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Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 - Turbocharged is definitely an improvement over the original. It adds a few unique elements and fixes some of the things the previous game had problems in. This looks like it could be a pretty fun and enjoyable game for the future and I'm looking forward to what this game has for it's upcoming DLC.

Positives

-There are now vehicle classes. Drifters are vehicles that specialize in Handling, Balanced cars which are what it says on the tin can, Rocket cars are great for straight line speeds, Heavy Duty cars can blow through obstacles, Off-Road vehicles can handle rougher surfaces, and Swift vehicles specialize in acceleration.
-You're now able to jump over stuff and dash into other racers, likely pushing them off the track when the opportunity arises which is always fun to do.
-The Rarity system now only affects the chances of cars appearing in the Shop. It no longer has any impact on vehicle performance, so you're going to have to upgrade all vehicles no matter what Rarity they're at. You can also apply Skills (or Perks, if you will) on vehicles to either make them function better at the cost of boost (Handling), make their boost better at the cost of functionality (Boost), and give them invincibility to obstacles and modules (Obstacles).
-While the livery system is the same, you can now alter the sound your car makes when boosting as well as changing the boost flame color. There's not a lot of options to choose from in both categories currently, but hopefully there will be more later on down the line as DLC. You can also make your own stickers and download others to use for your own liveries.
-The Shop system is much better. You now are able to force a Shop refresh at the cost of a small Coin fee. This means you no longer have to simply wait around for the next assortment. While the timer is still technically there, the fact that there's finally an option to force a refresh is one of the most requested features for the first game. This also adds a bit of a selection on what you want: do you want to go ahead and refresh the shop, or you wanna wait until you have some more Coins first?
-Gears are gone, but now there's three more currencies in the game: Skill Points, Upgrade Kits, and Spin Tokens. Skill Points are used to purchase Skills for your currently selected car. Upgrade Kits are a much more convenient way to upgrade the performance of your cars to Powered and Ultimate, and Spin Tokens which can only be used for the Hot Wheels Spin. You still have Coins, which have the same use as before.
-Speaking of the Hot Wheels Spin, Blind Boxes are gone for good in this game. In Unleashed 1, they were there to give players any car in the game. But what you get is completely random and you could get something you already have. In this game, the Hot Wheels Spin will not only have cars that you could win, but now there's currency to be won. Microtransactions aren't a thing here just like the previous game, so no dopamine effect being triggered here at all!
-There's more game modes. You got the usual Quick Race, Time Attack, and Split-Screen like before. But now, you have Elimination which is a take on Burnout Revenge's Eliminator events - don't get caught in last place when the timer hits 0. Drift Master where you need to score as much as possible while drifting in corners, and Waypoints which is just you driving around the different environments from Point A to Point B as fast as possible.
-Monster Trucks are now more stable. Before, they were a nightmare and had very twitchy reactions to collisions and landings which made them very risky to use. Now in this game, they're much more stable and are actually driveable! Why they didn't do this sooner is beyond me, but this is much better!
-There's now a leveling system for players, as well as Unleashed Missions. Every time you level up and complete those missions, you mostly gain currency and a few customization items. This gives more replay value for completionists like me, so expect me to come back to this game a lot for those!
-Cross-platform support is now a thing for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC players! You can also party up with players on other consoles as well, so that's a very welcome addition!


Negatives

-Most of the vehicle lineup are returning cars from the first game. Why is Tricera-Truck still here? That car was terrible back then! While I know for a fact that Character Cars aren't in the game anymore, there's still some questionable choices here, as well as cuts that would've been nice like the Skull Crusher for instance. That was a good car to drive, but it's not here. We could've had one or both of the McLarens from the first game! I mean, did Mattel really need to remind us that Bone Shaker is the star vehicle of Hot Wheels? I think we all know that by now. Gee, thanks guys...
-I haven't played through Creature Rampage yet, but I've seen all cutscenes for the story and to be as honest as I can here, the story isn't the most enticing aspect of the game. In all seriousness, it is fun to shrink actual human beings to drive toy cars, but the characters themselves are just 'bleh' to me. The cutscenes are just offputting.
-As much as I don't care about the Track Builder mode, the amount you can put in each environment is a big disappointment. You can't put as much as you can anymore, so everyone's creations are likely going to be not as entertaining nor exciting as the first game.
-While public online multiplayer lobbies are still 12 players, private lobbies now only support up to 10 players. Milestone, I know you've said that it was because of engine limitations, but how hard is it really to get a lobby of 12 people for those who don't want to race with randoms? Start upgrading to a better engine that has more flexibility.
-Nintendo Switch players STILL get the boot on cross-platform multiplayer due to hardware limitations. It's a fair bit disappointing too, since Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered even had cross-platform support. I wonder how EA did this better than Milestone...
-Grab the Gears is like a scavenger game mode while Clash Derby is like a demolition derby. The reason why this is a negative is the fact that they're ONLINE-ONLY game modes. Did they seriously have to take that route for these two modes? I want to experience these on my own offline, but I can't because randoms will likely be part of both, and I don't really like playing with randoms online.

Even with all that, I still am pretty proud of this game. Aside from the high cost that people will likely complain about for what it's worth, this is definitely a much needed improvement over the original. Definitely get this on sale whenever possible, you'll like this better than the first game.

Overall Score: 8.5/10