Maverick Games, the studio helmed by Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown, have revealed the story-led open-world driving game they’ve had in the works for a few years now and that’s no longer being published by Amazon. It’s called Clutch, and blends traditional Horizon-style road and street racing with a story that works in some action movie-esque chases with the police.

Clutch’s tale revolves around a pair of siblings who’re racing prodigies and are competing in the R1K racing series, an event which looks a bit like the Horizon festival, minus some garish colours and pounding techno. Much like recent Horizons, including Horizon 6, the more professional-looking R1K races are counterbalanced by more casual street racing at night, alongside a group called the Midnight Collective.

Beyond that, the only story details given away here were that the protagonists end up in a sopt of trouble that leads them to a fixer. Here, Maverick look to have worked in some heist movie-esque set pieces and getaway drives, for which you’ll use gadgets called clutch tech mods. These include the likes of a grappling hook which fires out from under your car in very Bondy fashion, allowing you to loop around tight hairpins at speed. I’m intrigued to see whether the chases will be limited to set events in the vein of the Horizon series’ intimately choreographed showcase events, which have featured races against the likes of planes and trains, or whether you’ll be running from the cops in the open world too.

As any game with licensed cars is prone to do, Maverick were keen to emphasise the fidelity of their models. Though, the more in-depth visual customisation they showed off is something I think could help Clutch stand out from the series some of its devs worked on at Playground. Rather than the generally quite limited visual tweaks on offer in Horizon 6, which sometimes only go as far as the option to fit a marginally racier set of bumpers, spoilers, and rims in addition to your custom livery, Clutch looks like it’ll let you swap out more individual parts on a manner more reminiscent of a Need for Speed or Midnight Club game. Underglow neons and exhausts were shown off, as was fairly extensive interior customisation, which’ll even let you chuck some junk across your dashboard and seats to make your ride feel more lived-in.

That’s it for what Maverick showed off here, with a first trailer set for this Friday’s Summer Game Fest show, where the likes of the setting and cast of characters will get proper introductions. That said, between the French number plates and the fact the R1K splash screen features the word Riviera, the former’s next exactly being kept secret until then.