Hot Wheels Unleashed

[JFo]

So, I started playing this yesterday after acquiring it for free through PS Plus. I like a lot about it so far. It looks great and feels great to play. The racing mechanics are simple but fun — stay on the track, drift to build a turbo boost, and boost during the straightaways.

 

However, I do have one major gripe with it after playing for about an hour: it's really HARD. The game defaults to Easy difficulty and has three tiers above that: Normal, Hard, and Extreme. If I play on Easy, it's too easy. I very quickly push the head of the pack and by the end of the race, I'm way ahead of everyone else. There's no challenge at all and quickly becomes boring as a result.

 

However, if I bump it up to Normal, I suddenly find myself having a difficult time even landing a podium finish, let alone winning a race. The drivers are way more aggressive in this mode, and small mistakes like bumping into a wall or hitting an obstacle will instantly set you back several places. And if you make a major mistake, like careening off the track during a jump, forget about ever catching up to the pack.You're better off restarting the race.

 

I'm not saying that I want to automatically win every race or anything like that, but it definitely feels like this game needs a major readjustment of the racer AI. Lowering the difficulty on Normal a little bit would be a good step in that direction, especially since there are already two more difficulty modes above that. Unless they do, I can't see myself spending much more time with Hot Wheels Unleashed.

 

With that said, my 10 year-old is playing on Easy and having a blast with it. So, at least that's one good thing to say about it.