As someone who would absolutely give heat 5 stars without a doubt. The cars, customization and graphics are all top notch. The reasons for the downgrade aren't even story related. Although it is corny who plays NFS games for the story? And I feel like that is embraced in a way.
The only unforgivable part of this game is the prologue. Absolutely awful. I don't care for the progression system at all. Heats was much better and it used the day/night feature perfectly. Cops aren't hard to shake but they are too persistant.
Early on in the game is a grind, but to people who read this review it gets much better from there on out. The first 5 hours or so feel like a waste of time. Overall I am very satisfied and will keep buying need for speed games as the good heavily outweighs the bad.