Need for Speed
Ready to own the streets? Get behind the wheel of iconic cars and floor it through Ventura Bay, a sprawling urban playground. Explore overlapping stories as you build your reputation – and your dream car – and become the ultimate racing icon.
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Need for Speed™ Heat on Steam
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Hustle by day and risk it all at night in Need for Speed™ Heat Deluxe Edition, a white-knuckle street racer, where the lines of the law fade as the sun starts to set.
Need for Speed™ Heat is a racing, open world and multiplayer game
developed by Ghost Games
and published by Electronic Arts.
Released on June 04th 2020 is available on Windows, Steam Deck and Steam Machine.
It has received 132,855 reviews of which 111,482 were positive and 21,373 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.3 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 69.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Need for Speed™ Heat into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Need for Speed™ Heat through various videos and screenshots.
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: FX-6350 or Equivalent; Core i5-3570 or Equivalent
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD: Radeon 7970/Radeon R9 280x or Equivalent; NVIDIA: GeForce GTX 760 or Equivalent
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 50 GB available space
Steam Price & Best Deals
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Well, after experiencing the awful garbage that were: 2015: buggy handling and very stupid Gold medal requirements that have ruined the completionist journey of what is actually not too bad of a game. The plot's irrelevant but the characters were barely less cringier than Payback's. No multiplier on some drift events is a crime, considering this game decides big pointage drifting = almost losing control everytime you do a slide. Payback: One of the most restrictive Need for Speed titles to date, between the hyper-specific rules tied to what constitutes a drift (in a game where drifting is god-awful to perform, you expect me to keep the car consistently on the road + dodge traffic) or the fake map where trying to be creative and going off-road instantly resets you because of so many invisible walls. 99% of objects you come across are indestructible and the jumps themselves (whether it's landing in general, snatching a mid-air casino chip or landing where a collectible is) are way too hyper-specific to be fun. Plot and story are the worst: you play as the cringiest sociopaths ever depicted in gaming, it's insane how many people you get to straight up murder in this game's plot. Unbound: Collectibles feel like they were plastered everywhere just to make you want to scratch your brains out. The anime-style thing they were going for was completely whack. Game was pretty unremarkable, not to mention how they completely butchered the day/night system presented in Heat: you're forced to grind much more for what you want compared to Heat and also now you have to plan ahead because suddenly they have decided whether the next time you go out of the garage it's day or night. Driving's also considerably worse and so are the activities. Heat is by far the best modern Need for Speed game, Hot Pursuit 2010 is also really good but it was made before the current NFS era that started with 2015, so I would say it's somewhat... retro. Anyway, this game has been nothing but good from start to finish: everything I've mentioned above regarding the other games is completely gone in this title. The world is actually OPEN! YOU ARE ALLOWED TO DRIVE!!! Besides that, drifting is really fun as you get a multiplier in both Drift Trials AND Drift Zones, not to mention that the hyper-specific rules Payback had regarding jumps, drifting are all gone - even while racing, you're allowed to go off the "main road" in order to try to farm more points or avoid the cops as long as you hit the checkpoint. Speaking of cops - they are pretty difficult and I do feel like the damage you deal to them (even with the Damage Increase aux upgrade) vs the damage they deal to you is way too one-sided, but in the end it works really well with the fact that you're meant to be challenged if you want to escape with the easy-to-rack-up massive REP payouts. The variety of cars is nice, the handling system where it's all tied to what type of Suspension, Differential and Tires you pick is easy to understand and very convenient, I'd much rather have that than have to fiddle with sliders like I'm Michael Rosen fiddling with the door key, not to mention that excluding speed traps and some jumps, this handling system allowed me to use the car I like even in the endgame, unlike 2015 which requires you to have Meta cars for each event type to partake in content like having Gold medals. The plot to this game was more enjoyable and doesn't overstay its welcome, Shaw is a massive meme but I'd rather have the meme than play as a sociopath that kills everyone. The only real complaint I have is that the game isn't optimized for modern CPUs, The game needed a small boost in the form of a config file for it to recognize that it's dealing with 14 cores and 20 threads. However, I could not find a fix for the pre-rendered cutscenes which lagged and skipped, rendering them unwatchable. All in all, this was a beast game and it's a shame to have seen Unbound completely take a massive dump on everything it did right.
Driving? Fun. Cars? Beautiful. Customization? Great. Cops? Trained by terminator Servers? Powered by a dead hamster and EA’s unpaid electricity bill. The police chases are a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ joke. You can be going 300 km/h, hit three jumps, cut through a forest, launch off a cliff, and somehow a Crown Victoria from 2004 is still glued to your ass like it has a jet engine and divine intervention. But don’t even get me started on the servers. The game is genuinely fun until EA decides to personally join the police chase. I had three cops on my ass, barely escaping, carrying an entire night’s worth of REP—and then the server disconnected me and deleted all my progress. Besides all that, it’s an amazing game. For $3.50, this ♥♥♥♥ is an absolute steal. 10/10 - would get disconnected again.
