. The sci-fi shooter invited you to charge through platforming levels with a faltering foothold or rabid enemy at your back. 

This frantic pace is alive and well in some of Fallen Order’s best moments. You’ll wall run, vine swing and skid at heart-racing speed and – when you pull it off – you’ll feel like you’ve been on a galvanising rollercoaster ride.

While it does allow you to explore some stunning settings almost at will, the narrative is linear. As such, the bar is set high for what people will expect from the story and its characters, and Fallen Order doesn’t live up to these expectations.

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The story focuses on one overarching mission with sprinkles of character development in between. The wider tale isn’t something to hate but it is ultimately quite pedestrian and it isn’t aided by plainer than plain protagonist Cal Kestis.

While Cal is the driving force of the plot thanks to his powers, much of the interesting characterisation and story moments come courtesy of his companions and their history. The same goes for the range of antagonists in the game – they provide the most interesting dialogue and some Star Wars-related philosophical points to ponder.

Throughout Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the game feels like a honed experience – from some exciting cinematic traversal sequences to the interesting take on parry-and-dodge combat. Unfortunately, this refinement goes out of the window when it comes to some startling bugs and performance issues.

It’s littered with problems where you’ll intermittently witness enemies popping in, sporadically dying for no reason or eternally falling on the spot, some of which was unintentionally hilarious to watch.

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Cal Kestis isn’t safe from the bugs either – occasionally becoming stuck inside a wall while scaling it or being able to jump onto areas where you clearly aren’t meant to go.

Thankfully, most of these bugs aren’t game-breaking. I experienced one crash during my whole playthrough – you’ll also have to sit through some substantial loading screens (even on a console like the PS4 Pro).

Its overall sheen is also let down by a weirdly mixed bag of asset quality. Cal Kestis’ character model looks impressive most of the time while some of his companions can look far more cartoony.

However, it isn’t a hard and fast rule that Cal is the only refined model, as some folks you meet throughout Fallen Order also look extremely detailed.

The graphical quality is extended to many settings you visit. You’ll explore some Star Wars locales that you will have never seen before and some landscapes are truly stunning – Respawn has knocked it out of the park in that respect.

Should you buy Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order?

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is far from a masterpiece, but to say it could’ve been one without some of its basic flaws may not be so far fetched. As it is, you can look past the tame story and inconvenient bugs instead revelling in joyous combat, awe-inducing cinematics and fluid platforming.

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What is Google Stadia? 

It’s getting more and more expensive to be a gamer, with console prices climbing so high that the PS5 and Xbox 2 are expected to cost over £400 come launch in 2020. Google Stadia is a more cost-effective alternative, currently costing just £8.99 per month – with the optional £119 Stadia Premiere Edition bundle bagging you a controller and a Chromecast Ultra required for TV play.

Google’s been able to keep prices low because there’s no need for high-spec hardware with Stadia. With a fast enough broadband connection, you’ll be able to stream games on your smartphone, laptop or TV, regardless of the specs of the hardware. 

Google is the first to officially launch its cloud-streaming service – Xbox’s upcoming Project xCloud and Nvidia GeForce Now are both still in beta – but with an abundance of missing key features and an underwhelming launch lineup, Stadia is a long, long way from being the ‘future of gaming’ that Google promised. 

Google Stadia – Multiple ways to play

There are three ways to play Stadia: on a TV via Chromecast Ultra, on a computer/laptop/tablet via a Google Chrome browser and on your smartphone via the dedicated Stadia app. 

No gaming platform preceding Stadia has ever offered such versatility, and being able to swap between each method of play is incredibly liberating and seamless. Stadia allows for a 5-minute changeover time so you can pick up exactly where you left off without the need for saving progress. 

Unfortunately, there are issues with every method of play at launch. For TV play, only Chromecast Ultras bundled with Stadia Founder’s Edition or Premiere Edition will be compatible at launch. That means without the help of a computer, it’s impossible to play Stadia on your TV without investing in one of the bundles. Google has clarified Chromecast Ultra devices sold separately will eventually be patched to support Stadia, but it’s real head scratcher that we have to wait on that feature.

The second issue with TV play is that only the official Stadia controllers will work. Google has long boasted you’ll be able to use any popular gaming controller with Stadia, be that a PS4, Xbox One or Switch Pro pad, but it turns out that’s not the case when playing via the Chromecast Ultra.

Then we come to the Google Chrome browser. This is my personal favourite, as it allows you to play Stadia whether you’re at home, at the office or at a hotel or friend’s house – all you need is a decent internet connection and a laptop. However, for some absurd reason, 4K resolution isn’t supported via a PC at launch.

Finally, you can play Stadia on your smartphone via the dedicated app. You’d think a smartphone screen would be far too small for gaming, but I had a great time blasting aliens on Destiny 2 via the Pixel 3a. Plus, some smartphones have a display over 6 inches which aren’t too far away from equalling the screen size of the Nintendo Switch. 

