The day & night dichotomy of Need For Speed: Heat's soundtrack
A welcome return for the series with a simple but great example of contextual playlisting within a video game.
Here comes my first post on racing games. We already know that if you’re getting from A to B, music is integral. It can make traffic a little easier in real life, but it certainly maketh the moment in a video game. Whether you’re crossing the finishing line, dodging the police, or even just taking in the scenery, music decides the feeling. Need For Speed: Heat (NFS: Heat) makes music ‘engaging’ and here’s how.
Need For Speed
The Gameplay
How NFS: Heat uses music
1. Need For Speed
The Need for Speed (NFS) franchise, established by Electronic Arts (EA) in 1994, is a seminal series in the racing game genre, known for its exhilarating depiction of high-speed car racing and police pursuits. Steam hosts 85k reviews at an 84% positive, which is pretty good, and 72/100 metacritic score.
Over the years, NFS has evolved from simple circuit races to incorporating narratives, car customization, and open-world exploration, reflecting changes in automotive culture and advancements in gaming technology. There is nothing quite like driving around a fictional city in a fictional car with fictional money because the real life second hand car market is still sky high right now unless anyone has a spare, cheap and operational 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 Twister? No? Okay fine then.
The series has explored various facets of street and professional racing, from the underground tuner culture in "Need for Speed: Underground" series to the legal racing circuits in "Need for Speed: ProStreet" With over 25 titles, including "Need for Speed: Heat" as its latest installment as of 2019, the franchise has not only set the benchmark for racing games but also expanded its reach with adaptations in film and collaborations with car manufacturers, becoming a cultural icon in the automotive and entertainment worlds.
I got this on a steam offer and I was impressed! It has stood out as a promising return to the great era of the 2000’s Need For Speed titles where the sales of the franchise were more than double what they were today. If you want to hear more on my thoughts of an earlier game…just wait until my next post. I may just have a needledrop for you. Until then, here’s a video on how you can even customise your car’s exhaust sound:
2. The Gameplay
The below trailer gives a great sample of how this latest NFS game has a rich storyline, a dynamic day & night cycle, and a focus on customisation with purpose - to overcome the impending threat.
Along with the narratives, scene setting and customisable options typical of the NFS genre, the day & night cycle comes into importance. The Goal of NFS: Heat is to dominate the street racing scene by day to earn money and evade the corrupt High-Speed Task Force by night while building reputation for doing so.
During the day, you are able to partake in legitimate and legal races to earn money under the watchful eye of the law. As night falls, the game shifts gears into a grittier, more dangerous underground racing scene, where the stakes are high, and the police are relentless. Any ‘heat’ you generate in the evening converts to reputation providing you don’t get arrested and you do not earn money outside of the day missions. With a higher reputation you can unlock more cars, and with more money you can buy and customise them. Day n’ nite.
Collectively these two cycles enable players to rise through the ranks, earn both money & reputation, customize cars, and try to take down the city's corrupt police force leader, Lt. Frank Mercer.
It’s a freshing take on racing games that allow you to enjoy both aesthetics. It is well balanced enough that to progress through the game you need to ensure you are doing a fairly even amount of days and nights. We all know that night driving is much better though. I mean come on. Also, imagine driving in a city above 20mph? Unfortunately, that experience is only available through a video game. So should dodging the police and that…Drive responsibly!
3. How NFS: Heat uses music
So to recap:
NFS: Heat is a racing game where you progressively race better cars *vroom*.
You earn money in the day with nice legal races *horray*.
You earn reputation at night where you dodge police and drift lots *skrrrt*.
Here’s were a bit of magic comes into play. The vibe during the day and night are completely different. How did Need for Speed use music to describe this? They have a different playlist for each. It’s so simple and works fantastically.
The NFS: Heat soundtrack dynamically shifts from upbeat, energetic tracks by day to darker, more intense music by night, mirroring the game's transition from sanctioned racing to the illicit underground scene. This change in music serves not only as background ambiance but as a powerful storytelling tool and mood setter, enhancing the overall gameplay experience. By reflecting the game's dual identity, the day-to-night playlist deepens player immersion, emphasizing the contrasts within the game's world—between legality and rebellion, daylight and darkness.
This thoughtful integration of music underscores its importance in modern gaming, where soundtracks play a pivotal role in narrative development and player engagement, making the transition between the game's two distinct phases both natural and impactful.
From a business sense, this broadens the offering of music you can license and therefore what audience you can resonate with. Games like GTA let you play many radio stations so players can truly personalse the experience, but how can you build a strong aesthetic like NFS: Heat without licensing infinity? I’d say this is a great start - Having designed playlisting options for each theme. This is what I could consider an engaging use of ‘background music’. P.s, GTA 5 did force you to listen to certain radio tracks during some missions, which was their way of setting the scene using music in a similar way.
Some of the tracks in the night playlist are pretty damn aggressive and works well for the gameplay and aesthetic. I wonder if this is why that mode is potentially more popular, but ultimately I’m going to reserve judgement on the soundtrack in its entirety. My whole point is: instead of making one playlist, they made two. One for your legal identity, and one for your illicit one. Simple & smart. No doubt this is one of the reasons this game is arguably one of their best recent game entries. Although, I am surprised they didn’t separate the day and night playlists out on their Spotify profile!
I know one NFS game where the licensed music placements were just so unforgettably so good that it would be a tough to beat today…and I’ll fill you in on that next time.
TLDR:
Need For Speed: Heat asks you to be nice during the day and naughty at night. They made a playlist for each one to match gameplay and amplify each theme’s aesthetic. Players liked this.