I really struggle to admit how much i liked this game in the end. This was my first Forza and everything that I held in prejudice against this series, especially regarding the Horizon-series, came true in the very first minutes of the game. Instead of celebrating the history of motorsports and cars, the game starts out with this completely vapid appraisal of life as an infinite festival of fun, which I, the player, will now partake in. I felt immediately repelled by the tone that was set in the opening sequence. It felt like i was listening to one of those youtube advertisements clips inbetween videos. Games can be a purely hedonistic pleasure but to be so open and blunt about it, felt quite tasteless to me, especially if one considers with how much passion and love Gran Turismo approaches the matter. This made me expect a game that would be just as superficial as its initial self-appraisal.
To some degrees this is true. This theme of Infinite Fun as one would expect ties into endless monetization schemes, which go further here than i have ever witnessed in another full price title before. I was actually forced to watch two advertisements for its DLC inbetween races, with no option to skip (!). Thats pretty low.
Aside from that most of the progression in this game is tied to Lootboxes, which you can of course buy with real money. Now its not as bad as I expected it would be, because the game still is quite liberal in rewarding the player with cash and cars, but if not for some money gifted by the game via the mail system, my progress would definitely have been slower. So there is some incentive here to spend money as to open more lootboxes.
Additionally the radio channel talking segments and occasional phone calls, while not as horrible as i have seen in other racing games, nonetheless contribute to this tone of youthful, exaggerated superficiality and idiocy, which got on my nerves quite a bit.
The game takes place in Great Britain and the map looks and drives amazing, there's a lot of beautiful design and craftsmanship here, and without a doubt is by far the best racing open world i have ever raced in (this being my first Horizon game). But why not use that beautifully crafted work to make that place come alive by telling something about it's history? There's a lovely miniature Edinburgh here that is barely utilized as anything else but a backdrop for (the worst) races. There is an attempt made by having a series of British Car History missions but even there the tone sort of ruins it, because it turns into this exaggerated advertisement of the brand that you're driving during the mission. Everything is amazing, exciting, awesome etc. People just wont shut up about it, instead of talking sensible.
Then there are also these scripted show races where i am again supposed to be at awe or excited, this time by racing against a jet or a train or whatever around the map. I can imagine that a six year old really feels excited by stuff like that, I myself felt a little bit silly and a little frustrated when a driving mistake at the very end would force me to restart it, because the missions are scripted as such that you cant really lose or win before the very last 30 seconds of the scripted sequence. On my retry on such a failed mission, i was 5 seconds slower than my previous attempt, but i won because i drove the last segment cleanly. Thats annoying.
In summary, i just really didnt like the tone. It made me desire to play some Gran Turismo and express my affection for cars and motorsports in game that feels equally about it. Of course its likely that most people don't care at all about this or even feel engaged by this casual, light-hearted presentation.
But for me, as im really attentive to tone and atmosphere and really enjoy some quality presentation outside of graphics in a video game, especially when the potential is absolutely there, this proved to be a significant hindrance into letting myself enjoy the game for what it really is: One of the best racing games i've ever played!
I drove with no driving assists, second highest difficulty and the cockpit perspective. And i can say i've never played a racing game that so perfectly bridged the gap between arcade and simulation to create intense and challenging races. Whereas the newer Gran Turismos can feel a little tiring to play without a wheel and without assists, as it just steers that little bit more into the simulation side of things, this game allowed me to transform into a racing god without shying away from punishing me for my mistakes. I had some truly breathtaking races and when things come together, this game truly shines: The music, the scenery, the duels on the track or in the dirt, a whole lot of times everything here clicks and i enter that beloved racing game zone. And even better: The difficulty was just right for me. There were many races in which my slightly tuned up Ford Bronco took the lead in the very last corner, and often times i only came second or third without feeling frustrated about it. If something went wrong, it was on me, but without that feeling of being slightly overchallenged as it can sometimes feel with Gran Turismo.
Its quite exceptional how well this game works with all of its different surfaces too. It feels right, the feedback from the surface is just perfect, and even participating in off-road ice races was not frustrating whatsoever.
Add to this the immense diversity of cars and there was a lot of space for me to experiment in. I had around 7 cars which i drove extensively and developed a sense of connection to, all of them feeling individual and unique, although here the game does not reach the level of quality that Gran Turismo often reaches. The tuning also is quite alright, the design features are well developed. So as far as actually driving this thing with different cars go, i was more than satisfied.
Both the music (Hospital and Timeless radio channels were excellent) and of course the graphics do their part as well to make this a stellar racing game that towers over many of its rivals. And i really can't stress enough just how good this game looks. What an absolute beauty.
If there is one more complaint i have, it would be the progression system. On one side it works quite well and gives a lot of autonomy to the player to approach the game as they want, on the other side i think the fact that after 5 hours of driving all i do is just progress through certain lists, that either give me individual cars or, more frequently, loot boxes left me a bit dissatisfied and unmotivated. The initial progression throughout the seasons happens way too fast in my opinion and there's not really a thread that leads towards a climax, a grand finale, something to orient myself towards for the first 10-15 hours. No, instead the game follows the exact same routine from beginning to end: Gather Influence, unlock new races, except that after a couple of hours you are tied to the server-wide season. I think there's a lot of potential here to elevate the experience for the player, because the seasons feature is really well done, why throw it away so quickly? Why not put more emphasis on the beginning of a new season and slowly and carefully introduce the players to different types of racing?
