What happens when you take the best developers from the best racing game studios in the world including Turn 10, Codemasters and so on, and give them access to Microsoft's money? The answer lies in Playground Games' offering Forza Horizon. Firstly, this is a spin-off from the hugely popular Forza Motorsport series, so now there will be a motorsport game one year and a Horizon-esque game the next. Sounds good. Many people, though, have questioned the move. They say that it will surely detract from what Forza is all about (precision and hard racing). They say that an open world game cannot be a Forza. However, when you dig below the surface, the reasoning for he development becomes a little bit clearer...
The most successful racing game series of all time, Need For Speed, is struggling, so why not launch an attack on EA Games and Criterion now, whilst they are at their weakest? Every gamer converted from Need For Speed into a fan of Forza Horizon is one more person that is more likely to buy their motorsport games. Which means that Forza Motorsport will finally be able to break clear of its great rival, Gran Turismo in terms of sales. These two juggernauts of the gaming world have been slugging it out since 2007, so by sucking the life out of Need For Speed, Microsoft may have just clobbered Polyphony Digital's greatest success story as well. However, this only works if the Horizon game is much better than Criterion's 2012 offering, the much worsened version of the old Need For Seed Most Wanted.
When you first start up the game, you realise that it it is considerably better than any of the Need For Speed games since the end of their golden era in 2006. You are immediately plunged straight into a frantic dash to get the last wristband for access to the Horizon festival, which is the main centre piece of the game. This means that you have to beat exotic cars such as Porsches in your knackered old VW Corrado, which is easier said than done. You may think that this is far too abrupt for a racing game, they need to ease you in slowly to enable you to get to grips with the handling of the game. Forza Horizon, though, uses exactly the same physics engine as Forza Motorsport 4, which means that it blends user-friendliness and a great feel of the car perfectly, whilst still giving you a wild ride at the same time.
Once you reach the gates to the Horizon Festival, you are given a whistle-stop tour of all that you need to know. Then, you are on your own. It's a great idea as it allows you to get on and do what you want to do (something the makers of Shift 2: Unleashed could learn) and get to know the game at your own pace. There is a system of levelling up in the game that involves coloured wristbands rather than the level system in Forza Motorsport 4, where you are just assigned a number. It works very well and you always know exactly what you need to do to level up.
There are also sponsor challenges, which are hard to find initially, but they reward you with loadsa money for doing cool things (such as fifty drifts). These things also help you to boost your reputation in the game, which is important as the reputation you carry affects invites to illegal street races (another Need For Speed player's dream) as well as invites to special 'showcase' events, where you will race a car against something else (such as a plane) in true Top Gear style and if you beat your opponent you keep the car. Nice.
Then there's the barn find feature. Basically, as you progress through the game you will find circles appear on your map. Somewhere in that circle is a classic car that is yours to keep if you find it. This feature seems reminiscent of the wrecks feature in the disappointing Test Drive Unlimited 2, but the feature could have got a little more advanced than it was in Horizon, as most of the cars that you will find will be in your Forza Motorsport 4 garage anyway! Ah, well.
The graphics in the game are absolutely sa-weet! Everything about the open world that you find yourself in (a fictional part of Colorado) is absolutely gorgeous to look at. Be it a canyon to the south, or a mountain in the west, or huge plains in the south east, every part of the map looks stunning, especially the Horizon Festival itself, where thousands upon thousands of people gather and make the whole area feel 'alive', rather than having a stage and some lights. But if the game looks good in the day, it is something else at night. Headlights pop up out of your cars bonnet, and dashboards illuminate as the sun sinks in perfect harmony. Every time it happens "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meatloaf starts in my head. It is that good.
So, the cars feel perfect, the graphics are spot on, and there is similar customisation to Forza Motorsport 4, which is a good thing considering the vast array of cars to choose from. You'd think, then, that this is the greatest game of all time. I'm afraid not. Firstly, the single player game is not particularly long. Secondly, the rally expansion is far too expensive. But the biggest problem is the way that it feels. It is a technical marvel, and I am in awe of it every time I play it, but it doesn't exactly have much of a soul. It just feels too cold to be the best game ever, and this is something that the old Need For Speed games were able to capture.
GAME SCORE: 92/100
"Just a bit cold"
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