The downside here is that only Google’s Pixel 2, 3, 3a and 4 (including XL editions) are compatible so far. Google has confirmed more phones will be compatible in the future, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing for many Stadia subscribers at launch. 

Google Stadia UI – All about the app

The Stadia smartphone app – available on both Android and iOS – is the beating heart of the interface for the cloud-streaming service. It’s here where you set up your account, configure your settings, store in-game screenshots and even purchase games. The app is very easy to navigate with touchscreen controls, while the large grid of games in your library is pleasant to the eye and easily digestible. 

Stadia’s storefront has similar benefits, although there doesn’t seem to be a search function just yet. That’s not currently an issue with so few games available to buy, but it will become a compulsory addition once more titles become available. 

Click on a game in the store, and lots of useful information will pop up underneath, including age rating, whether it supports keyboard/mouse input and, for the likes of Destiny 2, even links to loot box drop rates. It’s a subtle feature, but I can see it being very useful for parents when deciding whether a game is appropriate for their child. 

There are negative points too, most notably that you can only buy games through Google’s own digital store, which means prices aren’t competitive. The Stadia Store currently prices Mortal Kombat 11 at £49.99 (not final), despite being available for less than £30 on PS4 and Xbox One via Amazon. Steam shares this issue with Stadia, but the former remedies this by slashing game prices in seasonal sales. It remains to be seen whether Google will adopt the same solution. 

It’s also slightly annoying you can only access the store via the mobile app, and not through your laptop or TV. That said, pulling your smartphone out of your pocket and opening the app hardly takes much time. Plus since you don’t have to wait for downloads or updates with Stadia, you can start playing a new game far quicker than you can with the PS4 and Xbox One. 

Google Stadia Performance – Gaming via the cloud

The biggest concern with cloud streaming is latency, which would prove a massive issue for shooters and action games where timing is key. During my time with Stadia, latency never really proved a problem, even in online shooter Destiny 2. 

I did notice the odd performance blip or lag when playing via Wi-Fi in my bedroom, but since my internet connection saw download speeds below 10Mbps (Google’s minimum recommended internet speed), it was a marvel the game was running at all. 

Rather than latency, I found the biggest issue with Stadia was achieving a connection secure enough for a high resolution. When I was wired in via Ethernet, seeing download speeds of 20Mbps, my stream still frequently became grainy with the resolution seemingly dropping down to 720p. 

I say ‘seemingly’ because Stadia refuses to give you any information regarding your connection or game resolution besides the ‘solid’, ‘good’ and ‘great’ performance statuses, which aren’t very helpful. Stadia does provide little 4K logo in the menu when the connection is fast enough for Ultra HD gaming, but I don’t understand why Google hasn’t done something similar for a Full HD or Quad HD visuals. 

When my internet connection was good enough to achieve a Full HD picture, the likes of Shadow of the Tomb Raider still don’t look quite as good as they do on my standard PS4. This is likely due to compression, which is inevitable with cloud streaming, reducing the detail of the video footage.

Despite this, 4K game visuals still looked jaw-droppingly good when I started playing in the Trusted Reviews office where we see download speeds well above the 35Mbps requirement. Provided you have fast enough Broadband, Stadia looks to be the cheapest option for 4K gaming.

One of the biggest downsides of Stadia is the absence of an offline mode. Since competitors such as GeForce Now and xCloud are tied to existing ecosystems (Steam and Xbox respectively), you’ll be able to play any game in your library offline or via cloud streaming with a single purchase. Stadia lacks this versatility, so you really need to make sure you have a fast internet connection before subscribing.

Google Stadia Controller – Choose your weapon

The official Google Stadia Controller is a decent pad, clearly inspired by the chunky Xbox controller since it shares the same button layout. The Stadia controller’s triggers aren’t quite as snappy though, and the D-Pad feels slightly too spongy for my liking.

The great thing about Stadia though, is that you can pick whatever controller you please. The PS4, Xbox One and Switch Pro pads are all supported here. Better still, when you connect them up to Stadia, in-game button prompts immediately switch over to your new controller’s format, avoiding a lot of confusion in tutorials. 

Disappointingly though, third-party controllers won’t work when playing Stadia on the TV. As mentioned above, only the official Stadia controller can be used with this method since it connects directly to the Wi-Fi instead of using Bluetooth.

Bizarrely, Google is yet to patch in the capability to link two controllers to Stadia simultaneously, which means local multiplayer is off the table at launch. This is a big disappointment, especially since the multiplayer-focused Mortal Kombat 11 is part of the launch lineup. 

Google Stadia Games – Slim pickings 

Google has confirmed many games will be coming to Stadia, including future AAA releases such as Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel’s Avengers and Watch Dogs Legion.

