Is Need for Speed: Heat Multiplayer?

The need for Speed franchise has been one of the best racing games in this century. Everyone remembers great Need for Speed games that revolutionized the racing genre like Underground 2 and Most Wanted, which even got a new installment in recent years. Fans stuck around for other Need for Speed games as well, playing NFS: Shift, Carbon, Payback, and more, and supported the recent installment, Heat. In this article, we will discuss if the Need for Speed: Heat is a multiplayer game.

Need for Speed: Heat is both a single-player and a multiplayer game. The game works like this – you are part of the open world in which you can explore, complete campaign missions, and complete the races while other players are doing their own thing. You can invite other players to participate in the races with you, but not if you are completing campaign missions. You are doing those solo.

We will also go into a short introduction to the game, how many players can participate in the multiplayer races, split-screen, crossplay, and more. If you are interested, definitely stick around until the end of the article. Let’s start!

Can You Play Multiplayer On Need For Speed: Heat?

Need for Speed: Heat is a racing game released in 2019, developed by Ghost Games, and published by EA Games. The game was released for PC players, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. NFS: Heat is the 24th installment in the Need for Speed series and with its release, it commemorated the series’s 25th anniversary. Heat, unfortunately, did not pack that much “heat” – the game upon its release got mixed reviews from the critics but was praised for being better than an earlier game in the franchise, the Need for Speed reboot from 2015.

The gameplay ties closely to the multiplayer mode of the game – an open-world map with a vast selection of races and multiplayer mods. You need an internet connection to even go through the campaign, and only a few mods are available offline. Previous games had 24-hour cycle days but Heat changed it a bit and gave a player an option to change between times of the day by themselves.

Night and day have different types of races they can participate in. For example, during the day, a player can participate in so-called sanctioned race events which awards them cash and with it, they can spend that money on new cars and upgrades. The night offers players to participate in “illegal” street races, which award REP (reputation). The word illegal means that the police force will also try to interfere with the race and if caught, your Reputation decreases and you lose money.

All in all, the gameplay of Need for Speed: Heat also includes game modes and activities from some previous games. You can smash billboards, do challenges, escape the police, drift through the city, and beat other scores and records in the game. All that earns players the money and Reputation.

As we already mentioned, Need for Speed: Heat is both a single-player and a multiplayer game. Single-player missions include mission campaigns that players can beat solo and invest in their cars. Multiplayer includes already mentioned races where anyone can participate and invite friends to race with you. Need for Speed: Heat reminds us of the NBA2K style of playing the game, where you can participate in online tournaments and gyms or go solo and play career mode to develop into the best basketball player ever. Since Heat mostly needs an online connection, you could encounter players driving through Palm City doing their own thing and racing. You could also turn it off and go offline if you want to really play solo.

How Many Players Can Be In The Need for Speed: Heat?

With that question, we mostly mean when you are playing multiplayer mode. If you want to race with other people, you can invite up to 15 players to participate in your race. You can also invite your friends to complete activities with you, like already mentioned smashing billboards or crushing track records. What is really interesting is that while racing, you can literally stumble upon other races, which makes the game more interesting and immersive. Usually in those types of missions or activities, events stay separate, but Need for Speed: Heat let everything happen in the same place.

Servers can hold up to 16 players, including you. This is good because you do not want to stumble upon 50 other racers trying to escape the police and consequently destroy someone else’s race.

Is There a Split Screen Feature In Need for Speed: Heat?

Unfortunately, Need for Speed: Heat does not support offline co-op multiplayer or split-screen multiplayer. We mentioned in the Call of Duty: Warzone article, that developers do not prioritize group playing in the same room anymore – everyone has their own console or PC and can play with anyone they want. Graphics are also more important – split-screen play does not work with 60 fps 4k quality games, it will only drop frames and ruing the feel of racing.

So, if you want to go and race with your friends, invite them and escape the police together, or determine who is a better racer.

Does Need for Speed: Heat Support Crossplay?

The good news is that Need for Speed: Heat supports a crossplay type of playing. You can try and test your skills against other consoles or PC players, who sometimes use gamepads and racing wheels but mostly keyboards. Crossplay can be turned on if you are booting up the game for the first time – the game will ask you if you want to connect with other players and offer options between enabling and disabling.

While in the lobby, you can change these options by clicking on the “Privacy” tab and choosing an option there. There are some restrictions where you can’t share screenshots, join the same Crew, inspect their Profiles, or share Community wraps with players of other gaming systems.