Heat: Pedal to the Metal Board Game Review

Heat: Pedal to the Metal

WBG Score: 9

Player Count: 1-6

You’ll like this if you like: Flamme Rouge

Published by: Days of Wonder

Designed by: Asger Harding Granerud, Daniel Skjold Pedersen

This is the reviewer’s copy. See our review policy here

By Steve Godfrey

It’s time to fasten your seatbelt, check your mirrors, and put your pedal to the metal (as per the box instructions). Also, don’t forget to check your oil and water, especially before a long trip. Oh, and don’t forget your antifreeze if it’s coming up to winter. Also, check tire pressure. I appreciate that this doesn’t make for an exhilarating intro, but it’s important to think about safety. 

How to burn rubber.

Heat is a racing game, so the first person across the line will win, unless more than one player crosses the line in the same round. In that case, the player who is furthest across the line will win. 

In front of you, you’ll have a player board with your deck of cards, a pile of heat cards, and eventually a discard pile. First, I want to talk about the concept of “heat.” At times, 

you’ll need to pay for a number of heat. When you do, take a heat card from that section of your board and add it to your discard pile. You can also cool down heat at certain points. When this happens, take as many heat cards as indicated from your hand and put them back into your heat deck.  

At the start of the round, players will simultaneously choose if they want to shift gears up or down, or not at all. Then, choose a number of cards from their hand of 7 to play. The number will be equal to the gear they’re currently in. There are three types of cards: Speed cards that have numbers on them, stress cards that have no number but can still be played, and finally heat cards which can’t be played. In turn order, players will then take the rest of their turn taking the following steps. 

First, reveal your hand of cards and move that many spaces. If you played any stress cards, then you flip the top card of your deck until you hit a speed card. Add this to your current speed and move that many spaces. 

Second, if you're in last place, then you can move an extra space that adds to your speed. You can also cool down one heat. 

Third, you can cool down heat if you're in first or second gear. You can also use the boost action. Here, you pay a heat, then flip a card from the top of your deck and move that many spaces. This adds to your speed. 

Fourth, here you can slipstream. If you end your moves directly behind or next to another racer, you may slipstream by moving up to two extra spaces. This doesn’t add to your speed count, but be wary of it taking you around a corner. 

Fifth is the dreaded corner check. Each corner in Heat has a speed number next to it. If you cross that corner and your total speed is equal to or lower than that number, then you're all good. If you go through it over that speed, then you need to pay the difference in heat. If you can’t pay the full amount, then you spin out. Depending on what gear you're in at the time, you take one or two stress cards into your hand, drop into first gear, and move back behind the corner line that caused you to spin out. 

Lastly, you can discard as many cards from your hand as you want, except heat and stress cards, of course. Then refill your hand back up to seven cards. 

The next player will go on and so forth, and then rinse and repeat. The game will end on the round that at least one person has crossed the finish line. If they are the only one, then they win. If more than one person crosses the line in the same round, then the win will go to the player who is furthest across the line. 

Start you engines

Just for a bit of context, one of the designers of Heat also designed Flamme Rouge, which is one of my favourite games and certainly one of my favourite racing games. If you’ve played Flamme Rouge and read the rules rundown, then you’ll know that the two have very similar base mechanisms. That’s because Heat takes the simple card mechanism of Flamme Rouge and expands it to not only make it more strategic but also to make them fit the motor racing theme rather than bicycle racing. I'll admit I was skeptical about Heat, especially when I learned that it was using the foundation of Flamme Rouge and adding other things to it. I was worried that it would make it too complex and fiddly and would also sap the fun chaotic nature from the game that I love. My first ever game of it was on Board Game Arena, and it wasn't the best of experiences, but I put that down mainly to it being a learning game and being turn-based. But then I played my first physical game with all the rules taught properly, and before you could say “Nigel Mansell's moustache,” I was in! 

As I said earlier, the card play system here has been taken from the designer's previous game of Flamme Rouge. Rather than simply port that over to Heat and slap a motor racing theme on it, though, they've done their due diligence and crafted it into something that’s similar but also altogether different... yeah, I’ve confused myself with that sentence as well. At first, the multiple steps you have to go through look a bit daunting and look as though they’ll draw the entire game to a grinding halt, which is the exact opposite of what you want in a racing game. That feeling is even more pronounced when you're explaining the steps to new players, and you can see the bemused looks on their faces. Give it a couple of rounds, however, and you’ll find that you’ll be flying through these quicker than me trying to get to the next services after a long, liquid-fuelled drive around the M25. 

It’s not long before the strategy in Heat shows itself. Obviously, the cards you draw into your hand are pure luck, but it’s how you choose to use what you’re given that makes the game purr like a finely tuned engine (yep, that sounds like something a car enthusiast would say). You see, Heat is all about planning ahead and clever card management. It’s all too easy to want to slam the car into a high gear and go tearing around those long straights like a rocket-fueled road runner and then discard your lower speed cards. Why do you need them anyway? Going fast is too much fun. Well, that emerging low-speed corner is why. 

You need to keep so many steps ahead to be competitive in this game. You need to keep an eye on your gears, the cards you have in your hand, at least the next couple of corners (if they’re close), and also where your opponents are and if you can steal a cheeky slipstream from them. Every turn you’ve got so many potential things to think about above just what speed you want to go that turn, and I love how much it makes you think. What's more impressive is that despite all that going on, the game still feels pacey. 

There’s a really fun element of trying to second-guess your opponents. It’s all well and good deciding how you’re going to take a corner, but what about them? Are they going to make that next corner? If so, will they take it at a sensible speed, or are they going to push and take some heat to give them an advantage? Above all, are you trying to pre-empt that and drive accordingly? 

