The premise to Forza Horizon 2 is simple, you are a young up and coming racer, eager to make a name for yourself. So you join the racing circuits of the Horizon Festival and you will be racing against some of the most talented drivers from around the world, touring the beautiful and exotic locations of France and Italy. In fairness this is a game that this doesn’t need a flash Hollywood-esque storyline, as Forza Horizon 2 is all about the driving and its stunning locations, and the developers at Playground Games have given us just that in abundance.
If you have played Playground Games other racer on the Xbox One Forza Motorsport 5, then you will know of the sublime gameplay that you can come to expect in Forza Horizon 2. Each and every car feels unique to the last, whether it’s the classic 1963 Volkswagen Type 2 Deluxe or a 2013 Ferrari LaFerrari, each car will have its own unique feel with unparalleled authenticity. It’s actually very difficult to explain how each of the cars feel, without you actually playing the game, but thankfully you can download the playable demo of Forza Horizon 2 from the Xbox One marketplace.
In Forza Motorsport 5, you could feel the power of each car, the drift of each tight bend and the clash of a high impact crash. A big reason for this was the vibration functions of the Xbox One controller, I know we’ve had many vibration control pads in the past, but none quite like the Xbox One controller with its Impulse Triggers. This however is enhanced by Forza Horizon 2’s constantly changing terrain. Racing on dusty roads, through the fields and on smooth tarmac has never felt so good and this is one of the many ways in which Forza Horizon 2 immerses you into its world.
Like most other racers, you will kick-off you campaign by choosing from a selection of your more basic cars. As you level up in Forza Horizon 2 you will earn XP and of course in-game credits. The credits are usually won be winning races and its respected events, which of course earns you some XP too. Also each time you level up, you will be given a spin of the “Wheel-Spin”, which can gift you anything from extra credits to luxury cars.
The more credits you earn, the more prestigious cars you can buy, likewise, the more XP you earn and the more you level up, more events that will become open to you. As with the original Forza Horizon, various stages of your levelling up will earn you your colour coded Horizon wristband that will allow you to partake in its respected event.
Usually with most racers, the driver that wins the race will likely earn the most cash and XP, but that’s not quite the case with Forza Horizon 2. Yes in almost all cases, the winner will win the top loot, but if you race in style and earn skillpoints, you can end up being just as well off as the winner, without actually winning. The best way in which you can receive the amount of skillpoints that you earn, is by pulling off a skill chain. A skill chain is pretty much a combo, by chaining together drifts, high speed, jumps, near misses and so forth, could earn you big skillpoints. But be careful, because if you chain together a set of impressive moves, but then you crash into an oncoming car, then your skill chain will break. As an added bonus, much like the XP system in Forza Horizon 2, by earning a certain amount of skillpoints will gift you with a perk.
The perks can be anything from double credit payouts and skillpoints, to your Drivatar earning more funds while you are away. The perks will get more expensive as you progress into the campaign, so make sure that you select the correct perk to suit your driving style. As I’ve briefly touched upon, Drivatars will be making reappearance from Forza Motorsport 5, that will represent the friends on your friend-list playstyle and other gamers from around the globe, but they will also represent you while you’re away from the console in other gamer’s campaigns, to earn you some much need moolah. I loved the Drivatar feature from Forza Motorsport 5, so much so that I find it difficult accepting the CPU A.I in other driving games.
Forza Motorsport 5 was and still is a visual racing masterpiece, but there’s something about the sunny locations of France and Italy, that makes the visuals of Forza Horizon 2 quite breathtaking. When the sun is out in full beam, while driving through the beautiful countryside with a clear blue sea as the backdrop, it really is a sight for sore eyes. Equally when the night falls, it is also just as stunning, with a more peaceful tone. But in my humble opinion, whether its day or night, when Forza Horizon 2 looks its best is when the rain drops all falling. For similar reasons as to why the PS4’s Infamous: Second Sun looked so visually impressive when the rain fell, Forza Horizon 2 (and I’m going to use this word again), looks absolutely stunning. There’s also something quite therapeutic about driving in Forza Horizon 2 using the driving seat viewpoint, with the rain thumping on the widescreen with the wipers in action. In fact, much like the original Forza Horizon, Horizon 2 is the only racing game in which I prefer to use the driver seat view.
Though of course it’s not only the locations created with the utmost beautiful detail, as the cars and are created to a level that you likely would not have seen until now (though I suspect Project Cars will be challenging that crown come November). Cars from the 2013 Lamborghini Veneno, 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C and the 2012 Pagani Huayra, are just about the closet that most of us will ever get to driving these exotic cars. From there beautiful exterior, to the level of detail that you will find in the interior, it’s all here and there’s no premium cars in Forza Horizon 2, as even the 1993 Renault Clio Williams has had a great level of attention to detail, and with it comes nostalgia throwback from your youth.
