Hands on with Hot Wheels Unleashed - Preview
When Hot Wheels Unleashed was first announced, I honestly couldn’t think of the last time I had played with actual Hot Wheels cars, my nephews a lot, me it has been a while. My last interaction with them was as the DLC for Forza Horizon 3, so I was keen to see what this latest digital version of them would be like. More curious was that Milestone, known for their many games about racing on two wheels, was developing it, so given the chance to burn some plastic, I hit the gas and off I went, but was it a good time?
The preview build that I had access to was limited, in that I could only do Quick Race or races via split-screen, no career mode, no time attack or online multiplayer, but that was ok. The game is about racing Hot Wheels cars around various locations, and I was able to do that, but before I could get into a race, I had to select the car I wanted to use. This proved to be quite the dilemma, purely because there was just so many to choose from, while the game is promising more than 60 cars once it is released in full, there were almost 30 for me to choose from this time, meaning that there was a lot to look into for each of them. Each car has four stats, acceleration, speed, handling, and braking, along with different boost systems, there is a lot to consider, if you are going into a course that has a lot of turns, then better handling is advised, though on the other side, more open straights, you want speed.
The cars themselves are all recreations of actual Hot Wheels cars, like Motosaurus and Tanknator, so if you had a favourite growing up, there is a chance it might be in the game. The cars just don’t have the same names and looks, they in fact look like they are made of actual plastic, there are little bumps and notches, where the plastic may have leaked through the mould, the attention here is great. I just wish the same could be said for the tracks, things look decent, but not what I was hoping for and by that, I mean, they really hadn’t done anything special.
The preview build offered four locations, a USA College, a skyscraper construction site, a skate park and a garage, with each of them looking the part, the skyscraper especially has a great look, out over the city. The problem is that I was hoping for more Micro Machines, than just Hot Wheels tracks in real world locations, there are times when you can enjoy some Hot Wheel related track obstruction, looking at you dinosaur head, but for the most part, they just use mixing in standard track pieces, which makes everything feel generic.
If I had to pick one single takeaway from my time with the game, that would be that everything feels generic, from the locations to the racing, there is nothing in here, that screams must play. The racing is ok, but it is not the best, anyone who has played a Burnout title after Burnout 3, will get a sense of the controls, speeding around a corner is made all the sweeter, when you tap the brake and start to drift.
Doing this is more than just looking cool, it helps you keep your speed up, as long as you maintain the drift, but more than that, it also can recharge your boost meter, depending on your ride. Even with those elements in play, I just didn’t have fun with the game at this point, now of course, the Career Mode and online multiplayer, may add more interesting elements to the game, but for now the game has me feeling that it is more like tepid wheels than Hot Wheels.
