Need for Speed: Heat is the closest you’ll get to a modern follow-up to NFS: Underground 2. It has a similar neon nighttime vibe, a great map, and an emphasis on tuning and customization. However, as someone who grew up with the series during the Black Box Era (Underground 2, Most Wanted, Carbon), I consider Heat a decent title, but far from one of the best racing games.
Leave it to the modders to save the day. Thanks to a dedicated community and helpful modding tools, you can turn Heat into a playground for nostalgia and creativity. I spent an entire weekend experimenting with dozens of mods, like adding cop takedowns, new cars, and even the old nitrous look. There’s a lot of potential here, so let’s take a look at the best Need for Speed Heat mods to make your experience infinitely more fun.
How To Install Mods In Need For Speed: Heat
Modding can often get quite difficult, but I found that it was easy enough to get up and running in Need for Speed Heat. To kick things off, you need to download a tool called Frosty Mod Manager. You can download individual, separate mods from Nexus Mods, though you’ll find direct links to each mod in their respective sections.
Once you download the zip file for Frosty, launch the app and hit the Scan button so the tool can find your game. After that, you can click the Add button to import mods you’ve downloaded from Nexus Mods. If you’re having trouble, the video above should help you out. The process is generally the same for all the mods we’re discussing today.
The 10 Best Need for Speed Heat Mods
1. Heat Evolution
Some modders put so much work into a game that they become glorified game designers. The Evolution Works team has basically remastered the entire game with their Heat Evolution mod, and it is glorious. It begins with a visual overhaul; better lighting, improved road reflections, new skyboxes, and even new environments. The audio is also noticeably better, with turbo sounds that have that iconic flutter.
Under the hood, the AI for cops and racers has been reworked to be more dynamic (and tougher). You also get new cars to expand your garage. The best thing about this mod is that the modders respect the original vision of the game. It builds on top of the vanilla visuals and gameplay, without taking anything away from the original experience.
One of the best additions here is the speed-line effect that streaks alongside your car at high speeds. Little details like this make Heat Evolution a sense of intensity that is sorely missing from the original game. Words don’t do it justice, so you should watch the trailer linked above that shows you what you’re in for.
2. Lexus LFA
Any car guy will tell you that the Lexus LFA is an engineering marvel. It has a cutting-edge carbon fiber reinforced body, one of the best sounding V10 engines, and exceptional handling. Lexus only made 500 LFAs, so it’s highly unlikely you or I will ever own one. Fortunately, with the Lexus LFA mod, you can at least drive it in NFS Heat.
After you install this mod, you can go and buy the LFA from any dealership in the game for $400,000. A steep price, but it makes sense for such an elusive supercar. I was not ready to hear that glorious V10 scream in NFS Heat, so get ready for a surprise. There’s not a lot to this mod, but you’ll appreciate it once you start sliding this legendary car across Palm City’s streets.
3. Heat Remix
While it’s a bit more subtle than Heat Evolution, Remix makes some major improvements to the game without completely overhauling it. This is a good mod to try out if you like the vanilla experience but want elements like better handling, more customization parts, and improved lighting.
At night, Heat Remix has a darker look to it, but with brighter neon accents that provide a great contrast. Ambient Occlusion also gets a rework, which improves the graphical quality significantly. You even get more dynamic weather and clouds as a result of the skybox retouch.
The handling overhaul is a major change here, and you’ll feel more in control of the car even at high speeds. It’s hard to describe, but the cars feel close to how they control in NFS Most Wanted and Underground.
4. Speed Limit Remover
This is one of the simpler mods on the list, but one that I appreciate for what it adds to the gameplay. By default, almost all cars in the game have a speed limit of 245mph. A speed limit is nothing new to the Need for Speed franchise, as speed limits have been in place since Payback. However, if you have played the older games from the 2000s, you know this wasn’t always the case.
Depending on the car, you can now easily reach speeds of 300mph and beyond. It’s obvious, faster speeds equal more fun. Handling cars at that speed can be a bit impossible, but the challenge of it will have you full of adrenaline.
Note: Do not use this mod when you are playing online. It is obviously unfair to other racers and can potentially get your account banned.
5. Health Mods
This one is more of a mod pack rather than a singular mod. It includes the following mods: Infinite Health, Infinite Repair Kits, and Extreme Car Health. The Infinite Health mod is straightforward, meaning you can take unlimited damage from cop cars, the environment, and from other racers without any consequences.
By default, you only have three repair kits available each night in the game. The Infinite Repair Kits mod removes this limit and gives you infinite access to repairs, similar to how the vanilla game works in the day. Finally, the Extreme Car Health Mod adds an auxiliary performance part option in the tuning menu that heavily reduces incoming damage.
6.BMW E46 M3 GTR
Every Need for Speed fan knows how important the E46 M3 GTR is to the franchise’s legacy. Razor’s ride from Most Wanted is perhaps the most iconic car in racing gaming history. This mod adds the monstrous car to the game, and it is an incredibly satisfying car to whip around Palm City.
The modder gave this car 4000 horsepower, excellent handling and brakes, and a completely unrealistic amount of grip. Pair this with the Speed Limit Remover mod I mentioned earlier, and you are in for a wild ride. The best part is that you can use its engine and drop into any other car that’s compatible with it.
7. Instant Takedown
In older Need for Speed games, particularly Most Wanted, you were able to launch yourself at cop cars at full speed and take them out. This is much harder to do in Heat, as the cops have a health bar and one clean hit will almost never take them out right away. The Instant Takedown mod fixes this by adding an auxiliary item to the performance customization menu.
Keep in mind that some cop cars, like Shaw’s Camaro, won’t necessarily be affected by this. Shaw’s car has the same health as the player’s car, so instant takedowns don’t always work. If you’re also using an Extreme Health mod or something like that, just remember that Shaw will also have improved health.
8. No Visual Damage
This mod is highly unrealistic, but one that I was looking for dearly. It looks like cars get roughed up too quickly and easily in NFS Heat. Sure, realistic damage to vehicles is a neat technical addition, but it takes away from the fantasy of driving a clean custom build. This mod fixes that issue by keeping your ride spotless regardless of how many crashes or cop chases you go through.
Unlike some mods that alter the gameplay, this one doesn’t affect it in any way as it’s simply a visual change. You will still receive the same damage from crashes and bumps, it just won’t show up on your ride. A few scratches and dirt are still noticeable from time to time, so as not to completely ruin the immersion.
9. Cockpit View
For a game that tries to focus a bit on realism, it’s surprising that there is no real Cockpit view to speak of. By installing this mod, you can switch between third-person and first-person as you normally do to switch camera angles. However, now you get four extra positions when in first-person mode.
Unfortunately, it’s not perfect. For one, it doesn’t work with a lot of Lamborghinis in the game, nor with the SRT Viper 2014. While in cockpit view, in-world icons are not visible, and there are various clipping issues if you play at a higher FOV. It’s a really enjoyable mod if you can get it to work and it doesn’t get in your way, but beware of these issues before installing it.
10. Visual Blowers
If you’re looking for a classic all-American muscle car aesthetic, this is the mod for you. It adds a blower option to the customization menu under the Hood > Parts Sets Tab. However, it only works with a handful of cars (mostly muscle cars, of course). A minor quirk is that your supercharger won’t be visible to other players online.
The more serious concern is that it causes weird issues in story cutscenes that only account for vanilla car models. Fortunately, it works fine if you’re just racing or driving around the streets and drifting. The models for the blower are extremely high quality, and I especially like how it looks on the Mustang Boss 69.