Unfortunately, Stadia only has 22 games available at launch, all of which you can see below:

• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
• Attack on Titan: Final Battle 2
• Destiny 2: The Collection
• Farming Simulator 2019
• Final Fantasy XV
• Football Manager 2020
• Grid 2019
• Gylt
• Just Dance 2020
• Kine
• Metro Exodus
• Mortal Kombat 11
• NBA 2K20
• Rage 2
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Samurai Shodown
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
• Thumper
• Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
• Trials Rising
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood

It’s a decent lineup, but is dwarfed in comparison to Microsoft’s xCloud, which has over 50 titles available despite still being in beta. Xbox has a big advantage here, with decades worth of exclusives and licencing deals to take advantage of. Google is effectively starting from scratch. 

I’m unsure why games that have already been released on other platforms – including Borderlands 3, Doom, The Division 2 and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint – failed to hit the launch lineup deadline, but it makes Stadia’s launch feel a little underwhelming. Something like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, FIFA 2020 or Fortnite at launch would have made a massive difference. 

It’s also worth mentioning you’ll have to pay for the games you play – this is not the ‘Netflix of Gaming’ as many assume. Similar to Xbox Games with Gold and PlayStation Plus though, subscribing to the Stadia Pro subscription will bag you a free game every month, with the very first being Destiny 2: The Collection and Samurai Shodown.

Another feature to miss launch day is achievements. Google has iterated Stadia will be recording what achievements players are earning from launch, but players won’t be able to see this right now. 

Should you buy Google Stadia?

There’s a lot of good things to celebrate about Stadia. The cloud-streaming technology is genuinely a game-changer, not only removing the need for pricey high-powered hardware, but also providing oodles more freedom by allowing us to carry on gaming wherever there’s a strong Wi-Fi connection. 

However, the huge number of significant features missing at launch – including 4K on PC, local multiplayer, achievements and support for non-Pixel smartphones – is simply unforgivable.

Google’s plan to gradually roll out these features shows a lot of naivety and only emphasises how far Stadia is behind PlayStation and Xbox in building a successful ecosystem. I’ve no doubt Stadia will improve significantly over the next few months (and I will update the review and verdict once it does), but the rushed launch has done more harm than good.

Google has certainly convinced me that cloud streaming is the future, but Stadia has a long, long way to go if it’s ever going to usurp PlayStation and Xbox as the go-to gaming platforms. 

Verdict

Google Stadia shows a lot of promise, and could be a great option for those who want to game without spending a fortune on a console. But with lots of missing features at launch, it’s got a long way to go to become a serious challenger to PlayStation and Xbox.

The post Google Stadia Review: The future of gaming? appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

I feel the need – the need to knock off a superior racing franchise. Need for Speed has been in a rut for years now, with the last few games being poorly received by critics and fans alike. But after a few stalls on the grid, EA have finally surged into contention with a winning strategy – just making a street racing version of Forza Horizon.

While it sounds like I’m damning with faint praise, Need For Speed: Heat is a welcome return to form for an iconic series that has languished for so long. And, if you’re going to knock someone off, it might as well be the best. Need For Speed: Heat takes place in a vast open-world playground of Palm City. This obvious homage to Miami and its surrounding countryside is scattered with races, time trials, drift zones, speed traps, and all the other stuff you’d see in Forza Horizon.

The heavily destructible scenery even made the trip over, so you’ll be barrelling through trees, lamp posts, and stonewalls as your cruise around town. Most of them anyway – some objects won’t budge and it’s not always visually obvious which trees are made of tissue paper and which were forged from the heart of a dying star.

The plot is the usual nonsense. Cops are bad and street racers are a bunch of righteous dudes living on the edge. The problem with street racers as the heroes is that they suck – they’re petty criminals endangering lives for kicks. So, to make them the heroes, you have to make the cops into hilariously excessive supervillains, which is exactly what they’ve done. The cops are unhinged psychopaths running a car snatching ring, impounding cars to sell them for mad profit.

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There’s plenty of Dawson’s Creek level drama; a feisty racer looking to prove herself, her brother who quit racing because he “couldn’t handle the heat”, corrupt cops, all that good stuff. Your character is a nameless avatar chosen from a selection of premade ones – mine was the spitting image of Brendan Fraser and I’d love to think that since he disappeared from Hollywood, he’s just been tearing it up on the underground street racing scene.  In the end, it’s difficult to side with, or care about, any of the characters in this Fast & Furious-style angst fest.

