OVERVIEW: Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a one to six player racing game, which takes about sixty minutes to play. This 2022 release relies upon a simple hand management system to propel the action across four different tracks. Unlike games in which players gamble on the winners, Heat places each player into the driver's seat of a Formula One racecar, looking for any sleight advantage over the other drivers. This core game includes several modular expansions that can be incorporated to increase the game variability, impacting weather and road conditions, garage upgrades, sponsorships, tournament mode, and championship mode. The Legends module introduces an easy to manage A.I. system for the other one to five vehicles, allowing for streamlined solo game play. Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a light easy to learn family game with the capacity to scale and expand to suit the needs of more experienced gamers.
ACCESSIBILITY: The racing theme is universally relatable, even if the Formula One circuit in particular may be less familiar. Set up and tear down are quick, and the table presence of the components bring out the theme. The mechanics are a bit awkward to
teach and learn, requiring a brief YouTube explanation or a dry run to accommodate new players. Once players overcome this minor comprehension hurdle, the game offers a thrilling and strategic experience for anyone able to understand simple math.
SCALABILITY: In Heat: Pedal to the Metal, turns are relatively quick, so higher player counts don't impact the pacing as much as it does in most games. The real scalability comes in the additional modules that can be incorporated into the basic game. The user friendly Legends deck easily controls any number of A.I. opponents available, while other modules add variability and impact the complexity involved. Heat: Pedal to the Metal scales very effectively at every player count, and most difficulty preferences.
COMPONENTS: The components are generally acceptable as average, with room to upgrade if desired. The box insert provides a great deal of extra space for sleeved cards and other upgrades, with extra room for the Heavy Rain expansion. Two thick fold out game boards depict the four distinct tracks from Italy, France, Great Britain, and the United States, while the player dashboards are much thinner. The tokens are cardboard and the plastic gear shift markers are serviceable, but the cars themselves are especially unimpressive considering the theme. However, when everything is brought together this game has a stimulating visual table presence.
GEAR SHIFTING MECHANIC: Each player receives a dashboard and a gear shift token, which indicates how many cards that player must use each round (between one and four). Players may only shift up or down by one gear per turn, or add one Heat card to their deck. Players may discard Heat cards from their hands if they downshift to first or second gear.
HEAT CARDS: The core of this game is deck management. Every player has the same set of cards, but shifting an extra gear, boosting your speed, or taking a corner too fast penalizes players with Heat cards which can't be discarded or played. Heat cards represent stress on your car which do nothing but clog up your deck and limit your options. The only way to get rid of Heat cards is to downshift.
STRESS CARDS: Stress cards represent a momentary lapse of focus, and can be identified by a plus sign instead of a number. They cannot be discarded, but can be played. The number the Stress card represents is determined randomly by drawing from the player's deck. This makes stress cards very dangerous to play before curves.
SLIPSTREAM MECHANIC: Slipstreaming is when a player ends his or her turn directly behind or beside another player, they can use the velocity of the car in front to pull them ahead two spaces. Slipstreaming never counts against taking corners too fast. It makes for dynamic races as the person in front is always at a disadvantage, in danger of those behind slipping past.
LAST PLAYER BONUS: Being last is never fun, but in this game you rarely stay in last place long. Not only do you have the opportunity to slipstream past every car in front of you, but being last gives added bonuses in the form of a token. First, you have the option to move one extra space to set up that perfect slipstream. Second, you have the option to discard one Heat card from your hand no matter what gear you are in. The last place token tends to change hands frequently from turn to turn, and at higher player counts a second token is introduced.
LEGENDS MECHANIC: Although the Legends mechanic is optional, this is what makes games with lower player counts work. Legends are simply automated cars operated by a special deck of cards, which never wipe out on corners.More cars means more slipstreaming, and the solo game is impossible to play without automated Legends opponents. It is very easy to determine how far every Legend car goes each turn from looking at one card. My only personal issue is the speeds that Legends can go on the straightaways. They can reach speeds exceeding the best possible four card combination any player can achieve without an additional boost. I easily remedied this by subtracting five from their speed on the straightaways, but not their corner speeds.
MODULAR MECHANICS: On top of all of this simple streamlined gameplay across four international maps, this game pours on a load of modular variations that impacts the standard game in various different ways. There is a weather module that introduces rules that simulates driving under different conditions. There is a garage module which includes a deck of new cards that add improvements and upgrades to the vehicles. There is a sponsorship module which includes cameramen stationed at pivotal corners, waiting for footage of the vehicle making the cleanest turn. There is a tournament module that takes players across a multi-race championship circuit for players seeking a larger campaign. For depth and replayability, Heat: Pedal to the Metal delivers.
PROS: Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a fast, exciting, easy to learn game that accommodates a lot of players very well. The theme shines through heavily with the Heat, Stress, gear shifting, boosting, and slipstream mechanics, alongside fast paced gameplay. Automated Legends cars can quickly simulate more players to accommodate smaller player counts looking for the excitement of big races. The variety of having four different tracks, plus the weather, garage, sponsorship, and tournament modules pack a massive amount of game into a single box which is incredibly well organized to house all these components.
CONS: This game is a little more expensive than your average game. Sure it comes with all of these extra modular additions, but are you going to use them all? Probably not. All the extras also make the box much larger than other games, if space is a consideration. The player dashboards are very thin, and the cars themselves are pretty mediocre. One would think that the designers would put a little more consideration in making the stars of the game shine a little more, but discerning gamers always have the option to upgrade the cars through alternative sources.
CONCLUSION: Heat: Pedal to the Metal is an exciting and easy to learn family game that is widely relatable and a strong addition to any game collection. It is the perfect choice for five or six players, but easily scales down to a single player. The existing box insert makes setup and tear down quick, and the races tend to take less than an hour. I am not a Formula One racing fan by any stretch of the imagination, but the mechanics in this game deliver the excitement of a race that I have never experienced watching Formula One on television. Split second decisions to change gears, risking tight corners, or stressing the engine to boost a little further separates the winners from the losers. If you have only one racing game in your collection, this is it. So, are you a winner or a loser?
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