Release date: 2017
Version played: Xbox One in 2018
Following on from the Blizzard Mountain expansion, set in the real world’s Snowy Mountains, Forza Horizon 3‘s follow up DLC is the much more fantastical Hot Wheels area. Racing routes now take the form of bright orange plastic, which twist and turn in impossible ways, where only the generously placed speed boosts allow players to defy gravity in a handful of hot wheels cars, taken straight from a childhood toybox. Much like the stars on Blizzard Mountain, players will need to complete various objectives through each race before unlocking yet another Goliath race, across the whole new location.
I reviewed the main game here, the first DLC pack here, and I have played this game almost every single day since I bought it.
+ the new hot wheels cars all look great, and stylistically fit in surprisingly well with the real-world cars all painstakingly modelled into the game. Cars like the Hot Wheels Mustang, and especially the Boneshaker have become part of my go-to list
+ the track — both the open world area and the specific event routes — are fantastic, with loops, huge jumps and speed boosters throughout. The ability to slide along the walls almost makes this feel more like Need for Speed than Forza, but considering speeds of ~300 km/h are about average, even at the lower class car events, that is definitely for the best. You can also swap out each trick for another (loops, long drift circles, jumps, S-bends etc) when you create a custom race, which can often be the difference between getting a top time and missing it by seconds
+ the fact this is so wild and unrealistic is lampshades throughout, and the game even makes references to the “Horizon rewind”, which got a laugh out of me
– as much as I love the style of the tracks and the new cars etc. they really don’t fit with the gameplay. It seems the AI is still trying to race across Australia, and I found myself lapping my opponents (or winning sprints by minutes) because the other cars got stuck on a corner or incline they could not get over
Should you play this game: As mentioned in the review for Blizzard Mountain, this was very much so the better of the two packs. More content, different race types and the overall feel of it were far more up my alley, as I am more comfortable making hairpins at high speeds than I am drifting in blizzards. This was great, and if you can only afford/want to get one expansion, I thoroughly recommend this one.
MoshFish Reviews 