Thankfully, nobody comes to a racing game for the Oscar-worthy performances. We’re here for the driving and I’m happy to report that they’ve nailed it with Need for Speed: Heat, for the most part. Your starting car feels like it’s forged from depleted uranium and has the turning circle of Jupiter, but you’ll quickly replace or upgrade it to mitigate these issues. In reality, the heavy steering is to encourage drifting. Need for Speed: Heat is all about drifting and, as a result, it plays more like Mario Kart than any other racer on the market. By lifting off, turning, and then hitting the gas again, your car will transition into buttery-smooth drifts that make cornering a breeze. It’s unrealistic, obviously, but thoroughly entertaining.

When you’re not dealing with those meddlesome corners, Need for Speed: Heat manages to feel quicksilver on the straights. You’d hope so for a game called Need for Speed, but it’s a bizarre and all too common failure of racers – struggling to impart that vital feeling of velocity. Need for Speed: Heat has no such issues – streetlights blur, air rushes over your car, and you almost feel like you’re activating a hyperspace drive when you trigger your nitrous.

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As any petrolhead knows though, it’s not all about what’s under the engine – your ride needs to look the part too and Need for Speed: Heat certainly holds up in that regard. The vast roster of cars is stunningly recreated, while Palm City offers wide array of environments to race through from city streets to backwater swamps. The weather effects are beautifully rendered, though limited to just varieties of rain (I don’t think Florida sees much snow, so fair enough). The night-time lighting is particularly gorgeous, filling your periphery with a blurry collage of neon lights and as you tear through the city streets.

As I mentioned earlier, you can buy upgrades and cars with the cash you earn provided your reputation is high enough. There are a ton of cosmetic options, as you’d expect. Don’t worry street racing fans, you can ruin your cars with gaudy spoilers and purple underlighting. On the mechanical side of the garage, cars stats are simplified allowing you to tailor your wheels to suit different race types. So, you’ll likely end up with a drift car, an off-road car, and a street racer in your regular circulation, all of which will need to be kept up to date with the latest mods. This is where the grind starts to kick in.

Campaign progression is a bit stop-start as you’re gated by your reputation, but it’s a racer and you grind by racing so it’s hard to complain. The real issue comes when you top out your car’s performance and need to upgrade, as new cars come with stock gear. So, in addition to the cost of that car, you also need to upgrade it a ton before it’ll be better than your current ride. This results in some real lurches in the pacing as you need to essentially build up a new car from scratch, which costs a bomb.

Related: Project Resistance

Since we’re knocking off Horizon here, Need for Speed: Heat is a fully online, shared world racer and the feature is as vestigial here as it was in Playground’s racer. You’ll rarely bump into another racer in the overworld and the amount of travelling and load screens you must endure means that HFS: Heat is poorly suited to multiplayer action. It’s a nice option for groups of friends who want to play together at least. Mercifully, you can just play in offline mode, which also means you can actually pause the game. I’ll take a pause button over friends any day.

Need for Speed: Heat’s main unique addition to the Horizon formula is with its day and night system. There’s a driving festival in town, so during the day you can take part in legal races to earn cash. But, because demand for parts is so high you won’t be able to spend any of that cash until you build your reputation up in illegal street races at night. If you can ignore the glaring logic holes in this concept, it’s a rather elegant system and the ability to swap at the touch of a button results in a slick experience.

The titular heat system also only comes into play at night. This is basically a wanted level ala Grand Theft Auto, with police becoming more aggressive and numerous the higher your heat level is. However, your heat level also applies an XP multiplier to your reputation gains, which resets when you visit a garage to end the night. This makes for an interesting risk versus reward balance as you race to build your reputation since you lose the entire multiplier if you get busted.

You can keep racing for even greater rewards, or cash in your reputation and start afresh the next night. This leads to some frantic escape sequences as you scramble away from the law, using every trick in the book to try and lose them to save your night’s work. These moments are infrequent but inject some genuine tension into your criminal activities. 

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At low heat levels, a single cop car is easy enough to shake off or wreck, but when you start getting hounded by four cop cars at once it can become next to impossible to shake the fuzz. As a result, in the early game you’re often better off just cashing in your reputation after a couple of street races. Later upgrades can kit your car out for wrecking cops or escaping them if you want to go to war with the five-o.

Despite all my complaints and niggles, Need for Speed: Heat is fun and offers a ton of content. Real content too, not Ubisoft content. The driving feels lightning quick, but also accessible and easy to master. It’s ripping off Forza Horizon hard, but if you’re going to emulate someone, it might as well be the best in the business. Need for Speed: Heat isn’t quite on Horizon’s level yet, but this is a welcome return to form for a series that has been lagging at the back of the pack for a while now.

Should you buy Need for Speed: Heat?

I feel like an accessory to the crime by awarding Need for Speed: Heat such a high score, given the blatant theft of Forza Horizon’s entire schtick. But, at the end of the day it works and the few additions that Heat does bring to the formula help it stand apart. Need for Speed: Heat is a return to form for the series, and a great foundation to rebuild the tattered franchise on.

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