The Hot Wheels DLC for Forza Horizon 5 is like taking the best of this car racing franchise and mixing it with the WipeOut. Pure adrenaline. We play it on PC and tell you our experience.
If we do a little memory, the Forza Horizon 3 had already presented Hot Wheels in DLC format. The vertigo of the tracks in the best roller coaster style, with the characteristic designs of the cars that perhaps some of you knew how to have. under the wing of Mattelone of the leading toy companies, the brand Hot Wheels It has been entertaining young and old alike since 1968, especially car, racing and speed lovers. ForzaHorizon 5 repeat the formula in this DLC of Hot Wheelsbut it gives you all the technical power that accompanies your base game.
This DLC fulfills the function of expanding the map that we already have, and offers us the same as the base game, but oriented to what the proposal would be Hot Wheels. This new area that is unlocked after finishing a couple of races in the story mode of ForzaHorizon 5 and is divided into three islands, each with a particular microclimate. They are floating islands, almost as if it were a biosphere, which are connected to each other by an immense tangle of orange tracks. at some point, It’s like mixing the old and beloved WipeOut with the imprint that Forza Horizon has been handling since its inception.
If the base game already had a good arcade and even cinematographic look at car racing, this new area is something completely new at the experience level. Many may simplify it, arguing that there are more tracks to run on, but they forget something essential: The experience generated by these tracks, their designs, and the speed that several of the exclusive cars manage to reach, is something completely different from what we had been playing. If Forza Horizon 5 sounds like adrenaline and action, this Hot Wheels DLC is pure vertigo and science fiction.
Forests that look like jungles, snowy mountains and incandescent lava, arid canyons, day, night, rain. The variety of scenarios offered by this new area is wide and generates several more hours of play until you go through them from end to end. To access this area, we will continue to personify the character that we have created to play ForzaHorizon 5.
When this area is enabled for us, we will do the typical tour on the track, as a way of introducing the new content and, immediately, we will enter what they call “the Hot Wheels Academy”. In it, by using a wizard, we are going to get races to win and missions to complete, and in this way earn money and be able to level upl. The good thing in this regard is that the DLC is very well integrated into the rest of the game.
As for the gameplay, although it is based on the base game, things are a bit different. We start with a rookie rank, even being the supposed star that we are, being able to access some class B vehicles to drive. Here, we are going to have a strict set of races, stunts and other specific challenges to complete in the form of missions, as we said before.
There are missions of higher caliber and others of lesser importance, with which we can obtain medals with which we will gradually unlock other speed classes, from Pro class A to Legend class X, passing through S1 and S2. In this aspect, everything feels more compact and refined, like going straight into the action. Likewise, the entire game system also feels a bit stiff, as if it were too forced compared to the base title.
Unlike what the entire story mode of ForzaHorizon 5this DLC’s primary objective is to compete to earn points and thus be able to unlock the different vehicles Hot Wheels. And it’s no small thing, of course. Because there is a clear intention to propose not a lot, but a lot of fun through everything that the world Hot Wheels can provide. The immensity of all this new map, and the very immensity of the tracks, their route and design, and these three biospheres that we have already been talking about, They give not only great dynamics to its gameplay, but also a lot of game versatility.
The tracks where we put ourselves to the test in the different races have marked sections, some where the car sticks to the ground due to the construction material, other areas of ice where the car (depending on its model, of course) goes all out. the time on the side, and the water areas, where the grip feels more difficult.
One detail that we found to be extremely important to highlight is a kind of sway indicator that appears in the user interface with this new DLC. At first glance, we immediately realize that it serves to have a visual feedback of what the plane of the earth would be once we get on those dizzying tracks that constantly defy gravity.
And if we think about it, is it really necessary to have that data? At a practical level, gameplay or even as some kind of guide, the truth is no. But that is not its only function: serves as a point of focus for those who suffer from vertigo or dizziness, precisely, in front of the design of the slopes. On a visual level, it does not bother at all, and those who suffer from these sorrows can focus their eyes on this small indicator and thus avoid having a bad time.
As we said before, the experience that this DLC gives at the entertainment level is totally satisfactory. We have new cars, a new map and routes that contrast greatly with the Mexico of the base game, vertigo, more hours of play, new missions and environments. But there is something that was present all along, and that is that, despite the freedom shown by this new content of Hot Wheelsafter playing two or three races, we ended up feeling locked in.
The tracks, at least the sections that fly through the air and as long as they are off “mainland” (bearing in mind that we are on a floating island), the barriers to the sides of the tracks greatly limit the difficulty. It is almost impossible for you to get off the track, especially considering that in these titles the concept of death does not exist, you simply get off the track, and return to pick up from that point.
So that? To match the sensation of vertigo. the tracks of Hot Wheels propose just that, we mention the word several times during this analysis. And what these barriers do is cut this feeling and, if we look at it from another aspect of the gameplay, it also limits the difficulty. Because even when we are out of competitions, when we are wandering around the map looking for races or completing missions, the feeling is even more marked, because the dynamics of the races do not exist.
The game, at that moment, becomes driving your vehicle along the tracks following the arrows that take you to your destination, as if it were a ride simulator. Unlike the base game, where you can take shortcuts, go through the middle of the desert or even collide with other cars at high speeds, everything in this DLC feels “On-Rails”, if we may use the term.
The most fun system, at least for those with a strong creative side, is EventLabs, which allows you to create your own tracks and share them with the Forza Horizon 5 universe. Not only the game community will be able to enjoy your creations, but we can also access those of other users, extrapolating replayability in unexpected ways. Yes, the base game also has this, but it’s not the same when what you can build is a track of Hot Wheels giant, with all the spirals, the accelerators, the loops, and all that magic that these collectibles of Mattel they also give you in real life.
RELEASE DATE | July 19, 2022 |
DEVELOPER | Playground Games |
DISTRIBUTOR | Xbox Game Studios |
PLATAFORMS | PC, , Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S |