Ah, Need For Speed: Heat. The closest we got to achieving BlackBox-era of racing game greatness – were it not for EA’s shutdown of Ghost Games. Pros So back in 2019, NFS Heat had everything in line to be a great success – stunning visuals, solid car collection, a story once again focused on street racing and cops vs racers. Mind you – Ghost Games launched a mobile app before the title’s launch, where you could customize the entire game’s car roster on your mobile phone! And then, ingame, you could simply pull up your self-made design and drive off! To this day, I can’t think of any other great marking strategy in the racing genre! Anyway – I digress. The game launched with a fantastic amount of content: an amazing city design in Palm City (still miles better than Lakeshore in Unbound), solid car roster (a special note here for having included K.S. designs and cars in-game), great customization (even the exhaust pops and sounds can be tuned!), and a story that, while not breath-taking, was enough to keep you engaged for a couple of hours. The day and night cycle was one of the most welcomed innovations – casual day racing to make some money, and illegal street racing at night with looming cops, to increase your Reputation and level. Multiplayer and singleplayer were unified – you could be playing some Offroad events, jump into a friend’s lobby, and go do some drift racing and event grinding, all without sacrificing progression. Event replayability, REP and money grinding, car tuning – the hours would go by and you wouldn’t be able to tell. Cons Everything seemed to be going good. The first expansion was announced in the form of the Black Market – a new story chapter, you could say, where you would be testing new cars via a series of challenges (that literally took inspiration from the Challenge Series of Carbon/Most Wanted), get some cool visual parts, and test yourself. Well... We got 2 cars. That was it. After that – the premature end: Ghost Games was being torn apart and the series would once again be shipped over to Criterion. No more updates, no more cars, no more events. No nothing. The game with the biggest opportunity in ages to become a stand-out title, one that the community would be taking for years and years – cut short of what could’ve been an amazing lifecycle. Final Thoughts At the end of it all – it’s still Need For Speed: Heat. Even if you’re a new kid coming into the scene, you’re more than likely to have seen clips of the game on social media or Youtube. Even if you’ve been living under a rock, Heat is the most recognizable entry in the series in a solid decade. If you haven’t purchased it yet – now is still a great time.
Honestly, I didn’t expect to enjoy Need for Speed Heat this much. Even though my laptop is way below the minimum requirements, I was still able to run the game on low resolution and low graphics, and it was surprisingly fun. The sense of speed is great, the world looks good even on low settings, and the car customization is one of the best parts of the game. I also enjoyed the story more than I expected. I did face some lag, FPS drops, and occasional stuttering, but that’s completely normal considering my weak hardware. Overall, it’s a very enjoyable racing game with great style, speed, and customization. I’ll definitely continue playing it after I finish my exams. Recommended.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Need for Speed™ Heat is currently priced at 69.99€ on Steam.
No, Need for Speed™ Heat is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 69.99€ on Steam.
Yes, Need for Speed™ Heat received 111,482 positive votes out of a total of 132,855 achieving a rating of 8.29.
😎
Need for Speed™ Heat was developed by Ghost Games and published by Electronic Arts.
Yes, Need for Speed™ Heat is playable and fully supported on Windows.
No, Need for Speed™ Heat is not playable on MacOS.
No, Need for Speed™ Heat is not playable on Linux.
Yes, Need for Speed™ Heat is playable on Steam Deck, though it might require a few minor tweaks. Make sure to check the Steam store page and community feedback on ProtonDB for exact compatibility details.
Yes, Need for Speed™ Heat is playable on Steam Machine, though it might require a few minor tweaks. Make sure to check the Steam store page and community feedback on ProtonDB for exact compatibility details.
No, Need for Speed™ Heat does not support VR.
Need for Speed™ Heat offers both single-player and multi-player modes.
Need for Speed™ Heat offers both Co-op and PvP modes.
Yes, there are 2 DLCs available for Need for Speed™ Heat. Explore additional content available for Need for Speed™ Heat on Steam.
No, Need for Speed™ Heat does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Yes, Need for Speed™ Heat supports Remote Play on Tablet. Discover more about Steam Remote Play.
No, Need for Speed™ Heat does not currently support Steam Family Sharing.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Need for Speed™ Heat.
Data sources
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 19 September 2026 05:06 UTC |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 23 October 2026 03:03 UTC |
| Steam price | 27 October 2026 19:32 UTC |
| Steam reviews | 19 October 2026 06:05 UTC |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Need for Speed™ Heat, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Need for Speed™ Heat
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Need for Speed™ Heat concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Need for Speed™ Heat compatibility
Game modes
Multiplayer
Features
Online players
1,206
Developer
Ghost Games
Publisher
Electronic Arts
Release
04 Jun 2020
Platforms
Remote Play