Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If you like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades

Note: This review only covers the base game, with no DLCs installed

To put it simply, Horizon Chase Turbo feels like a HD reimagining of Top Gear 1 and 2 on the SNES. The devs might have named other games such as Outrun as inspirations, but I firmly believe they only did that because stuff like Outrun are more known among the masses. However, I firmly believe the developers missed the mark on various aspects of the game.

For the most part, the game very closely follows the gameplay design of Top Gear 1, except it changes some stuff compared to that game. The core gameplay feels the same: You enter some races and try to navigate the tracks while overtaking your opponents using a limited amount of boosts at your disposal, and it feels perfectly similar to how Top Gear and Outrun worked. The only extras that Horizon Chase Turbo adds to the mix are blue collectible tokens, which are used to add replayability to the tracks, and the changes made to the fuel system.
In the original Top Gear, fuel acts as a time limit as if it runs out, your car will lose all acceleration and gradually come to a halt. It made you do your best in races to play well. And if you needed any, the game offered you a pitstop to refuel, while giving you the chance to depart at anytime in order to not fall behind the competition. Horizon Chase Turbo takes the same mechanic and changes it. Now instead of pitstops, you have fuel tokens on the tracks that replenish your fuel gauge for one point each. However the placement of fuel pickups can get questionable at times, with them being placed in locations that are easily missable, forcing you to do an entire lap to get another chance. A big difference compared to the same mechanic in Top Gear, and what can become a massive hurdle to casuals.
For the first 3-4 hours, the game is actually fun... really fun. But then it starts becoming utterly boring. The thing is that the gameplay is very barebones, even compared to the original Top Gear games, and simply cannot keep you interested for 10 to 15 hours. What you get in Horizon Chase Turbo is the base gameplay the first Top Gear game offered. There's no track hazards like ramps and barrels, and you can't switch between manual & automatic transmissions or change difficulty like in Top Gear 1. The upgrade system is incredibly simplified compared to Top Gear 2. And the track/level system is more like a traditional racing game than what Outrun offered. So basically, the game offers nothing to compensate for its long playtime and keep the players interested.

Horizon Chase Turbo has a fair amount of visual variety. The races can happen at different times of the day, even transitioning between them, or in any weather situation. Although the way objects and hazards spawn in is quite jarring. It seems like they spawn small and grow in size as you approach them. This might not be a problem to many, and is pretty invisible on many of the game's tracks, but it is a problem to me when I notice it being there, like in the city tracks. I believe this method of displaying objects makes for a quite jarring and distracting visual experience as a number of the models spin in place on the x-axis as you get closer to them, or you can see gaps in-between tunnel walls as you pass them.
And the same "good with the bad" situation also applies to the music. While the music tracks are really well-composed, there's not enough of them compared to the game's length. Some of the tracks are even exclusive to certain race types. So the usual music tracks just get repeated over and over and over again, eventually losing their magic. Not only that, the music tracks usually have little in common with the aesthetics of the level you are racing in, taking away from the immersion.
So what you are left with is a game that for the most of it, feels like you are racing to the sound of a random music playlist in the background, on repeat. Now I know some of you might want to debate my take on this matter, but I firmly believe the choice of music can make or break a racing experience. In Split/Second, the music and its playback system go hand in hand. Mascot racers' soundtracks try to fit the theme/setting of each level. As I have mentioned before, the gameplay of Horizon Chase Turbo doesn't go beyond its Top Gear/Outrun formula for its entirety, so you need something else to keep the thrill going. And hearing the same music over and over again, or hearing a high energy music in a level where you are driving in a mountaintop at night and cannot see anything simply doesn't feel right.