But then again, if the racing is great, and the driving is great, and the open world and the music is great AND i can play around with a huge amount of different, wrell realized cars to my liking, with an adaptive difficulty that works perfectly: What does the rest really matter?
80/100
To some degrees this is true. This theme of Infinite Fun as one would expect ties into endless monetization schemes, which go further here than i have ever witnessed in another full price title before. I was actually forced to watch two advertisements for its DLC inbetween races, with no option to skip (!). Thats pretty low.
Aside from that most of the progression in this game is tied to Lootboxes, which you can of course buy with real money. Now its not as bad as I expected it would be, because the game still is quite liberal in rewarding the player with cash and cars, but if not for some money gifted by the game via the mail system, my progress would definitely have been slower. So there is some incentive here to spend money as to open more lootboxes.
Additionally the radio channel talking segments and occasional phone calls, while not as horrible as i have seen in other racing games, nonetheless contribute to this tone of youthful, exaggerated superficiality and idiocy, which got on my nerves quite a bit.
The game takes place in Great Britain and the map looks and drives amazing, there's a lot of beautiful design and craftsmanship here, and without a doubt is by far the best racing open world i have ever raced in (this being my first Horizon game). But why not use that beautifully crafted work to make that place come alive by telling something about it's history? There's a lovely miniature Edinburgh here that is barely utilized as anything else but a backdrop for (the worst) races. There is an attempt made by having a series of British Car History missions but even there the tone sort of ruins it, because it turns into this exaggerated advertisement of the brand that you're driving during the mission. Everything is amazing, exciting, awesome etc. People just wont shut up about it, instead of talking sensible.
Then there are also these scripted show races where i am again supposed to be at awe or excited, this time by racing against a jet or a train or whatever around the map. I can imagine that a six year old really feels excited by stuff like that, I myself felt a little bit silly and a little frustrated when a driving mistake at the very end would force me to restart it, because the missions are scripted as such that you cant really lose or win before the very last 30 seconds of the scripted sequence. On my retry on such a failed mission, i was 5 seconds slower than my previous attempt, but i won because i drove the last segment cleanly. Thats annoying.
In summary, i just really didnt like the tone. It made me desire to play some Gran Turismo and express my affection for cars and motorsports in game that feels equally about it. Of course its likely that most people don't care at all about this or even feel engaged by this casual, light-hearted presentation.
But for me, as im really attentive to tone and atmosphere and really enjoy some quality presentation outside of graphics in a video game, especially when the potential is absolutely there, this proved to be a significant hindrance into letting myself enjoy the game for what it really is: One of the best racing games i've ever played!
I drove with no driving assists, second highest difficulty and the cockpit perspective. And i can say i've never played a racing game that so perfectly bridged the gap between arcade and simulation to create intense and challenging races. Whereas the newer Gran Turismos can feel a little tiring to play without a wheel and without assists, as it just steers that little bit more into the simulation side of things, this game allowed me to transform into a racing god without shying away from punishing me for my mistakes. I had some truly breathtaking races and when things come together, this game truly shines: The music, the scenery, the duels on the track or in the dirt, a whole lot of times everything here clicks and i enter that beloved racing game zone. And even better: The difficulty was just right for me. There were many races in which my slightly tuned up Ford Bronco took the lead in the very last corner, and often times i only came second or third without feeling frustrated about it. If something went wrong, it was on me, but without that feeling of being slightly overchallenged as it can sometimes feel with Gran Turismo.
Its quite exceptional how well this game works with all of its different surfaces too. It feels right, the feedback from the surface is just perfect, and even participating in off-road ice races was not frustrating whatsoever.
Add to this the immense diversity of cars and there was a lot of space for me to experiment in. I had around 7 cars which i drove extensively and developed a sense of connection to, all of them feeling individual and unique, although here the game does not reach the level of quality that Gran Turismo often reaches. The tuning also is quite alright, the design features are well developed. So as far as actually driving this thing with different cars go, i was more than satisfied.
Both the music (Hospital and Timeless radio channels were excellent) and of course the graphics do their part as well to make this a stellar racing game that towers over many of its rivals. And i really can't stress enough just how good this game looks. What an absolute beauty.
If there is one more complaint i have, it would be the progression system. On one side it works quite well and gives a lot of autonomy to the player to approach the game as they want, on the other side i think the fact that after 5 hours of driving all i do is just progress through certain lists, that either give me individual cars or, more frequently, loot boxes left me a bit dissatisfied and unmotivated. The initial progression throughout the seasons happens way too fast in my opinion and there's not really a thread that leads towards a climax, a grand finale, something to orient myself towards for the first 10-15 hours. No, instead the game follows the exact same routine from beginning to end: Gather Influence, unlock new races, except that after a couple of hours you are tied to the server-wide season. I think there's a lot of potential here to elevate the experience for the player, because the seasons feature is really well done, why throw it away so quickly? Why not put more emphasis on the beginning of a new season and slowly and carefully introduce the players to different types of racing?
But then again, if the racing is great, and the driving is great, and the open world and the music is great AND i can play around with a huge amount of different, wrell realized cars to my liking, with an adaptive difficulty that works perfectly: What does the rest really matter?
80/100