Metro Heat

About Metro Heat

Metro Heat is an open-world driving game where the world is real. Every street, junction, park and building comes straight from OpenStreetMap, drawn as a 3D city with real building heights, so the block you grew up on and the flyover you take to work are in the game exactly where they should be. Twelve cities are ready to drive: Jakarta, Dhaka, New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Karachi, São Paulo, Beijing, Lahore and Moscow — the biggest cities of the world's most populous countries — and the search box takes you to any town or city on Earth.

It plays like the delivery side of a GTA game. A job board offers three jobs at a time: Courier runs, Rush orders with tight timers and double pay, Taxi and VIP fares where every crash costs you tip, Hot Cargo that gives you two wanted stars the moment you lift it, and Getaways that start a three-star chase from a bank. Follow the arrow to the yellow beacon, stop inside it to pick up, then reach the green beacon before the clock runs out. Pay scales with distance and your level; fast deliveries earn a bonus.

Heat is the other half. Ramming traffic, hitting police cars or carrying hot cargo earns wanted stars, and the city's police come after you: they chase, cut corners, and try to pin you. Stand still next to a unit for two seconds and you are busted — fine paid, job lost, released at the nearest road. Get far enough away and stay out of sight and the stars cool off one at a time until you have escaped. Five stars means the whole city is after you.

Cash buys cars in the Garage: the free Tundra RX rally hatch, the Tsubame RS sports sedan the police drive, the Brawler 700 muscle car, the Meridian S grand tourer, the Sable GT-R supercar and the Kestrel V12 hypercar, each with twelve paints. XP raises your level, which unlocks the tougher, better-paid job types and the later cities. Your cash, cars, level and per-city records save in the browser you play in.

Day and night modes, a chase camera that pulls back with speed, a close camera and a high camera, a live minimap, an engine note that climbs through the gears, sirens that get louder as the police close in. Traffic drives the real one-way streets; buildings and water are solid, so a shortcut through a block is not a shortcut.

How to play Metro Heat

Steer with A/D or the arrow keys, W or up for throttle, S or down to brake and reverse, Space for the handbrake. Press 1, 2 or 3 (or tap a card) to accept a job from the board on the right; the arrow at the top of the screen and the minimap point at the current target.

Pick up by stopping inside the yellow beacon, deliver by stopping inside the green one before the timer runs out. Taxi and VIP passengers lose tip for every crash, so drive clean. Hot Cargo and Getaway jobs can only be delivered once you have lost the police.

When you have stars, keep moving: a police unit alongside a stopped car is a bust in two seconds. Put distance between you and the nearest unit — more than about 150 metres for 14 seconds drops a star.

C cycles the camera, N toggles night, R puts you back on the nearest road if you are wedged, Esc pauses. On phones the steer, throttle, brake, handbrake and job buttons appear on screen.