We bear in mind as youngsters establishing our Hot Wheels Octoblast and Shark Park race tracks each weekend, launching automobiles spherical them at excessive speeds whereas avoiding the enormous creatures. It at all times introduced such pleasure to our younger selves again within the day, and so it is nice to see that Milestone has captured the essence of that nostalgia and transformed it into the online game area with Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged.
A sequel to 2021’s well-received unique, Turbocharged options an entire new marketing campaign, Creature Rampage, specializing in Hot Wheels’ widespread beasts which have appeared in toy kind all through the years — sharks, octopi, and dinosaurs to call however a couple of. You should race for pole place, stopping these brutes from destroying the town. With each monitor designed in one among 5 new places — Backyard, Mini Golf Course, Arcade, Gas Station Diner, and our private favorite the Dinosaur Museum — you may be competing in an unlimited array of ranges, from easy time trials to drifting challenges, every placing your driving expertise to the take a look at in thrilling and chaotic races.
With Unleashed’s pleasant core racing mechanics returning, we thought most of this sequel’s modifications could be in car customisations and tracks. However, we could not have been farther from the mark. Turbocharged modifies its core elements with the addition of a leap, double leap, and sideways sprint, switching issues up drastically. The jumps are primarily used to keep away from obstacles reminiscent of gaps within the monitor, partitions, and rings of fireside. However it will also be used to strategically entry sneaky shortcuts, gaining the benefit over your opponents by reducing corners. The sideways sprint is used to get a one-up in your rivals as you employ it to bash them off beam, inflicting them to spin out, miss a checkpoint, and even plummet to their demise. These new mechanics convey that further stage of competitiveness the unique sorely lacked.
Another huge enchancment over the unique is the brand new terrains and obstacles. The earlier title suffered from tracks being too samey, with the streak of orange plastic being burned into our retinas wherever we seemed. This time round it is much more diverse, with grass, concrete, and sand making up small components of every monitor, requiring you to be on excessive alert as your car’s dealing with is closely impacted when transitioning between the varied terrains. Fresh obstacles additionally assist tracks really feel extra distinctive, with a heavier deal with creatures. You’ll be avoiding dragon fireplace, shark bites, and gorilla punches whereas racing. The obstructions from the unique usually felt annoying, stopping the fast-paced racing by killing the momentum, and though returning obstacles stay unchanged, the addition of autos’ impediment immunity expertise (discovered within the improve tree) does wonders to fight this challenge.
Split-screen and Multiplayer return with the flexibility to play any of the core recreation modes from the marketing campaign in a combination mode playlist or personal foyer on-line. You’re in a position to vote on which monitor to play subsequent and queue up in a celebration with mates. The redundant Basements from the primary instalment do not make a return, nonetheless, being redesigned into outside rally levels, tasking you with hitting a bunch of scattered checkpoints all through the surroundings within the quickest time. Once completed with the 12-to-15-hour marketing campaign, you may unlock a number of new races with more difficult targets, attractive you to return for extra.
We criticised Unleashed for not encouraging use of the wide range of autos on provide, with the ability to use only one or two automobiles for its entirety. Now with a a lot wider vary of over 130 totally different autos (together with licensed autos from Fast and Furious, Back to the Future, and Knight Rider) to select from, it is a good factor this oversight has been addressed. Events now require your car to satisfy sure varieties and tiers to compete. Types are pre-set for every car — heavy obligation, off-road, balanced, drifter, swift, and rocket. Tiers, nonetheless, change when utilizing talent factors to improve your autos, from Stock to Powered to Ultimate, every tier unlocking extra skills to equip to your journey. Each one adjusts boosting, dealing with, or impediment immunity. This signifies that you are now in a position to receive duplicate autos, every with barely differing stats to satisfy entry necessities.
When not racing, you’ll be able to entry the Garage to view and edit your car assortment, create and share liveries and stickers to customize them, spend your hard-earned in-game forex within the store, or create and share new tracks within the Track Editor. Loot containers had been the principle approach of acquiring automobiles in Unleashed and we will gladly say they don’t make a return in Turbocharged. Instead changed by a store with hourly rotating inventory and a day by day spin the wheel, it is now a lot simpler to acquire the autos you need or want to make use of.
The chic presentation from the unique returns with excellently detailed environments and fashions. We might spend days gazing upon each toy automobile mannequin or staring on the T-Rex within the dinosaur museum taking in each little element. The music is equally implausible, with funky, upbeat tunes matching the vibes of the quick, chaotic racing that ensues. The stage of polish is shocking, body price is regular all through with no noticeable drops, and bugs and glitches had been nowhere to be seen throughout our 25 hours spent with the sport.
Conclusion
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged is a extremely polished, fast-paced, enjoyable, and sturdy racing sequel that builds upon its predecessor in all the best methods. Addressing virtually all our criticisms of the earlier title by including spectacular core mechanic modifications within the type of jumps, dashes, and new terrains, eradicating loot containers, and including impediment immunity expertise, Milestone has created a implausible follow-up arcade racer to be reckoned with.
