Horizon Chase 2 is another rock-solid arcade racer from Brazilian dev Aquiris, and honestly that’s all you really need to know. We’re professionals, however, so we’ll elaborate: much like the well-loved Horizon Chase Turbo, this title takes you on a 200kmph tour of the globe, from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to Tokyo’s Akihabara Electric Town. You’ll effectively find yourself working you way up from the back of the pack to podium position across four breakneck laps, weaving in and out of opponents as you go.
The graphics have been upgraded from the original, with greater detail lending itself to a deeper feeling of digital tourism, although the simplistic flat shading of the original remains. Gameplay is more akin to retro 90s racers like Yu Suzuki’s iconic OutRun, with very little emphasis on “drifting” and more just anticipating corners so you can keep your car on the road. Collectible pick-ups and nitro add a little depth, while an upgrade system for all of the vehicles adds longevity.
Outside of the core campaign, there’s online multiplayer with full crossplay, which should help to ensure matchmaking remains snappy across a prospectively small install base. Rotating challenges also offer new gameplay wrinkles and modifiers to keep things fresh in a very basic live service fashion, with cosmetic unlocks like paint and leaderboards available to keep you engaged. Ultimately, the game won’t hold your attention for too long, but you’ll be smiling plenty while it lasts.
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Really enjoyed the first Horizon Chase Turbo when it came to PS+, hopefully this sequel won't take too long to be included!
@Foxhound
Maybe buy it if you enjoyed the first one.
Certainly helps the devs and tells them that you like what they do.
Let's all support the industry, friend ^^
@LordOfTurnips Normally I would warmly agree with this statement, but unfortunately Horizon Chase 2 is really not worth picking up. The first game was brilliant- real Top Gear on the SNES vibes, particularly the soundtrack.
This second game is just poor by comparison. They've not built on the first game at all. Honestly seems to me that the dev didn't enjoy making this game one bit. The first game, and the Senna DLC were crafted from love- you can see it.
This second game... no love there at all. Feels like they were forced to do it. So I'd recommend waiting for PS+.
7/10 is generous. Seriously. This and Sports Story were the biggest let-downs last year. Sad times.
Wasn't there some weird sign in online requirement with this game?
@LikelySatan Yes, with an Epic Games account. I played it on Switch and each time it signs in to Epic, the controller vibration is turned off for some reason.
Also, early on, putting the system to sleep while signed in caused a bug where all of the menu button prompt icons would be replaced with an RT icon.
So hopefully they took their time with QA for these new versions. Hopefully.
The graphics look to be improved over the first Horizon Chase - there seems to be greater detail
@zidane4028 hilarious. I remember when Shakedown Hawaii came out, and I bought it immediately. I couldn't get the Epic launcher to work, so I had to pirate the game I just got. Pretty cool. Thanks for responding.
Lol I saw horizon and thought of the forza game and thought xbox ported it 🤣
90s racers like Outrun? Maybe Outrunners?
Can't think of a racer that's more 80s than Outrun.
I hope I’m wrong, but it feels like they had to kick this out the door quickly so Epic could put them to work on whatever they’re doing in Fortnite. The first one was amazing and got showered with support for what seemed like years. We’ll be lucky if they even patch the performance issues and RT bug on Switch. At least on PS5 it should run well.
@LikelySatan no problem. Don't get me wrong, it's still a fun game, but they shadow dropped it on Switch and it felt like that came at the expense of giving it the proper amount of time to make sure it was firing on all cylinders.
@Hoodie718 the games been available for months exclusively in apple arcade so it's not been 'rushed' at all from what I can gather. If anything, it should've been made available on consoles a while back.
@daveofduncan yeah I played it on iPhone when it came out and was shocked that it was so janky when it dropped on Switch more than a year later. I’d really been looking forward to playing it on console.
At this point, it’s not unusual for games to release in an unoptimized, buggy state. What is weird is that they don’t seem to have given the Switch version any attention in the past several months.
I have no money for Epic. Pass.
@get2sammyb Missing from the "Also Available For" section, it's on the PS4 too.
Funny if this is also a PS5 title? Can't imagine it'll be any different to the PS4 version?
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