One of my big issues with racing games is the frequent emergence of a runaway leader. I’ve said this before in other racing games I’ve reviewed, and if you’ve already read those, then I’m sorry for sounding like a broken record. It’s been a problem with most of the racing games I’ve played, and it can easily sour the experience, especially when there’s nothing you or even the leader can do to stop it/mess it up. Heat feels different. Now, don't get me wrong, it can still occur in this game, but it feels more earned than those other games. In fact, the strategic play of Heat makes everything feel earned because, unlike a lot of those other racing games, it’s entirely possible to catch up in Heat. It makes the racing feel so much more thrilling, dynamic, and tight. I can’t tell you how many games of this I’ve played where the lead has changed hands multiple times across the race. Cars that are lagging behind have snuck in from out of nowhere to take a lead. Leaders that seem impossible to catch have fallen back and are fighting to stay in contention for any sort of place. Every game of Heat has felt like a race and a genuine competition that anyone could win right up till the last gasp past the finish line, and believe me, I’ve had races of this that have gone down to the wire. 

Heat is bad, right?

Let’s talk about the titular cards for a moment. It’s easy to think of heat cards as the bad guy, the Hades of Heat, if you will. If managed properly, however, heat can be a hugely useful tool. This game needs to come with a warning, though, because using heat can be addictive. It starts off innocently enough. You use heat to push yourself over a corner by one space because it puts you in a better position; it’s a great strategy. Later on, you’ll use it to pay for a cheeky boost because why not? One won’t hurt. Be careful, though, because before you know it, you’ll be pushing past corners by two, even three speeds. It's okay; you’ve got plenty of heat left; you’ve been cooling down. Then, before you know it, the tank is empty, and you're going around the track cold turkey, being so careful with your card management that even a milk float is on the verge of overtaking you. It’s tense stuff because even the slightest wrong move could cause you to spin out. Just remember, kids, use heat responsibly. 

Now, with all that being said, spinning out isn’t necessarily all that damaging. We’ve had people spin out in races and still be in the mix for a potential win.

Let’s talk about stress, baby.

Oh, stress cards. You have been my friend, and you have been my enemy. Pull the right number at the right time, and they can be the push your race needs. Heck, they may even be the nudge that helps you win. Pull the wrong number at the wrong time, however, and you could be calling the crowd over to give you a push back to the line as you spin out wildly. Regardless if you love them or hate them, they ain't half a lot of fun to watch people draw. The moment someone declares, “If I pull anything but a 4, I’ll be alright,” everyone’s attention is drawn to that player like a tractor beam, and let’s be honest, everyone secretly wants them to pull that 4. Even when they don’t, though, there’s still an “Oooo” from the onlookers. Having a hand that’s full of them is certainly no fun when you're closing in on a corner, but they definitely bring the entertainment values with them. Speaking of value…

What’s in the box?

It’s safe to say that Days of Wonder haven't skimped on the content in this box. You get four tracks plus the components for six players and solo mode. That alone could easily be enough content for a long time. But then you get upgrade cards you can optionally throw in. You draft three of these before a race, and they give you powerful abilities like extra slipstreaming, better brakes, and better steering so you can manipulate a corner's speed. 

You also get a championship mode that links races together and gives you events for each race and sponsorship cards. These are one-time-use cards that give you one-off special abilities. You’ll even have weather that will change how you apply the rules to certain sections of the track. There are track modifiers that give special rules to sections of the track and can also modify speed counters for the corners. 

Fancy racing on your own? No worries, because the solo mode has you covered. Each turn, you flip a card that tells you how each non-player driver will move that round, and it’s a brilliantly simple system. It's been designed with not only solo play in mind but also to fill out games with fewer players. Don’t let these drivers fool you, though, because they’re in it to win it just as much as you are and are definitely up for the challenge. They’re beatable, but you need to be on your game to do so.

It’s getting hot in here, so take off all your cars.

So I’m not sure if this is just me, but I found the corner rule a bit weird to get my head around the first couple of plays, and from my experience, it does seem to trip other people up a bit as well. I think I’ve got it down well enough that I can teach it fairly clearly now, but I'd be interested to see if this caught other people out as well on their first go-round. 

It is still entirely possible that a runaway leader could occur, especially if you're playing with new people who haven’t quite picked up on the strategy. That being said, I taught a five-player game with three of them being new, and one of the new players won. So it’s swings and roundabouts how much of an issue that turns out to be.

As much strategy as there is in this game, it’s entirely possible to be caught out by a bad hand of cards. Yes, having a handful of heat and stress cards can suck, but that’s the risk you take when you spend heat; it’s part of the game. What I’m talking about is speed cards. A hand of high cards when you need some low ones for a tight corner or a hand of low cards when you really need that speed boost can be a bit demoralizing. Maybe not quite as bad when you’ve got heat to spare to help mitigate this a bit either way, but if you haven’t, then this can be a bit of a slap in the face that you just can’t do anything about. 

Flamme Rouge was once in my top ten, and I still love that game. I can't see it leaving my collection anytime soon. However, my initial skepticism for Heat seems to have swung completely in the opposite direction and, as you can see, has not only become my favourite racing game but one of my favourite games of all time. If you want a tight, tense, and strategic racing game, then this should be your first port of call to check out.

Right. I’m off to turn the heating down in my house. I thought that combining Heat with actual heat would make it more thematic. Turns out it just makes my chocolate game snacks melt quicker. Note to self: sleeve my cards.