Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is not a bad game; it simply did not persuade me that there is enough beneath the bonnet to bring me back. Racing games do not automatically win me over, and here the feeling of a race never quite displaced the feeling that I was following whatever the deck happened to permit.

A round begins with your hand: you draw, assess the values available, and choose what to play to move your car. Heat serves as a reserve that can help you push harder, while your position on the circuit determines how immediately that push matters against the other drivers.

In practice, though, the draw dependence is rather pronounced. Most of the time I looked at my hand and the right play seemed nearly predetermined rather than genuinely interesting; and if someone gets clear while retaining a useful supply of Heat, they can simply protect that lead with very little anxiety. The interesting decision is meant to be when to push, but the draw has often narrowed it beforehand.

The advanced rules improve matters and add replayability; that much is clear. Even so, I cannot see why I would choose it over something in the Thunder Alley vein, where the race gives me more reason to feel that I actually drove it. Perfectly respectable as an introductory racing game; a pass for me.