History VideoGame / NeedForSpeedHeat

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The daytime police control uses the three-letter Q codes to communicate to their units such as QSL (affirmative) or QRX (stand-by). In RealLife, those codes were really used by the actual police in Miami.

* OptionalTrafficLaws: The cops don't mind you for speeding, driving in the oncoming lane, causing property damage, hitting any traffic or drifting in front of them, but they'll do when you hit their unit.
** During day time, if you manage to escape, regardless of the Heat Level, it will reset to 0 as if the cops called off about the infractions you committed.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Downplayed. If you engage a police pursuit, regardless whether day or night, you can immediately bribe the cops for 10,000 so they won't bother you for reckless driving. [[spoiler: For now.]]

* LargeHam: Ana, and Officer Danny Shaw are prime examples. Ana is arrogant in attitude, and Officer Danny Shaw appears to yell a lot.

* OptionalTrafficLaws: The cops don't mind you for speeding, driving in the oncoming lane, causing property damage, hitting any traffic or drifting in front of them, but they'll do when you hit their unit despite being advertised as otherwise in the trailers.

** The faithful game modding community, which Need For Speed is known for is briefly referenced when Sweet, a cop for the PCPD Task Force may say "I'm here to do the work you can't finish!" to Torres over the radio. Sweet will also say, "Next time, they won't be so lucky." if they give up searching for you. This is none other than what Sergeant Cross said in the beginning cutscene of the 2005 version of Need For Speed: Most Wanted.

* LargeHam: Ana, and Officer Danny Show are prime examples. Ana is arrogant in attitude, and Officer Danny Shaw appears to yell a lot.

* {{Expy}}: The three main police officers are very, very similar to the ones from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas''. Mercer is similar to Frank Tenpenny (even sharing the same first name), in that he's a police officer who uses his position for profit. Shaw is a foul-mouthed JerkWithAHeartOfJerk and Mercer's [[TheDragon Dragon]], much like Eddie Pulaski. And Torres is the TokenGoodTeammate of the bunch like Hernandez, except [[spoiler:Torres lives and helps the player take down the BigBad, while Hernandez squeals to the Feds and gets killed for his troubles.]]
* FullCircleRevolution: Torres helps you take down Frank Mercer, who's clearly out of control and corrupt as all hell, but...when Torres confronts Mercer alone, he implies (once he gets over his shock that she sold him out) that ''she'' has just as much to lose as he does if he goes in, and he will take her down if he gets caught. [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim So she kills him]] [[NeverFoundTheBody and hides the body]]. Her corruption was on display throughout the story, so it's not much of a surprise: she wasn't against the results of the illegal crackdown (the money), just the lengths to which Mercer and Shaw were willing to go (murder) to keep it going.

** Averted in the playable epilogue: Ana recounts that she heard from Joe about how she's got a Crew and wants to know if he and Richie can join up with her again. She turns him down flat.

* OptionalTrafficLaws: The cops don't mind you for speeding, driving in the oncoming lane, causing property damage, hitting any traffic or drifting in front of them, but they'll do when you hit their unit.

* LighterAndSofter

* LighterAndSofter: The day-time races. To the point that most day-time races are closed circuit races and the cops at daylight are only issuing parking tickets. Aesthetically, the night-time races are often set in neon-bathed city lights, a contrast to most preceding games barring the ''Underground'' series and ''Carbon''.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The night-time races. Cops are now a genuine threat with heavy body armor instead of comical LemmingCops prevalent in ''Videogame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted'' or equal WorthyOpponent prevalent in any other prior ''Need for Speed'' games. However, see LighterAndSofter below.

* DisneyAcidSequence: During the loading screens between races and entering the world, your current car will be seen in very flashy backgrounds with A LOT of lights being shown off from different angles.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[TagLine Hustle by day, risk it all at night.]]]]

-->-'''Lt. Frank Mercer''', Palm City Police Department

** Why do the police continue to be so rabid once [[spoiler: Mercer and Shaw are taken out and the apparent ReasonableAuthorityFigure Torres takes over? Because she's ''just'' as corrupt as they were.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: The game shows a mixture of this trope and LighterAndSofter, the former when compared to the rest of the series and the latter when compared to ''Rivals'' and ''Payback''.

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Why are the police willing to use extreme tactics like sending out helicopters to track down a single street racer rather than letting them go? Because they're a bunch of near-rabid thugs. Police chatter in the previous games was fairly professional; police chatter in this game has them take glee in being able to hunt you down (one of the opening chase lines is, "Smile for the dashcam, jackass!"), they slowly lose their cool as the chase continues, and when you get away, they're prone to blame anything else besides admitting you're a better driver than them while the dispatcher mocks them for their ineptitude. In his second scene, Mercer ''threatens'' Joe to leave, just to send a message to the racers. And as the story reveals, [[spoiler:the cops are selling the cars they impound to make piles of money, giving them even more motivation to catch you]].

