I’ve been playing quite a bit of Hot Wheels Unleashed while the DC Super-Villains Racing Season is live. It’s okay, but it’s not absolutely fantastic, which is what I thought it would be. It’s got some great cars and other rewards, and will be the only season pass that I fully complete since last year. However, it’s the challenges that are linked to the season that I love the most. After weeks of only dropping into the game to pick up the new downloadable cars, I now have a reason to play every day. This is something that should have been in the game at launch, and I’m so glad it’s here now.
The daily challenges are super simple. You need to complete races, sometimes in certain locations, boost for a while, and get perfect starts. Those are what I’ve seen so far anyway. They really don’t challenge you that much, but they do make you play in interesting ways that you wouldn’t otherwise. Each race awards 10XP, which is abysmal. There’s no point in playing to progress the season pass if you’re relying solely on that XP as a reward to push your rank up. The challenges award big chunks of 100 or 300 XP each, and that’s what sees you push up through the ranks, get more rewards, and generally have a more enjoyable experience during the season.
I think that Milestone should have implemented challenges from day one, but then the game would have needed a season. From here on, there needs to be a consistent flow of seasons to keep players engaged. The challenges are great, but if we don’t have a reason to keep playing for XP, then there’s no reason to jump in and play at all. I’m really into this game right now, and I’d love to see it succeed even more, it’s just a few steps away from greatness at this point.
The upcoming Batman expansion could be a huge change for the game. Everyone loves Batman, so I expect a big influx of players around that point. Hopefully, the mechanics and systems in the game right now ar enough to keep people interested in the long term.
