A horizonal Forza

Review

Played on: Xbox 360
Released: 2012

I've been to quite a few motorsport events through the years and while they take place, most of the time, around a racing track, which has numerously times been represented in racing games, nobody has quite captured the essence of such events. It's not just about the actual cars that are racing on the track, it's also about the atmosphere, the people and the feeling of being in the middle of something truly unique were the cars and their drivers are the stars.

Forza Horizon represents not only a unique racing game it also captures the feeling of a huge motor event in an incredible way.

Turn 10 must have nervously let Microsoft take their, critically acclaimed, sim racer franchise and hand it over to, luckily, a very competent mix of British racing game developers. And not just any developers, a fine blend of people from titles like Dirt, PGR and Split/Second. All fantastic racing franchises. The result is something Turn 10 are, and should be, very proud of.

Enter the world of Forza Horizon.



The result, is a free roaming, motor show event based, racing game with slick menus, a thumping soundtrack and breathtaking graphics. All mixed together with Forza Motorsport 4's fantastic handling and car models. The open world is based on Colorado landscapes and is centred around a huge motor show festival in the middle.

Traverse autumn leafed bends, moonlit straights, canyon twisted dust tracks and burn rubber through small towns or flat the engine on a highway. The sheer variation in FHs map is fantastic and it looks so good. So great, are the graphics, it easily becomes one of the most beautiful racers made to date and it's a free roaming title to boot!



Gameplay can be tweaked to be almost FM4 realism or easy to pick up for beginners. Newcomers and Forza veterans, alike, will find a lot of entertainment value here. It may have a more casual approach but true motor-heads will get their share of car entertainment here too. It's not trying to be a new Forza Motorsport, it's trying to take great ideas from typical arcade racers and mixing it up with more realism. The fact that they also added off-road, almost rally-like racing is very impressive too.

There are lots of cars, upgrades and tons of races. Anything from street racing, to track racing, beating speed camera records or earning points while drifting. The races aren't that lengthy either, so boredom never kicks in during the time it takes to complete the entire game. You can seriously challenge yourself by setting the A.I. on harder levels though.



While there could have been an even more of a personal touch by creating your own character, like in Test Drive Unlimited, adding a few more cars and maybe also police just for fun, I get the focus the developers have done. It's about taking the thrill of the excellent Forza Motorsport gameplay out on the open road, without worrying too much about realism or perfect race lines on a closed track.

Forza Horizon is, without doubt, one of the best racing games made this generation. The variety in race types, environments to drive in and sheer beauty of just cruising while seeing the day change from day to night makes Forza Horizon this years absolute best racer.


Update: The screenshots I've taken here are from the game running on a Xbox One X in hindsight, where the resolution is upped all the way from 720p to a full 4K!