Need for Speed Heat

Need for Speed Heat (stylised as NFS Heat) is a 2019 racing video game developed by Ghost Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It is the twenty-fourth installment in the Need for Speed series and commemorates the series' 25th anniversary. The game received mixed reviews from critics, who mostly found the game to be an improvement over the 2015 Need for Speed reboot and Payback but not enough to be a full return to form for the franchise.

Heat was Ghost Games' final game both for the Need for Speed franchise and as a lead developer. In February 2020, EA shifted development of the franchise back to Criterion Games—the developers of the Burnout series, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010) and Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012)—and reduced Ghost Games to an engineering studio for the Frostbite engine, reverting their name back to EA Gothenburg. The game is succeeded by Need for Speed Unbound, which released in December 2022.

Plot
The player (male player voiced by Andrew Lawrence, female player voiced by Jamie Gray Hyder)[a] arrives in Palm City for the SpeedHunters Showdown, a citywide exhibition that draws in racers who compete in sanctioned races throughout the day, and illegal street races at night. Lt. Frank Mercer (Josh Coxx), leader of the police's High-Speed Task Force, announces his intent to arrest all street racers in the city. The player buys their first car from Lucas Rivera (Jonny Cruz), a local mechanic and former street racer, who also helps the player enter their first Showdown race, and becomes their mentor. Lucas' younger sister, Ana Rivera (Ana Marte), is a street racer whose crew recently disbanded after the task force nearly killed one of her friends.

Ana introduces the player to The League, a crew of Palm City's best street racers, which Lucas almost joined until he quit racing after their father suddenly died. Ana and the player form a new crew to vie for a place in The League. After a race, Ana and the player are confronted by Officer Shaw (Josh Collins) of Mercer's task force, who impounds Ana's Nissan 350Z.

After another race, they witness Shaw meeting task force officer Eva Torres (Shontae Saldana). Shaw shows Torres bags of money in his car, extorted from street racers on Mercer's orders. Torres takes a bag but warns that Mercer's brashness is endangering them. Ana steals her father's 1967 Chevrolet Camaro from Lucas' shop so she can join the player in a race which Shaw interrupts. The player overturns Shaw's car, scattering the extorted money onto the street. The spectacle raises public suspicion over the task force and Lucas becomes angered at Ana for stealing their father's car.

Torres contacts Ana and the player to admit the task force is corrupt but wants Mercer taken down because he is too reckless. Torres leads them to a warehouse that acts as an illegal chop shop, stripping cars seized by the High-Speed Task Force, or preparing them to be shipped out of the city. Ana realizes her 350Z has been processed after finding its license plate.

The player and Ana attempt to expose Mercer by crashing a Showdown event, leading police and local media to his chop shop, but it turns out to be vacated. Ana and the player visit Lucas and find him bound and tortured by Mercer. Mercer reveals he anticipated their plan after seeing them on a secret camera in his shop. Mercer forces the player and Ana into his police car, but Lucas, having escaped his bonds, intercepts them in his father's Camaro and rams Mercer's car. Ana steals Mercer's laptop and escapes with Lucas and the player. At a hideout, Lucas admits to Ana that he quit street racing because he believes their father's fatal heart attack was caused by hearing about Lucas's arrest for street racing that same night.

Ana and Lucas send files from Mercer's computer to various outlets, proving his corruption and forcing him into hiding, then learn that Mercer is preparing the stolen cars in his possession for export before fleeing Palm City. As they do not know which cops are complicit or innocent, Ana and Lucas convince The League and other crews to simultaneously goad and draw as many police cars as possible to the port where the stolen cars are being loaded. Confronted by a swarm of police and street racers, Mercer attempts to escape in a BMW M3 GTR. The player chases and wrecks Mercer's car, leaving him for Torres, who pulls her pistol in response to his threats and is implied to have shot him.

Over a week later, Mercer is missing and presumed dead. Torres has been promoted to lead his task force, and she announces her commitment to ending street racing. Lucas reconciles with Ana and gives her the keys to their father's repaired Camaro. Now, members of The League, the player and Ana plan to continue racing and tackle any challenges together.