Fix the Police

I am sure there are plenty of people online, on the forums, and ingame who have dealt with the same issues I have. Cops past Heat level 3 are insanely unfair, with their insane acceleration, speed, handling, and weight. That isn't the primary issue though, its the lacking of any real counter measure. Jumps don't work all the time and are very sparse, so you are to rely on your car's speed the cop's AI screwing itself over to even have a chance at winning past heat level 3, let alone heat level 5. Having a cop randomly spawn right in front of you (I wish I was recording, I am not kidding...this happened to me four times during races and cop chases) is unfair and unfun. Their AI also seems to know exactly where you are, hiding behind a building far from the road on a beach after a race with the engine off, and yet the cops were able to navigate off the street, onto the beach, behind the house I was hiding behind, and boom...chase began. 

This is only the beginning. With the lacking of any GOOD counter measures, you are relying on the AI's over aggressive nature to kill themselves (I've seen them do it on each other and civilians) or jumps, which don't always work and can sometimes be worse for you than the cop. (For instance, as I was readying to jump, a cop hit me on the rear causing me to go flying and crash into a building, taking my health from half to zero in an instant, causing me to lose all my progress.) Since Speed or driving erratically through tight corners, alleyways, any anything with very little space to try and shake the cops is useless at this point, you are forced to cheese them as I have learned to do.

Very specific jumps screw with the cop's AI and line of sight, and I hate having to abuse these methods in order to even get out of Heat Level 5. Call me bad with escaping cops but I tried for over fifteen minutes to escape heat level five. Dodging rhinos, (somehow) causing several police cars to kill themselves on each other and civilians, out lasting several helicopters, went over several jumps, and even tried sitting on top of the cargo containers at Port Murphy to try and cheese them out. From there you can guess what happened, all my progress lost because of an unfair system with cops spawning directly in front of you. With cops having cheater like acceleration, speed, and handling...All of this can lead to a frustrating and incredibly unfun experience that leads to a bit of progression being shot down the drain thanks to the punishment of losing so much rep.

However, NONE of this would be an issue, NONE of it, if there were...just...countermeasures. Why were the Pursuit breaker's removed? Why couldn't you instead modify them from killing cops to possibly blocking the path temporarily, forcing the cops to slow down and go around the mess, giving the player time to separate themselves from the ever increasing line of cops they are unable to shake. Why not allow a Killswitch on a cooldown as well? Putting on the brakes and pointing the car's front in the cop's general direction, press B, and boom...one less cop to deal with. That could be used when it is just one pesky cop left, strategically using Pursuit breakers to whittle down the main line of cops and then Kill Switch to knock out the last cop.

I absolutely love NFS Heat and think it has great potential for getting Need For Speed back on the right track. A entertaining story, entertaining characters, a great selection of cars and customization. A fantastic open world with so much to explore and so much love put into it. All the hidden collectibles and trials to unlock more items in game. The only issue for me was the cops, which ruined the Nighttime for me (To the point where I avoid it as much as possible now) and softlocked my progression for a short while. Please, Ghost, Devs, EA, whoever can fix this. Balance the cops out or give the players some form of countermeasure. It isn't just myself who complained about this, but from my group of friends as well. (Granted, only six people but every single one of us had the exact same complaints and issues). 

EDIT: I just witness something that made me understand why the Police are broken. The game knows where you are at all times, telling the AI of the police to 'hone in' on your general location. I was using the cheese strategy of hiding on top of the shipping containers, and as I was waiting for the cops to leave, three of them just sat in one spot, not moving. The moment I left those crates, one of them immediately flipped around in my general location, the other two immediately began moving towards me. Here is another way you can improve the game. Have dynamic cops that just drive around the city like real cops. Have them most populated in the city portion and spread out in the hills. That way we have a fair chance of avoiding them and not being immediately zeroed in like a heat seeking missile.