Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged was released last week. At the request of the XBNL editors, Eddie started working on this game. You can read his impressions in this article:
Which children have not played with cars in the past? I don’t think there will be many. One of the better-known brands has built up an entire empire around the cars. Which brand? Well, Hot Wheels. They were and still are specialized in making all kinds of bizarre cars to play with. Of course there are also normal cars, but the most fun are the colorful and absurd cars. Hot Wheels also supplied the characteristic orange tracks for the cars to speed across. Because physical things are just boring, they have also made the transition to the digital world. And as a result, we now have part 2 of the Hot Wheels Unleashed game.
Realism, hyper-realism or just pure fun?
Lately we have been pampered with racing games on consoles. We have seen games like The Crew Motorfest, Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport. Hot Wheels takes a slightly different approach than the previously mentioned games. They go for realism and simulation, while Hot Wheels goes for pure arcade and raw fun. No hyper-realistic image, get rid of the lifelike handling of cars and leave those 2 billion tuning options per car alone. What’s it all about? Racing, and especially fast racing. Preferably on jobs that are absolutely unrealistic. Just an orange track, a loop or corkscrew, some 180-degree turns and off you go.
This second part in the series also follows this simple principle. Yes, you get a wafer-thin story to cover all the racing, but it doesn’t amount to much. There are about five monsters and for some dubious reason you can only defeat them when they are reduced in size. And the resident scientist just happens to have a shrinking machine. Luckily, the monsters have been reduced in size. But how do you beat them now? By also being reduced in size and beating them with Hot Wheel cars. You don’t actually have to race against them, but you have to collect monster icons to prevent the monsters from growing big again. If you collect enough, you have defeated the boss.
To get to a boss fight/race, you must of course first complete all kinds of races and cross the city. Everything is laid out in a fixed order. There is a nice diversity within the races you complete. From straightforward circuit racing, to elimination, to a mixture of off-road and track.
For every victory you receive a number of prizes. You receive XP to increase your own level, you get money to buy cars and upgrades, wheelspins and a lot of cosmetic stuff. These cosmetic items include backgrounds, game icon backgrounds and catchphrases that you can link to your profile. Unfortunately, you don’t earn cars by winning races. The only way to make your garage as extensive as possible is to buy cars, or to have a lot of luck with a wheelspin.
Drift, boost and build
In Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 you won’t get much further if you try to race neatly and follow tight lines. No, this game is mainly about drifting. As soon as you see a slight bend, you’ll be in a drift. Is that that fast? No, but you build up your boost with it and that is really important. During the race you must try to use as much boost as possible to put your opponents at a large disadvantage. You build up boost with every drift, but fortunately there are also places on the course that give you an instant boost or an extra addition to your boost meter.
Hot Wheels wouldn’t be Hot Wheels if you couldn’t build your own courses. You can choose courses and point-to-point races. Please note that at the beginning of the game you do not yet have all the building parts. You can only unlock this once you have completely conquered the story mode. But there are more than enough items to let your imagination run wild right from the start. Do you want loops? Do you want invisible parts in your course? Everything is possible. You can also add obstacles to your heart’s content. A wonderful addition to this already great game.
Sound and Vision
The graphics have a nice arcade feel and fit perfectly with the idea of cars you play with as a child. A colorful collection of cars, hot rods, monster trucks and motorcycles passes by. There are some that look traditional, but there aren’t many. Let’s face it, the absurd cars are also much more fun to drive around.
The courses also have an arcade appearance. Initially you are bound to a fixed course on the orange lanes. You will soon be presented with races where you also go some kind of off-road. The environments vary from a large garden, a mini golf environment, an arcade, a museum to a gas station.
Each environment also has its own unique obstacles that are part of the course. You will encounter gigantic golf balls, but also a large spider that shoots spider webs at you to slow you down. Compared to the first part, these obstacles have been significantly improved, both in appearance and quantity. You especially notice this in the off-road races where you have to race fairly freely through the environment.
The music is quite okay. This alternates between some pop-like music and synthesizer music. Especially in the menus is where you hear the music best. And that is where he comes into his own. Unfortunately, during the races the music is often drowned out by the sound of the engines. This is particularly unfortunate because the sound of those engines is moderate. It’s too loud and not clear. The sound of the screeching tires during races is also not great. Again this is too loud and shrill, especially since you will be drifting most of the time.
Online multiplayer
When I started this review, the online gameplay wasn’t available yet, probably due to embargo reasons. After the release date, the online mode also became available. Unfortunately, matches are difficult to find. This game may not be that popular in Europe and you can find matches in the middle of the night. A second downside is that after an online race my sessions freeze and I have to return to the dashboard to close the game and restart it. Hopefully this will be resolved with a patch, otherwise I foresee a quick death for this option.
Achievements
Race, build and win to get 43 achievements for Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged. Everything you like to do in an arcade racer, you get an achievement for. So build a course and race in any way you want, both in single player mode and online. There are also a few achievements that will require you to persevere (for example, using the turbo for half an hour and drifting 500,000 centimeters). But you will achieve even that in no time. Hot Wheels 2 is quite addictive and will keep you busy for hours (and therefore also races). You can also unlock the associated achievements by defeating the 5 bosses. And it can’t be missed: collect as many Hot Wheel cars as you can. Fortunately, you don’t have to collect them all.
Conclusion
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 breathes pure fun! This is a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but does claim its place at the top of the arcade racers. The game has a wide variety of types of races and the number of cars to collect also keeps you off the streets for a while. Unfortunately, there are some minor problems. For example, the sound is not always nice and the online experience is dead. However, the single player more than makes up for this.
2023-10-27 07:01:02
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