A lot of negative reviews on the store page talk about how the AI likes to cheat, and they are right. At first, this issue is not noticeable. But then slowly and surely, the AI starts to cheat; sometimes for its own gain and sometimes to give you a pity victory so you can feel better about yourself.
The opponents randomly start increasing or decreasing their speed, either becoming Jack Benton and Sofia Martinez from FlatOut 2 and utterly dominating the race, or suddenly lose speed so much that you can catch up to them with incredible ease and win. In one race, I was 3-4 seconds behind the 2nd place and even crashed at one point in the final lap. I was completely sure that I had no way of catching up to them. Then the next thing I see is me blasting past the 2nd and 1st place racers, even finishing 2 seconds ahead of them. This does not make any sense, and my victory was nothing but hollow and unenjoyable.
And this is just the beginning. From time to time, you can see a racer you had passed suddenly zooming past you at incredible speed, despite not even using a boost. Your opponents suddenly become way too effective at blocking your way or trying to slam you into hazards, even suspiciously working together to achieve those goals which makes narrower roads twice as infuriating. You will see the opponents outspeeding you even if you are boosting. The cheating behavior of the AI is so blatant and is undeniable.

This game used to have several features that were removed from the game as part of a "end of support" plan. The online leaderboards, which were referred to as "one of Horizon Chase Turbo's core features" by the developers themselves in a pinned post on Steam Discussions, is now completely stripped from the game instead of, for example, getting migrated to Steamworks. Right now, the leaderboards only show local times, with the global leaderboards transferred over to a text channel in the developer's discord server, basically rendering it completely useless.
The removal of online features also means you can no longer try to compete with your friends or the top players by racing their ghost data. Now you can only compete with yourself, trying to beat your own best times; which is not really hard to do as you are constantly getting new upgrades and cars. This also means you no longer have access to customized driver names based on your profile and everyone will appear as "Horizon Chaser".
True, the game has tons of content; But as I said before, the gameplay doesn't have what it takes to make you want to keep going. The leaderboards being a core feature of the game was not a lie, as its inclusion made you want to play it more even if it was only to dethrone your friends. Taking it out just made the game a bit worse.


Starts pretty well, then slowly loses its appeal and becomes boring & repetitive due to the gameplay not offering much to compensate for its long playtime, and also the cheating AI.

