Rivals system was fair. heat system is broken. I basically keep getting busted because my car dies within 4 hits. Yes my car isn't very fast, but if i keep getting busted how the hell am i supposed to level up???
Day races are fine, night races are a total mess when cops arrives. In Rivals i had no problem fighting off cops, because we had tech to deal them. In this game you have no tech, and you take damage regardless of them hitting your or the other way around. They need to go back to the drawing board. In fact payback is even a more enjoyable game, than this pile of garbage.
I consider Rivals as one of the better NFS, sure the game was buggy, but when it worked, the game was a blast to play !