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Late last week, a demo for an indie racing game called Heatwarped appeared seemingly out of nowhere on Steam, and it very quickly began gaining people’s attention. Take one look at the screenshot and gameplay footage, even the menus, and it’s abundantly clear that Heatwarped is going for a very specific vibe that should appeal to many aging gamers and enthusiasts: It’s trying to be Need for Speed: Underground. Even wilder, as far as I can tell, it pretty much is.
The demo contains a few single-player events including a drift competition, a chunk of the open-world city to explore, and some basic customization options for a fictional vehicle that looks like a cross between a Nissan 240SX and a Lexus SC. Heatwarped—which I regrettably keep accidentally typing as “Heatwrapped”—isn’t complete at this stage, and there is no expected release window mentioned on Steam.
Still, what little is present makes quite a statement. The way developer Sealime has nailed the visual makeup of BlackBox’s iconic games demonstrates the touch of a team that has seriously studied why Underground looked the way it did. The motion blur at speed, for example, isn’t the more sophisticated and per-pixel blur more modern games use—it more closely resembles the accumulation blur effect that was common on the PlayStation 2, and Heatwarped’s implementation is a dead-ringer for its inspiration.
Hit the nitrous and, just like in those games you remember, everything gets blurry and bright. Sealime (top left), Adam Ismail
The city streets, just like Underground’s, are weirdly glassy and reflective, even when it’s not raining. The colors, neon lights, bloom, and vague bluish cast to everything just screams mid-aughts tuner NFS. It’s all uncanny.
It would already be something if Heatwarped simply looked the part, but I’m more taken by how it handles. There are a couple of behaviors that define BlackBox’s physics engine for me, particularly from Underground through Carbon. Setting off from a stop is like spinning your wheels in mashed potatoes for like three seconds, until the tires grip and your controller stops quaking. Handling after that point is very grippy until the lateral momentum seems to entirely shift to your back wheels, and the steering gets heavy, but still pretty responsive. You never spin, but you can fishtail for days if you want.
Sealime, Adam Ismail
Heatwarped gets all that down pat, but it also benefits from the increased framerates and reduced input lag of two decades of technological progress. So it feels better than those games, too, and by a noticeable margin. Of course, the demo lets you drive exactly one car, so who’s to say at this stage how the handling will map onto other vehicles. All the same, I immediately felt comfortable speeding through this alternate-dimension version of Bayview, that’s apparently named Ratfield. Hey, it has a neighborhood called Ashtray!
Adam Ismail
As for other charming touches, I appreciate the BlackBerry-type cell phone used to explore the map, browse messages, enter photo mode, and find your next event. (Unfortunately, there’s no Cingular Wireless sponsorship, to really couch Heatwarped in its era.) The customization options aren’t super extensive at this stage but they’re definitely appropriate, down to the body kit named “Ab-Smug.” And I dig the music, which appears to come from lesser-known artists, but evokes the ambient techno and trance of early Midnight Club games, as well as some instrumental rock that would’ve been home in pre-EA Burnout.
“real rat hours, who up” Adam Ismail
While I’m usually the last person to hype up an indie project without a clear release date from a lesser-known dev, the fact that we already have a taste of how it’ll play, and the fact what’s here is already so competent, has me hopeful to watch Heatwarped take shape. Need for Speed may be no more, but as long as games like these are being made, its soul is immortal.
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Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