Other then the cars, a key aspect of Forza Horizon 2 is of course the Horizon Festival and with it comes a vast array of music that will suit just about every musical taste. In total Forza Horizon 2 features nearly 150 tracks to help please your ears across 7 radio stations with their very own real-life DJ’s to present their respected musical tone. You have everything from pop, classical, hip-hop, rock, D ‘n’ B and much more. If you can’t find a radio station in Forza Horizon 2 that suits your musical tastes, then I don’t know what game ever will. I would also recommend that if you have a quality gaming headset, would be to use it whenever you can while playing Forza Horizon 2, because the experience will not only be heightened by the music in the game, but also to the purr and roar of the engine.
Forza Horizon 2 has replay value in abundance, to put it into some kind of perspective (which will of course vary depending on the gamer), by the time I had put 5 hours of game-time, and I only hit 8% of the games completion. In total Forza Horizon 2 has a whopping 188 championships that brings 700 racing events, that alone is more than enough to help keep you busy for some time. The championships and events that you enter will all depend on the current car that you’re driving. If you want to change any race type event, then just visit your garage and change your vehicle.
On top of all your key events, you also have billboards and signs to hunt down that you reward you will in-game credit, extra XP and more. There is also the return of the speed camera challenges, not to mention secret barn locations to discover that will reward you with some very special and rare vehicles. New to Forza Horizon 2 are the Bucket List challenges. Various Bucket List challenges will be located within the France and Italy map, once you approach that location will you then be able to drive some luxury cars under specific stipulations.
All this and I’ve not even indulged into the online details of Forza Horizon 2. While I’ve never been a big fan of the series, I’ve pretty much played every Need for Speed game that there is to offer. So naturally when Need For Speed: Rivals was released last year, I felt it only right to give it a go. While the series remains immensely popular and many love NFSR especially, it wasn’t my cup of tea. The reason for this was that I felt it quite forced upon me to play its multiplayer, one minute I’m cruising around the map, the next minute I’ve got some random div munching on Oreo’s down the headset. There was no prompt to join this match, I was just thrown into the lobby to hear that unpleasant sound.
So naturally this caused me to leave the lobby that was forced upon me and despite subscribing to EA Access, I have never visited NFSR again and nor do I intend to as the whole experience felt rather intrusive. With Forza Horizon 2, if, when and how you challenge other gamers is all down to you. Even when you’re racing against a Drivatar in the singleplayer or taking on a Rivals challenge, that alone already feels like an online experience in its own right (despite not really being one). But should you choose to join fellow online gamers, then you can simply press the menu button and choose the online open-world, to which it will then guide you to the nearest online event.
There are also various Car Meets scattered around the map in which you can meet up with like minded gamers to show-off your car and its design and even discuss tuning tips. This is also a great way to arrange a road trip with your fellow gamers and friends from your friend-list. The word seamless gets thrown around a lot nowadays, sometimes it’s just and sometimes not so, but that really is a great way to describe the online experience of Forza Horizon 2 and it feels far less intrusive to games such as Need For Speed: Rivals. It will be very interesting to see the level of social gaming that the likes of The Crew and Driveclub will have in-store for us later in the year when they each release.
While all of the events and challenges that are in the singleplayer have made their way into the multiplayer, there are also some new modes exclusive to the multiplayer aspect of the game. Such as Infected, this will require you to avoid being infected and those cars that are infected, must bump into you to spread the virus. The aim of the game in Infected is simple; avoid being infected for as long as possible. Another fun mode is King, King works in almost the opposite way to Infected, as this time you must try to remain king of the game for as long as possible and of course try to avoid the other cars making contact to maintain your position on the throne. There are also slight variations to some modes in the multiplayer, such as the Bucket List challenges, in which when online you must complete these challenges in co-op and the difficulty is taken up a notch.
It’s hard for me to compare Forza Horizon 2 to any other open-world racer other than the original Forza Horizon on the Xbox 360, as at the time of writing, The Crew (November 14th) and Driveclub (October 8th) are yet to be released. So for now at least, Playground Games has set the open world racing standard with Horizon 2. If you think of the driving mechanics of Forza Motorsport 5, with a rich and expansive world that teases you to explore, then you will be on the right track with Forza Horizon 2. No game is perfect by any means, but when I’ve reviewed many other racers in the past, it has posed no challenge to think of at least one negative, but that is certainly a challenge with Horizon 2, so much so that my negative is rather a picky and pointless one and that negative is that the host of the game Ben (played by Sean Maguire) slightly annoys me with his annoying head (I told you it was picky).
Forza Horizon 2 is every bit the open world racer that fans of the Forza franchise could ever want, its packed full with a variety of popular and obscure 200+ cars, it plays absolutely fantastically, it looks stunning, gives you the freedom to explore and offers you rich content with heaps of replay value. The world masterpiece is a term thrown around a lot within the gaming industry, but if there ever was a masterpiece in the racing genre, then I have no doubts that Forza Horizon 2 would be just that game.
- Forza Horizon 2 is also available for the Xbox 360, developed by Sumo Digital.