* MarathonLevel: The Discovery Events. Three night-time sprint events that give you the highest rep possible. And after finishing Discovery A, the next event (Discovery B) is just right ahead of you and you can start the race immediately. There is an even longer Discovery event that takes you to race around the entire map and it would take you 8-10 minutes with at least a 300+ rating car, but these events are extremely handy and useful to doing the "Cashing In" achievement.

* StakingMission: The mission "Follow the Law" obliges you to follow the police car without filling up the suspicion meter.

* ColorMotif: The police units' color scheme differ for both day and night. The police units in daytime depicte in light blue, while the night time units use black, which truly represents Mercer's task force.

* LethalJokeCharacter: Derelict and abandoned cars from ''Payback'' return as standard cars that can be easily purchased from the dealership. And since majority of the cars in the lineup can go above the 400+ cap rating, they can give the Koenigsegg, Ferrari or the [=McLaren=] P1 a run for their money.

* NeonCity: Palm City shows this style, especially so at night, with predominantly light blue and pink neons that give a strong UsefulNotes/{{Synthwave}}-esque vibe.

** During day time, if you manage to escape a Heat Level 5 pursuit, the Heat Level will reset to 0 as if the cops do not care about the infractions you committed.

* ChekhovsGun: The classic yellow Chevrolet Camaro from earlier when the player arrives to pick their starter car at the beginning
** [[spoiler: Ana steals the Camaro to race against the Dreamkillers in a final race alongside with the player. It was badly damaged when Shaw intervened midway through the race, forcing the player to save her. This lead to Lucas getting furious for Ana's actions.]]

** Ana's temporary car also counts. [[spoiler: After her [=350Z=] was unreasonably impounded by Shaw earlier, Lucas later lended her his red RWB 993 during the second half of the story.]]

* StealthBasedMission: The mission "Follow the Law" obliges you to follow the police car without filling up the suspicion meter.

* ByTheBookCop: The PCPD plays by the rules during daytime, only giving you a small fine for speeding, using normal tactics, and having a very civil and sensible attitude. They won't pursue you for speeding, driving in the oncoming lane, hitting any traffic or drifting, but they'll do when you hit their unit.

*** Another highway sign in western Fort Murphy (near the Coal Drift Bro drift zone) says, "Rusty Springs 2345 miles", referring to Rusty Springs Raceway from the series' very first entry, ''The Need for Speed''.

** Speaking of Bayview Park, there is a district called "Fort Callahan" named after the last name of [[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted Razor]].[[note]]His real name is '''Clarence Callahan'''.[[/note]] This is also similar to how there is a district named "Callahan Industrial" in Fairhaven City (the setting of Creator/CriterionGames' ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted Most Wanted]]'').
*** ...and speaking of Razor, there is a store in Sandino Ranches with the sign saying "RONNIE WAS HERE". '''Ronnie''' is the #3 member of the Blacklist.

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Wrecking your car during night time causes the session to end automatically and go back to the hideout without any Rep multiplier. If you get busted by the cops, you also have to pay a fine which can be easily compensated by doing some daytime races. Also, your car will not be impounded by the cops, whether busted or wrecked.
** Justified InUniverse that Lucas managed to [[CrazyPrepared prepare extra parts for your car and completely restored it back to the way it originally was in case that happened]].
-->'''Lucas''': It's okay, I managed to salvage something from what you brought in.

* LethalJokeCharacter: Derelict and abandoned cars from ''Payback'' return as standard cars from the dealer. And since all cars can go above the 400+ rating, these cars can humiliate even the top-notch supercars!

* RapidCop: All the officers on the High Speed Task Force are insane, both in story and in gameplay. In gameplay, even a low Heat level chase will have them smashing in to your car repeatedly to try to wreck it, and their tactics escalate in ferocity from there: spike strips and roadblocks are par for the course, but at Heat level 5, in addition to being hounded by a helicopter for 60 seconds at a time, you'll also have to deal with Rhino attacks. That is, a heavily armored SWAT van trying its absolute best to ram your car ''from the front'' at extreme speeds. One hit from a Rhino can take off half your health!

*** It can also be considered unintentional [[ProductPlacement]], considering 'Sun Cola' is an actual brand found in certain countries like [[UsefulNotes/SaudiArabia]].

* WideOpenSandbox: For the first time in the ''NFS'' series, the open world allows players to drive off-road ''anywhere'' in the Palm City countryside like in the ''VideoGame/{{Forza}} Horizon'' series[[note]]Xbox One version of ''Horizon 2'' onwards[[/note]] and ''VideoGame/TheCrew'' [[VideoGame/TheCrew2 games]].

