In what should have been an easy victory, Hot Lap Racing doesn’t manage to earn its nearly forty dollar price tag. Hot Lap Racing certainly features more than hot laps, in fact it has an in-depth career, many single player modes, as well as a multiplayer mode. However, during my time with this game, I waffled between loving and hating this game. This largely has to do with the game’s AI also waffling, but rather between aggressive and incompetent. There’s some neat ideas that don’t come together like they should in a package that should really only exist on Switch, because on PC it is outclassed by so many other games in the space.
The main mode you’ll be drawn to because it is first in the list is career mode. You’ll warm up your tires with a series of training modules that get you acquainted with the controls and systems. It’s nothing you haven’t played or done before. The way Hot Lap Racing tutorials work is… odd. For instance, the brake area is a gate and not a zone, and stopping after the gate is is too far and it’s not clear what you did wrong. So now I stop one-third through the gate and it seems to work. When all the tutorials are done, there’s a short tournament to take part in to see how it all works. After this, you’re free to pursue three different tracks of your career to work towards the final championship.
There’s a structure progression in your career, climbing the ranks up to faster and faster cars. Along the way, you’re working to assemble an “extreme formula car” that’s been created by the game’s real-life community that you assemble as you climb the ranks. The game smartly shows you how long each championship is going to take in minutes, which is a really nice feature other racing games adopt. The career consists of twelve series, with two to three races each. In total it’ll take anywhere from ten to twelve hours, depending on difficulty.
Hot Lap Racing is a simcade experience, combining simulation and arcade racing for something that’s grounded but accessible. What this means is that you’ll come to grips with the controls and maneuvering the race car around the circuit, but you’ll have to mindful of other racers on the track. Due to licensing and other things, there’s no damage model, tire wear, or fuel to maintain. You do have a reputation to maintain, as well as points that can be earned across events. Going off-track or having hard collisions with other racers will result in losing points. But avoiding collisions will earn you points, earning a high performance grade for your time. Based on difficulty around the assists you wish to use or not use may allow for S-grade. These points are gained and lost throughout the entire series, so you have to be on your best behavior.
There’s a fair amount of licensed and not licensed cars to be had in Hot Lap Racing. The vehicles range from open-wheel to touring to GT, and everything in-between to include historical cars. Among the real cars you can drive are the Noble M600, Abarth 500 Assetto Corse, Renault 5 Turbo, Vauxhall Cavalier BTCC, and Renault Megane Trophy V6. There’s some unlicensed cars that have real-world comparisons like the Crown Magic MK.II (1969 Dodge Charger R/T) and Gunma Prestazione X2006 (Subaru Impreza WRX STi). Most of the GT and F1-style cars are not licensed, fit totally fine in this game.
We need to talk about the computer opponents for a bit. While I wouldn’t call anything resembling the bots as being “intelligent”, they do have thought, just not good ones. While you’re racing, you’ll see the other racers struggling to maintain grip or spinning out, which is cool. It shows they are fallible, but because they do it so often it’s a wonder how they even made it into this professional circuit. Seeing it happen in every race for over half the grid is extremely distracting and silly. Now, when you’re jockeying for position, you’ll learn very quickly that the AI has the weight and power of a planet, and you have the weight and power of a small rodent. Get in their way or tap them ever so slightly, and you’ll be sent into orbit. If by chance they don’t send you to last place, the AI hilariously will take itself out, and you’ll win with ease. It’s a coin toss which one they will be, and neither of them are fun.
Before starting any series, you’re asked to participation in qualifying. You can opt-out every time, but I’d recommend doing it for every single race. Why? Because even if you’re a halfway decent racer, you can place first or at least top three and avoid most of the aggressive AI. Otherwise, you’ll be placed at the back of the grid for every race, and it’ll be a tough fight and a mostly frustrating one.
There are other single-player modes to play here, with the titular Hot Lap mode where you constantly try to improve and beat lap times. There’s a quick race mode if you want to get in any car on any track and race around. Lastly there’s the championship mode which lets you setup a series of races in a quick race collection. Nothing is all too exciting here, but their inclusion is welcomed.
Hot Lap Racing has a multiplayer mode, but I didn’t participate in any of the online races due to this being pre-release. I do think this game’s multiplayer has a lot of potential, because that’s where likely a lot of the playerbase will flock to after dealing with the AI in the single-player modes. It does support split-screen and that works well for what it is, but not where you’ll have most of your play time.
It should come at no surprise that Hot Lap Racing runs great, all the frames with the game fully maxed out. This is not a demanding game, and at least on PC, does not look visually impressive. Lighting quality is very low, there’s no weather or night races, and the crowd looks like cardboard cutouts. I will say there is a surprising amount of depth put into the cockpit view. It can display things like the track temperature, delta time, race time, speed, and all other things without the need of a HUD. Coupled with its very generic soundtrack, this is a game that tries its best to compete on PC, but pales in comparison.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
While there’s a competent racing game here, it’s perfunctory. This is going to be solid on Switch or even the Steam Deck, but on desktop PC this is really disappointing. It’s a game I found mostly frustrating because of its AI, which needs some serious work, and can be patched. A workaround is to qualify in first place, but then it feels too easy and not the right amount of challenge. For the asking price, Hot Lap Racing is missing a wheel or two, and is not a game that can be recommended in its current state.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes