Expansion 1 for Forza Horizon 5 has finally arrived, taking us back to Hot Wheels Park for some high-octane racing. While we're still plugging away on our own review of the Hot Wheels expansion like most other outlets, some very early impressions are also already hitting the web.
With that in mind, let's take a look at some early hands-on impressions of Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels.
Gamesradar
"The supersized Hot Wheels park that swoops and swirls above Mexico succeeded at putting a big smile on my face time and again as I worked my way towards reaching the Legend rank. From the ice, water flume, and magnet tracks that I sped my way across, to the new life-sized Hot Wheels cars, and the Horizon story that taught me a lot about the toy sets I used to play with as a kid, the Hot Wheels DLC is the perfect excuse to return behind the wheel in Forza Horizon 5."
USA Today
"Overall, Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels is not a massive expansion, and maybe $14,99 would’ve been its ideal price tag. However, in terms of quality, creativity, and flexibility of its game design, it really shows how Forza Horizon 5 could easily create content out of anything, and still manage to keep us glued to the screen. Whether it’s a new game, or another expansion, we simply want more of that."
Motor Trend
"From the start we were struck by the stunning visuals of seemingly endless loops of orange Hot Wheels tracks weaving in, out, and around massive natural structures. The sight of seeing a virtual 1:1 representation of toy tracks being flanked by trees, waterfalls, snow, and other terrain all floating in air never got old."
The Australian
"Remember when you were a little kid and playing with your toy cars felt like the most epic thing in the world? You weren’t just running little bits of metal around a bright orange track, but being part of an amazing universe far larger than your living room floor. The new Hot Wheels expansion for Forza Horizon 5 somehow manages to capture most of that feeling of child-like wonder in a larger-than-life world."
GameReactor (6/10)
"It's actually quite impressive how Playground Games has managed to create a condensed version of the main game, and you can easily squeeze 10-15 hours out of this expansion. But that is just it. Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels feels like even more content in a game that wasn't lacking it to begin with. Also, I felt the new races were somewhat unbalanced (more so than the main game), as it seemed completely random whether I ended up winning by miles or struggled to get into the top half of the race."
While there aren't many impressions out in the wild just yet, we're expecting to see more outlets tackle Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels in the coming days (look out for our own review real soon). For now, impressions seem largely positive but also with a few criticisms here and there, with some feeling like the Hot Wheels expansion doesn't contain quite enough content to justify its price tag, especially in comparison to the main game.
We're definitely looking forward to it no matter what, considering how much we love just cruising around Forza Horizon 5's sprawling open world. In the meantime, Playground Games has shared the full list of patch notes for Forza Horizon 5 Series 10, which is officially live as of yesterday.
But, what do you make of these impressions thus far? Lowered your expectations at all? Let us know!
Comments 16
Im having a lot of fun with this, it was well worth the cost to me.
I do think Hotwheels unleashed does Hotwheels better, even though FH5 looks so much better, but I really rate that game, so im not dissing this dlc at all as its really fun!
Looking forward to more dlc!
@Titntin this DLC is making me want to buy the Hot Wheels game next
@Carck I highly recommend it, tons of tracks and an amazing boost system! If you like this, im pretty sure you will enjoy it!
My only gripe is how it doesn't auto-install if you've already purchased. I drive up to the content to have the game take me to the store where I've already purchased the content just to install it, then it still does nothing and you have to force close the game to access the content. While the problem is short lived, something tells me they could find a way to avoid this.
With the collectors edition of Hot Wheels on sale rn this is actually steering me toward that game
Pun not really intended but I’ll take it
@iplaygamesnstuff this didn't happen to me, but sucks to learn some people are having this issue
I’m really loving it so far. The addition of new biomes within the overall DLC adds a new component to the action (like the ice tracks). I was also surprised at the off-road sections within certain courses.
As far as content, I haven’t fully explored it but the map itself is massive. I think it’s much bigger than the HW DLC in FH3. So if anything is lacking, maybe it’s just the number of races, which seems like an easy fix over time.
Overall, 9/10 from me and can’t wait to get back to it tonight!
The team have clearly listened to feedback after the main game, as progression here is like the first FH. Having to unlock the next set of events and get faster as you do so. I loved the fact the base game gave everything to you all at once, but here in the Hot Wheels expansion, the ramping up of cars and content works well. 9/10 from me so far.
@Carck I tried it with the trial included in PS Plus Premium and while it’s fun it’s extremely repetitive, honestly the 2 hours I played was just enough to desist from buying the game.
This is better then unleashed. Unleashed had some cool ideas but it going boring and the switch version was nerfed.
The whole point of forza horizon is the free roam and being able to do whatever you want. 3/10 for going against everything the game stood for by limiting the car classes you can use in free roam. Map is beautiful, cars are fantastic. I love everything about the expansion except not being able to drive the cars I want to drive.
@IRRxJoker or you could, you know… unlock the upper classes? Do you hate progression that much?
The racing itself isn't interesting to me honestly, and in the first B Class-tier everything feels very easy, even on Highly Skilled.
However, did complete all missions in the tier, and will want to complete the next tiers as well. It's great to tick some boxes and have some missions in Forza again.
To be honest, Hot Wheels' structured mission setup could work great for the entire game!
@Royalblues Yep!
It's interesting how a lot of it is now on tracks/more confined than FH5 proper. I don't mind at all as a racing game fan, but I can see that turning some people off.
Overall I'm enjoying it, though it hasn't blown me away. As someone else said, it feels a little lifeless. And I can tell I'm going to be done with this FAST - at just a few hours I'm already halfway through. But I'm enjoying my time and it keeps pulling me back in, even when I have other games like Stray to play this week. More FH5 is always a good thing. 8/10
@Carck I spent days making the money to buy the cars, even more hours tuning and painting them. Why would I want to unlock them again?
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...