* CutTheJuice: Killswitches from ''Payback'' return, and the PCPD is not afraid to use them against you. Like how Rav fitted the countermeasures on Tyler's car that counter the killswitches during the Outlaw's Rush, you can actually fit an active "Killswitch Jammer" auxiliary item which can counter the killswitch in a similar vein as countering the EMP in ''Hot Pursuit'' and ''Rivals''.

* EverythingIsSmashableArea: Like in ''[[VideoGame/{{Forza}} Forza Horizon]]'', you can smash barriers to lamp posts, even palm trees, telephone poles and stone walls without taking damage or losing too much speed!

* ResourcesManagementGameplay: Since you can go to the gas station to repair your car, during the night, you can only repair up to three times in a single night session. When your car's taken critical damage and you used up your repairs, even with cops on your tail, you're on your own. [[spoiler: Unless you have a Portable Repair Kit installed in your car.]]

* BigBadDuumvirate: Lieutenant Frank Mercer and Danny Shaw. The former appears at first as a ByTheBookCop but he encourages his comrades to break the law to capture as many racers as possible. The latter is Mercer's DragonInChief and number one lackey - a {{sadist}}ic, trash-talking RabidCop whose blind zealotry in taking down street racers makes him just as bad, if not worse than the people he's trying to capture.

* CowboyCop: At night, the PCPD is this trope incarnate, with more aggressive tactics, better equipment such as roadblocks, killswitches and spike strips, and even Rhino vehicles ramming you head on. They treat searching for escaping racers like a game of cat and mouse, and some of them seem to actually enjoy putting their safety (and the safety of the public and racers) on the line in chases. Their aggressiveness even extends to their dispatcher (Officer Torres, no less) who takes an almost sadistic glee in the cops going after racers and is beyond pissed off when a chase lasts too long or the racers get away. They honestly verge on being a collective police force example of the RabidCop. Here are some examples of what they say:

* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Wrecking your car during night time causes the session to end automatically and go back to the hideout without any Rep multiplier. If you get busted by the cops, you also have to pay a fine which can be easily compensated by doing some daytime races. Also, your car will not be impounded by the cops, whether busted or wrecked. Justified InUniverse that Lucas managed to [[CrazyPrepared prepare extra parts for your car and completely restored it back to the way it originally was in case that happened]].

* BookEnds: [[spoiler: The main story starts a breaking news flash with Lt. Frank Mercer giving a RousingSpeech on how to end illegal street racing. The same does at the end with the now Lt. Eva Torres.]]

** Also, the classic yellow Chevrolet Camaro with a roots supercharger Lucas has been working on. [[spoiler: It belonged to their late father.]]

* EnemyMine: Because the franchise is known for racers and cops as sworn enemies, here, the Player and Ana has to team up with Officer Eva Torres to put an end on Mercer's diabolic profiteering scheme.
* FrameUp: [[spoiler: To exploit Frank's covert wrongdoings, even if he's a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, Ana steals his laptop and have Lucas upload them to the local news media. All this while Ana is driving and the player protecting them from the cops.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Frank's sidekick [[TheDragon Shaw]], eventually [[KickTheDog kicking]] Joe for losing his car. Frank himself is also one.

* SelfContainedDemo: ''NFS Heat Studio'', the companion app for mobile devices, gives players an early taste of car customization and even gives the option to export the full loadouts -- livery included -- to the full game. You still have to unlock the cars and pay for the customizations, however. Also, not all the cars (including the DLCs), parts and vinyls in the app are in the full game.

* SocializationBonus: Being part of an online Crew gives you bonuses to bank, rep and heat earned throughout the game; the higher the Crew level is, the bigger the bonuses get. Also, when your crew hits level 50 all of its members get the option to buy the Ferrari FXX K Evo, the fastest car in the game in stock conditions. [[note]]You need to be connected to the internet in order to obtain this car.[[/note]]

* CoolCar: Not just the tuners, muscle cars and supercars we came to know and love, but also some sedans and electric sports cars such as the Polestar 1 from the cover, as well as convertible, high performance variants of certain cars and specially tuned versions by Khyzyl Saleem. There are also track-only cars such as Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 2.8, [=McLaren=] P1 GTR and Ferrari FXX-K Evoluzione, which are not street-legal to begin with...

* CoolCar: Not just the tuners, muscle cars and supercars we came to know and love, but also some sedans and electric sports cars such as the Polestar 1 from the cover, as well as convertible, high performance variants of certain cars and specially tuned versions by Khyzyl Saleem. There are also track-only racing cars such as Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 2.8, McLaren P1 GTR and Ferrari FXX-K Evoluzione, which are not street-legal to begin with...

* CoolCar: Not just the tuners, muscle cars and supercars we came to know and love, but also some sedans and electric sports cars such as the Polestar 1 from the cover, as well as convertible, high performance variants of certain cars and specially tuned versions by Khyzyl Saleem.