Hot Wheels Infinite Rush Doesn't Make the Most of its New Direction

The Hot Wheels racing games Milestone has created have been surprisingly enjoyable, offering a realization of the toy tracks you put together and race around, but Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is fairly different. Instead, it asks: what if Forza Horizon but Hot Wheels?

For the most part, it achieves that vision, but the actual package is impressively vibeless, dull, and repetitive; Infinite Rush doesn’t really achieve what it set out to do.

Hollow As a Toy

Set across four open islands, Hot Wheels Infinite Rush is filled with collectibles, races, time trials, challenge races, and rivals to hunt down. It’s the epitome of open world checklisting with hundreds and hundreds of events across the islands to complete, and that isn’t even counting the more than 1000 collectibles you can hunt down.

But despite all the activities, none of them are particularly enjoyable or fascinating, entirely boiling down to head-to-head races, battle-royale-style last-man-standing races, hitting obstacles along the way, or driving through checkpoints. It’s bland and uninventive, and for a game based on a toy franchise that inspires creativity, it has a surprising lack of it woven throughout.

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While these islands have some neat landmarks and monuments, there is very little that makes them feel different.

The extra events beyond the races are equally as uninspired, with some stickers to find in photo mode, 300 Gears on each map to find, and the occasional Hot Wheels logo to drive through after you launch yourself off a cliff. Nothing ever requires an ounce of brain power beyond drive here, do this, collect this. Nothing compares to Barn Finds (a side activity in Forza Horizon). There are no story-based quests that delve deeper into the Hot Wheels history or the evolution of cars over the years.

It’s simply a sandbox for racing, but as a result, the experience lacks any atmosphere or ambience. Specifically, I actually miss all the real-world environments like the garage, the backyard, or the arcade, as they added some context and visual novelty to the tracks you were racing on. In Infinite Rush, you are just driving around grids made out of toy environments with no context or wider setting to the world you are exploring.

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The collectibles and extra activities have hardly anything going for them, especially as they are repeated dozens of times across the maps.

These aren’t worlds created by a child or set inside a bedroom. They are just nebulous islands that all vaguely look the same, and by the third one, you just get bored.

Racing Routine

But how is the racing? Well, it’s fine. It feels quite similar to the previous games Milestone has made, although the four different archetypes do offer quite a bit of varied gameplay, and there are upgrades and small boosters you can add to each vehicle in your collection as you hunt them all down.

Ultimately, the problem comes from the tracks, which are all set within the context of the open world. Instead of the windy, twisty courses from the previous games, you are often driving on solid ground, with the occasional Hot Wheels track piece and loop-de-loop thrown in, and they are visually soulless and, gameplay-wise, derivative. There’s very little creativity to any of these courses or events, and it just adds to the uninspired atmosphere of the entire experience.

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The game’s tracks lack any kind of variety or novelty, as they are all based in the open world maps you explore.

There are also so many of these tracks, and they all feel relatively the same across each of the four maps, which amplifies and exacerbates the vapidity of the game. There’s so much content of very little substance that you just sort of wonder who the game is for.

Kids will get bored by the lack of interesting races, courses, and danger while racing, and adults will find the difficulty and challenge on offer disappointing, because Infinite Rush is so incredibly easy. Outside of a few challenging rival races once you finish off the events on an island, Infinite Rush is always a walk in the park, and the combination of repetitive events and flavorless courses, alongside a lack of challenge, just creates a spineless experience without much going for it.

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There is some visual variety, but these are accented by a lot of trees and foliage that are spread across every map, which ultimately makes them feel less and less distinct, the more you explore.

Which is honestly a shame, as I really enjoyed both of the Hot Wheels Unleashed games, but it feels like any semblance of soul or identity has been seeped out of the series, and you are just racing around a Forza Horizon-like set of maps with none of the creativity or enjoyment you would expect from a Hot Wheels game.

Beyond that, the online experience from the previous games is here alongside the track editor and livery editor. All of this is maintained in its previous form, and there’s nothing too remarkable to say about it. It’s all serviceable, enjoyable enough for those who are into it, but nothing incredible.

Ultimately, there isn’t much else to Hot Wheels Infinite Rush. It’s a boilerplate open-world checklist driving game with substanceless events and activities. The racing is completely fine, and the experience isn’t overly bad. But there’s just nothing interesting or inspired happening here, and that is a real shame.

Forza Horizon, but Hot Wheels should be an excuse for boundless creativity and fun; instead, Infinite Rush is a hollow open world, and I don’t see much reason to play it