Forza Horizon
About the Game
Forza Horizon is the fifth game in the racing series but is considered an arcade spin-off rather than a true simulation entry. It is done by a different development team but with the original developers involved. It introduces an open world concept to the series similar to Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012), Burnout Paradise and FUEL . It has a day and night cycle and it is set in Colorado, USA, where players participates in the fictitious Horizon Festival with a light story.
Gameplay & Core Systems
The Horizontal Festival is a central location on the map that acts as a hub to buy new cars, sign up for new events, get paint jobs etc. After a short race to get access to the event, players are free to leave at any time and explore the surroundings. While the realistic physics the games are known for along with the large variety of cars are retained, novelties include AI traffic with a more forgiving crash system, off-road racing on dirt tracks, and a looser atmosphere with announcers, rivals that shout one-liners, radio DJs on three stations, and an audience at the festival. players start as the last of 250 competitors and has to make his way up by participating in races and gaining popularity.
Standout Features
- These can be combined into combos and they contribute to a global popularity level, provide credits and consequently open up new events.
- Vehicles can also drive through fields and use shortcuts by breaking through barriers or other obstacles.
- Certain ones are hidden as barn find cars.
- Once discovered, they can be restored and are added to the roster.
- Tokens can also be spent on a treasure map to reveal the location of hidden vehicles without having to search them.
- There are also still different performance upgrades at the festival's mechanic Dak that can lift the slowest vehicles to the higher classes, but the vehicles cannot be customized further anymore.
- Upgrades can be done manually or automatically, and the game provides a warning when players attempts to join a race with a vehicle that is not powerful enough.
- Also kept are the different types of driving assistance that can be toggled.
Modes & Ways to Play
Multiplayer includes regular races through different lobbies based on the skill level. Next to the regular races there are King games of tag in open environments such as a warehouse or a golf course, Infected where one player has to hunt down survivors to infect them and have them join the infected team, and cooperative challenges in a free-roam mode with the entire game world. A final game mode is called Cat and mouse. Some game elements can only be unlocked in the multiplayer portion.
Player support includes Internet, Co-Op, Free-for-all / One-on-one (VS), and Team.
Presentation & Atmosphere
Display support includes HDTV 720p, HDTV 1080i, and HDTV 1080p. Audio support includes Dolby Digital.
