After two surprisingly addictive outings in the Hot Wheels Unleashed series, developer Milestone has taken that same arcade racing and put it into an open world spanning four massive islands in their latest game, Infinite Rush. The result is a game that handles brilliantly but loses some of the structure that made the last two games so addictive.
Here it’s been swapped out for an open world, one that feels a little too real world open racing Forza-style that makes it a complete departure from the track-based orange click-clack world of the previous two games. As you drive your car through the loops and twists and turns, Infinite Rush wants you to feel like you’re driving a real car, funnily enough, that does unfortunately take away from some of the fantasy of this series.
All That Filler
There are several islands that house an open world on each one. Campaign events are scattered across each map, along with other challenges and rival racers to compete against. When you have done enough of these and have challenged and beaten the leader, the next island will unlock. While doing this, you collect cars with in-game currency that you can only purchase at dealerships on each island. You can chase certain vehicles and challenge them to unlock them, and some specific challenges gain you access to others.
The events have a wide variety of races with different objectives that are genuinely fun to play. The variety on offer keeps you coming back. These are all anchored by the dealership and garage that allow you to find your childhood favourite vehicle (the Hot Wheels Shark Cruiser for me every time!), keeping this an addictive experience. Unfortunately, the islands are just a bit generic.
Each island has its own theme, but none of them is memorable or offers anything unique compared to the last. Sure, they look visually slightly different, but each one felt like the last, which didn’t give me any incentive to travel around and try to scope things out. The first island is Wheelswood, a take on Hollywood, complete with a massive white sign, but apart from that, there really isn’t much else to let it earn this name.
Sure, there’s a giant gorilla AKA King Kong that stands in the middle of the city, the next island is Tentacle Bay and is meant to be the ocean themed world, then there is Gearsville with dirt roads, probably the most different out of the four islands, this is where you can really let loose. The last is Drifty Temples, an East Asian-inspired island with temples and dragons. While they sound different on paper, they feel like clones of themselves, with a few adjusted minor details.
Missing the Toy-Sized Magic
The previous games had a great sense of scale, with the cars feeling like the toy versions and the tracks to scale. Here, the tracks are larger than life, and the cars feel more like Gran Turismo than they do Hot Wheels. Driving cars through life-sized environment is a massive departure from the previous games that had you drifting around the table legs of a coffee table or racing around the garden hose and this is where some of that Hot Wheels magic, and dare I say it, the nostalgia, was completely lost.
Thankfully the cars themselves look spectacular, and the glossy plastic and metallic finishes all help the effect. A whopping 150 to “collect them all”, including the classic Hot Wheels cars and licensed vehicles that don’t offer anything new handling-wise, but they do have a really distinct and cool look.
The vehicles are separated into four distinct classes: Speeder, Titan, Drifter and Versatile. Every different type of vehicle has different characteristics around boosting, handling and speed depending on the type of activity you are going to race in. There is an upgrade system where you can install up to five unlockable mods for each vehicle, which can be mixed and matched to adjust the type of races your vehicle can participate in as they get more difficult.
Handles Like a Dream
The great news that may just be the saving grace for this game is that the incredible handling from the Unleashed games still carries over here. Drifting around bends and smashing into scenery is no doubt a massive thrill. The arcade-style formula and car collecting remain incredibly satisfying, and having an (almost) indestructible toy car to traverse the world in is still a bunch of fun.
The game also holds up well technically; the frame rate on the PS5 Pro rarely wavers from the sweet 60FPS spot, although the loading screens in between and the travelling between islands is unusually long for a title like this.
Final Thoughts
Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is a decent arcade racer, while it doesn’t quite live up to the greatness of the last two Unleashed titles, it does attempt to shift the franchise to a more open world setting that ultimately delivery some mixed results.
If you can look past the uninspired islands and the shift in perspectives that stop this from feeling like a Hot Wheels racer and more like a traditional Forza title, then this may be right up your alley.
Racing around an open world, collecting cars and blasting through events is what makes the game worth it for me; it’s just a shame that the rest of it fails to live up to these heights.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Vehicle collecting is addictive; Open world is ready for destruction; Handles incredibly well
Lowlights: Bland island designs; Repetitive gameplay
Developer: Milestone
Publisher: Milestone
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC, Nintendo Switch 2
Available: Now
Review conducted on PlayStation 5 Pro with a code provided by the publisher.
Featured header image also provided by the publisher.
