Rebooting a franchise is an arduous task. There’s a lot of expectation to measure and there are many challenges to meet. There is also an especially important question to answer, is this worth rebooting? Forza as a series stands atop the mountain of racing simulation games, some might argue in favor of others, maybe there’s a joint top, but no matter how you cut it the Forza series is either there or its in the conversation. That matters less than how it has started to compete with itself.
Forza has done an interesting thing, the spin off series of more arcade style racing has vastly surpassed the original, more grounded, and realistic, racing simulation game. The Horizon series is super fun, the vast open worlds, and the multiple types of racetracks from sloppy and slippery off-road circuits, to tight, precision street racing in high performance super cars. The breadth of the game is wide, the customization is deep. Forza Horizon is a spectacular racing game. This is a problem for Motorsport.
The Forza quality is intact, the accessibility options and all the various menu customizations are all present. Playground Games continues to impress with their quality in tweaking not only car performance in race but difficulty and option setting. The major challenge for Motorsport is on the track, in every respect outside of racing this new offering is as good as its Horizon counterparts.
Motorsport has a sizable number of tracks, many based on real world racetracks, though a lot of the variety is based different configurations of the same tracks. This isn’t a knock against the game, it creates an interesting dynamic where you can become familiar with different track elements while having a sense of familiarity with others.
The main problem that Motorsport suffers from is that it just isn’t enough. In comparison to its own counterpart, Horizon, it lacks in variety, it lacks in number of tracks, it lacks in number of vehicles. It’s a good game, the car tuning and the tracks are good, the vehicles are more limited but still interesting to experiment with, the game just can’t hit the same peaks of Horizon. This doesn’t mean that it’s a bad game it just makes one wonder about the main question I asked earlier. Is this series worth rebooting?
That’s more complicated. Motorsport is still different enough from Horizon to be worth asking after, but the answer, if this particular game is the answer, is a resounding no. I still have fun with it because the formula is good but I, and I’m sure the majority of Forza fans these days, would be lying to you I said I would prefer more of this over Horizon. When Motorsport was first announced I was intrigued, I wondered what they would do with it to differentiate it, how it could be rejuvenated. The result, sadly, is nothing really. Horizon is growing and pushing limits, Motorsport is languishing and becoming irrelevant. There’s still fun to be had here but it would have been much preferable to get Horizon 6 than a tired old Motorsport with a new coat of paint.
Forza has done an interesting thing, the spin off series of more arcade style racing has vastly surpassed the original, more grounded, and realistic, racing simulation game. The Horizon series is super fun, the vast open worlds, and the multiple types of racetracks from sloppy and slippery off-road circuits, to tight, precision street racing in high performance super cars. The breadth of the game is wide, the customization is deep. Forza Horizon is a spectacular racing game. This is a problem for Motorsport.
The Forza quality is intact, the accessibility options and all the various menu customizations are all present. Playground Games continues to impress with their quality in tweaking not only car performance in race but difficulty and option setting. The major challenge for Motorsport is on the track, in every respect outside of racing this new offering is as good as its Horizon counterparts.
Motorsport has a sizable number of tracks, many based on real world racetracks, though a lot of the variety is based different configurations of the same tracks. This isn’t a knock against the game, it creates an interesting dynamic where you can become familiar with different track elements while having a sense of familiarity with others.
The main problem that Motorsport suffers from is that it just isn’t enough. In comparison to its own counterpart, Horizon, it lacks in variety, it lacks in number of tracks, it lacks in number of vehicles. It’s a good game, the car tuning and the tracks are good, the vehicles are more limited but still interesting to experiment with, the game just can’t hit the same peaks of Horizon. This doesn’t mean that it’s a bad game it just makes one wonder about the main question I asked earlier. Is this series worth rebooting?
That’s more complicated. Motorsport is still different enough from Horizon to be worth asking after, but the answer, if this particular game is the answer, is a resounding no. I still have fun with it because the formula is good but I, and I’m sure the majority of Forza fans these days, would be lying to you I said I would prefer more of this over Horizon. When Motorsport was first announced I was intrigued, I wondered what they would do with it to differentiate it, how it could be rejuvenated. The result, sadly, is nothing really. Horizon is growing and pushing limits, Motorsport is languishing and becoming irrelevant. There’s still fun to be had here but it would have been much preferable to get Horizon 6 than a tired old Motorsport with a new coat of paint.