Need for Speed™ Heat

Open-world arcade racing split between legal events and police chases

Ghost Games · Published by Electronic Arts · Released Jun 4, 2020

Reviews: Very Positive; 84% of 154K
Recent reviews: Very Positive; 84% of 1,328 in 30 days
Playing now: 1,665; peak 24h 1,973
Steam Deck: Playable
Last update: 3 years ago; Jun 20, 2023

What is Need for Speed™ Heat?

An open-world arcade racing game set in Palm City, playable solo or online. By day, you enter sanctioned races to earn money for car upgrades and customization; at night, you run illegal street races, build reputation, and evade a rogue police force.

For you if...

+you enjoy fast arcade racing and open-world cruising
+you like customizing cars and outrunning police at night
+you want solo, competitive, and cooperative online racing

Not for you if...

−you prefer realistic driving physics over arcade handling
−you want racing without police pursuits

What players say

84% of 154,039 reviews are positive · 84% of 1,328 in the last 30 days

Players praise the arcade racing, car customization, and high-risk nighttime police chases. The most common complaints concern EA app launch failures and PC performance problems, including stuttering, laggy cutscenes, and audio crackling.

Screenshots and trailer

Need for Speed™ Heat system requirements

As published by the developer.

Minimum

OS: Windows 10
Processor: FX-6350 or Equivalent; Core i5-3570 or Equivalent
Graphics: AMD: Radeon 7970/Radeon R9 280x or Equivalent; NVIDIA: GeForce GTX 760 or Equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Storage: 50 GB available space
DirectX: Version 11

PC version details

DRM, required accounts, controller support and Steam features.

DRM: EA on-line activation and Origin client software installation and background use required.
Third-party account: EA Account (Supports Linking to Steam Account)
Controller: Keyboard and mouse
Platforms: Windows
Achievements: 42
Steam features: Trading cards, HDR

Steam Deck: Playable

The launcher or setup tool may need the touchscreen or virtual keyboard
Some text entry requires manually opening the on-screen keyboard
Some in-game text is small and may be hard to read
All functionality is accessible with the default controller configuration
Shows Steam Deck controller icons
Default graphics settings perform well on Steam Deck
First time setup requires active internet connection
Singleplayer gameplay requires active internet connection

Multiplayer and co-op

Languages

Full audio: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Polish, Russian. Text only: Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Arabic.