[quote]Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If you like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades [/quote] [b]Note: This review only covers the base game, with no DLCs installed[/b] To put it simply, Horizon Chase Turbo feels like a HD reimagining of Top Gear 1 and 2 on the SNES. The devs might have named other games such as Outrun as inspirations, but I firmly believe they only did that because stuff like Outrun are more known among the masses. However, I firmly believe the developers missed the mark on various aspects of the game. [h2]No wonder only %10 of players have completed the campaign[/h2] For the most part, the game very closely follows the gameplay design of Top Gear 1, except it changes some stuff compared to that game. The core gameplay feels the same: You enter some races and try to navigate the tracks while overtaking your opponents using a limited amount of boosts at your disposal, and it feels perfectly similar to how Top Gear and Outrun worked. The only extras that Horizon Chase Turbo adds to the mix are blue collectible tokens, which are used to add replayability to the tracks, and the changes made to the fuel system. In the original Top Gear, fuel acts as a time limit as if it runs out, your car will lose all acceleration and gradually come to a halt. It made you do your best in races to play well. And if you needed any, the game offered you a pitstop to refuel, while giving you the chance to depart at anytime in order to not fall behind the competition. Horizon Chase Turbo takes the same mechanic and changes it. Now instead of pitstops, you have fuel tokens on the tracks that replenish your fuel gauge for one point each. However the placement of fuel pickups can get questionable at times, with them being placed in locations that are easily missable, forcing you to do an entire lap to get another chance. A big difference compared to the same mechanic in Top Gear, and what can become a massive hurdle to casuals. For the first 3-4 hours, the game is actually fun... really fun. But then it starts becoming utterly boring. The thing is that the gameplay is very barebones, even compared to the original Top Gear games, and simply cannot keep you interested for 10 to 15 hours. What you get in Horizon Chase Turbo is the base gameplay the first Top Gear game offered. There's no track hazards like ramps and barrels, and you can't switch between manual & automatic transmissions or change difficulty like in Top Gear 1. The upgrade system is incredibly simplified compared to Top Gear 2. And the track/level system is more like a traditional racing game than what Outrun offered. So basically, the game offers nothing to compensate for its long playtime and keep the players interested. [h2]Looks and sounds good, BUT...[/h2] Horizon Chase Turbo has a fair amount of visual variety. The races can happen at different times of the day, even transitioning between them, or in any weather situation. Although the way objects and hazards spawn in is quite jarring. It seems like they spawn small and grow in size as you approach them. This might not be a problem to many, and is pretty invisible on many of the game's tracks, but it is a problem to me when I notice it being there, like in the city tracks. I believe this method of displaying objects makes for a quite jarring and distracting visual experience as a number of the models spin in place on the x-axis as you get closer to them, or you can see gaps in-between tunnel walls as you pass them. And the same "good with the bad" situation also applies to the music. While the music tracks are really well-composed, there's not enough of them compared to the game's length. Some of the tracks are even exclusive to certain race types. So the usual music tracks just get repeated over and over and over again, eventually losing their magic. Not only that, the music tracks usually have little in common with the aesthetics of the level you are racing in, taking away from the immersion. So what you are left with is a game that for the most of it, feels like you are racing to the sound of a random music playlist in the background, on repeat. Now I know some of you might want to debate my take on this matter, but I firmly believe the choice of music can make or break a racing experience. In Split/Second, the music and its playback system go hand in hand. Mascot racers' soundtracks try to fit the theme/setting of each level. As I have mentioned before, the gameplay of Horizon Chase Turbo doesn't go beyond its Top Gear/Outrun formula for its entirety, so you need something else to keep the thrill going. And hearing the same music over and over again, or hearing a high energy music in a level where you are driving in a mountaintop at night and cannot see anything simply doesn't feel right. [h2]Why do people say the AI cheat- oh...[/h2] A lot of negative reviews on the store page talk about how the AI likes to cheat, and they are right. At first, this issue is not noticeable. But then slowly and surely, the AI starts to cheat; sometimes for its own gain and sometimes to give you a pity victory so you can feel better about yourself. The opponents randomly start increasing or decreasing their speed, either becoming Jack Benton and Sofia Martinez from FlatOut 2 and utterly dominating the race, or suddenly lose speed so much that you can catch up to them with incredible ease and win. In one race, I was 3-4 seconds behind the 2nd place and even crashed at one point in the final lap. I was completely sure that I had no way of catching up to them. Then the next thing I see is me blasting past the 2nd and 1st place racers, even finishing 2 seconds ahead of them. This does not make any sense, and my victory was nothing but hollow and unenjoyable. And this is just the beginning. From time to time, you can see a racer you had passed suddenly zooming past you at incredible speed, despite not even using a boost. Your opponents suddenly become way too effective at blocking your way or trying to slam you into hazards, even suspiciously working together to achieve those goals which makes narrower roads twice as infuriating. You will see the opponents outspeeding you even if you are boosting. The cheating behavior of the AI is so blatant and is undeniable. [h2]Going offline...[/h2] This game used to have several features that were removed from the game as part of a "end of support" plan. The online leaderboards, which were referred to as "one of Horizon Chase Turbo's core features" by the developers themselves in a pinned post on Steam Discussions, is now completely stripped from the game instead of, for example, getting migrated to Steamworks. Right now, the leaderboards only show local times, with the global leaderboards transferred over to a text channel in the developer's discord server, basically rendering it completely useless. The removal of online features also means you can no longer try to compete with your friends or the top players by racing their ghost data. Now you can only compete with yourself, trying to beat your own best times; which is not really hard to do as you are constantly getting new upgrades and cars. This also means you no longer have access to customized driver names based on your profile and everyone will appear as "Horizon Chaser". True, the game has tons of content; But as I said before, the gameplay doesn't have what it takes to make you want to keep going. The leaderboards being a core feature of the game was not a lie, as its inclusion made you want to play it more even if it was only to dethrone your friends. Taking it out just made the game a bit worse. [h2]TL;DR[/h2] Starts pretty well, then slowly loses its appeal and becomes boring & repetitive due to the gameplay not offering much to compensate for its long playtime, and also the cheating AI.