Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged gameplay preview

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged gameplay preview ahoy, as I went hands on with the toy-based racing game sequel from Milestone.

Hot Wheels Unleashed. One of my favourite racing games in recent years and a surprise hit. Now we have a sequel known as Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged, which developer Milestone invited me to play a preview of in London.

Yes, there is now a sequel with forced induction. One that, when I first heard about via that toy car leak, did not fill me with much excitement. How could a sequel be different enough to justify a higher price, yet avoid breaking what made it so good?

The answer, according to Milestone and about half an hour of non-career gameplay, is via some subtle tweaks to the core mechanics, refinement of its various modes including the career and new stuff to enjoy.

Please note: This is the script from my YouTube video, click play above to watch or go here.

Car got skills

For starters, we now have purchasable skills. Bought with in-game currency, these can, for example, improve the handling or your slipstream speed gains. Both, however, at the expense of boost recharge speed.

Or you can add immunity to certain obstacles such as tornadoes or change the weight of your car or bike, adding tactical depth to this largely arcadey racer.

Meanwhile, cars are now rated as ‘stock’, ‘powered’ or ‘ultimate’ and at launch there will be 130 of them, including more real life stuff. Hello, Ducati Corse and Bugatti Chiron. Yes, motorbikes are a new feature and have some interesting handling quirks – more on that later.

That aforementioned car rating system, which rather confusingly is listed as ‘casual’, ‘rookie’ and ‘pro’ in the press materials, lets you use in-game coins to change from one category to another. In doing so, the performance ability is said to be changed.

Jump, jump, jump around

The Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged preview gameplay showcases the ability to jump your vehicle, double-jump for even longer distances and an aggressive sideways strafe AKA the ‘lateral dash’ to smack nearby opponents out the way.

On the surface, that new jump mechanism may not seem especially useful in racing. However, it is likely to open up interesting shortcut potential and let you hop over obstacles.

Obstacles such as walls, which stand in your way when playing one of the new game modes known as Waypoint. Here you have to reach blue waypoints as fast as you can until you have reached them all.

As you can see in the video, jumping over barriers saves a lot of time. Ignore the ever-present reset option – this is a known issue.

A drift-ting

Another new gameplay mode is called Drift, which is basically a throwback to the Project Gotham Racing days and in more recent years the Forza Horizon series. Here you get scored for going sideways, which is usually a good idea as it speeds up the boost recharge speed.

Link a few big drifts together and a multiplier makes your points come in substantially faster. Unlike in those aforementioned games, you do not lose your whole score if you nudge a wall. Instead, you lose the multiplier, which is more forgiving.

On twisty circuits with barely any straights, I can see the scores getting pretty ridiculous. Using the gameplay preview circuits, it was not especially easy to get past a two or three-times multiplier.

Elimination is also new to Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged. As with Trail Out, those at the back of the pack are eliminated one by one as the race progresses, forcing you to push hard or be pushed out.

Unfortunately, the preview did not include the new Grab the Gears mode (not grab the gear), in which you have to bash into other players to collect their gears. Or Demo Derby, in which you get points for smacking into other players. Both sound potentially fun.

What about the career mode?

Well, what we got in its predecessor was compelling and, though I was unable to play any of it during the Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged gameplay preview, it seems the follow-up could be better. Expect some sort of ‘storytelling’ narrative with cut-scenes.

Now, having listened to the community, Milestone has also added a party option to multiplayer. So it should be easier to play alongside friends, as well as cross-play and the ability to play all new game modes online or offline. Or as two-player split-screen.

Not only that, an anti-cheat system has been implemented to keep the leaderboards fair. Those who can top them are supposedly in for some rewards, though it is unclear what kind of rewards will be available.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged also adds five new environments, which are Arcade, Backyard, Gas Station, Mini Golf Course and Dinosaur Museum. Meanwhile, those who love to make tracks will be able to enjoy various new special modules.

What else is new?

What else did I notice during my Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged gameplay preview? That there is now something on track that temporarily disables your boost usage and another that bounces you onto a magnetic ceiling. In doing so, races are split across multiple routes, adding to the chaos.

Then we have a new sticker editor, improvements to track customisation and those lovely new motorbikes. In being smaller, these can sneak in and out of other racers though they do seem susceptible to some weird physics moments. Hopefully the full game irons this out.

Overall though, the vehicles handle in what appears to be the same way as Hot Wheels Unleashed. I jumped in and was leading the pack pretty rapidly, using the brake to initiate slides and smashing that boost button where possible. The AI did seem happy to keep up too.

Unfortunately, while I was able to look at and drive quite a few cars from the vast and sometimes expensive Mattel Hot Wheels collection, I was unable to see many new areas. But what I did see seemed more inventive than before though still rather familiar.

Interestingly, Milestone said it had listened to feedback about all the various DLCs and season passes. Exactly how this manifests remains to be seen, but hopefully it means you can enjoy more of the game for less of those increasingly stretched pennies.

So, yeah. So far, so solid. Nothing revolutionary, but if the career mode is engrossing and enough of the game utilises those new gameplay mechanics, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged could just be a big enough upgrade over its predecessor to justify the price.

When is the Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged release date?

As with Hot Wheels Unleashed, I shall put in some serious hours to bring you an in-depth review as we head closer to the 19^th of October 2023 release date.