The Need For Speed Heat trailer is shiny and confusing
I feel tyred
20 seconds in and it’s clear to me that Need for Speed Heat is a game that will drift past me at high speed. EA’s newest car factory knows its audience. It’s for the people that love cars and racing the police through the city streets. Meanwhile, I'm over here flinching at the fake policeman shouting “I said right now!” out of nowhere. That was pretty much all I could focus on.
I find cars baffling at the best of times, but the man in the shadows 20 seconds in has truly confused me. It sort of sounds like a lyric, but why is the shadowy man shouting it? What’s the context of it? Is he setting up some sort of car-based battle musical?
I have the trailer for you here, and to be fair the rest is fairly parsable: cars drive, the voiceover is portentous and challenging to authority, crashed vehicles slide across the rain-slicked streets of Palm City, which is clearly meant to be Miami. What it doesn't make clear is the structure: by day, you're driving around in sanctioned races called the Speedhunters Showdown. Points earned there can go towards upgrading your car, garage, and crews. By night, you'll be speeding through underground races and out-running rogue cops trying to steal your earnings, so crashing into them is a-ok. But please buckle up, if not for your sake then for mine. I worry.
If that sort of thing has you wondering when it’ll be out, I can tell you it's here November 8th. EA is going to give everyone a proper look at it during next week’s Gamescom, and I hope they spend a lot of time addressing the shouting man mystery at the heart of this.