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[REVIEW] Forza Horizon 2

The Forza Motorsport series is one of the most successful racing franchises ever, having sold millions of copies to date, and it’s exclusive to Microsoft’s Xbox platform. But whereas the majority of Forza titles have been track-bound racers, 2012’s Forza Horizon tried something a little different: it eschewed the confines of closed circuits in favour of a beautiful open world racing experience whose “tracks” were made up by cordoning off sections of the huge map.

The formula proved so successful that Microsoft decided to develop a second game, Forza Horizon 2, and push the envelope even further. While the game still takes place in a track-less environment, the sequel eradicates all barriers in some races, leaving the driver free to carve out their own path through bushes, crop fields and the occasional tree.

The game officially launches on the 30th of September, but were fortunate enough to have been granted early access. Does the game live up to the high standard of the Forza franchise? Based on our time with it… oh yes. Most definitely.

First to the finish line

The premise of the game is fairly simple: cross the finish line first in a chosen championship, win 15 championships to be eligible for the fictional Horizon Festival finale, and race your little heart out to win said finale. But it’s actually a little bit harder than it sounds, as there are plenty of things standing between you and that final podium finish.

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Hope that wasn’t expensive…

Once you’ve decided on which championship to enter first, such as Hot Hatch, Modern Supercars or Extreme Offroad, you have to compete in different kinds of races. These races depend on what class and championship you are competing in, and there are four races per championship that you’ll need to win in order to progress.

Generally they consist of lap-based sprints through city streets, point-to-point races through checkpoints, or a cross country contest where there really is no set path – you simply have to get from checkpoint to checkpoint and how you do it is entirely up to you. The cross country races are probably the most fun, although racing hypercars at ridiculous speeds through city streets is also a blast.

After you’ve completed 15 championships you will compete in the game’s finale, an epic race that will take you all over Horizon 2’s huge map. Go to the loo and grab some coffee before you tackle this one, as it will take you around 15 minutes to complete, compared to the average race’s time of less than five.

I can see my house from here

The first Horizon took gamers on an epic journey through desert terrain somewhere in Colorado, but Microsoft decided to change the setting for this one to France and Italy – which works stunningly well.

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Game or holiday snap…?

The main hub of the Horizon festival is located in the picturesque countryside, but racing will take you to locations like Nice, San Giovani and Castelleto. Everything has been painstakingly recreated to accurately reflect the spirit of each area, and many of the villages (although smaller than their real-world counterparts) look appropriately life-like.

Drive through the countryside and you will find highly detailed tractors parked next to barns, crops growing in neat rows and hedges serving as property boundaries. Take a drive through the city streets, and you will find garbage bins carefully located around public hotspots, people hanging out on the beaches, and tables and chairs placed outside coffee shops.

The amount of detail that has gone into creating Horizon 2’s take on southern Europe is truly astounding, and makes the setting totally believable. While you might not notice a company logo on a trashcan while going at 300 km/h, that it’s there is an indication of the developer’s commitment to authenticity.

In another nod to that particular end, the game has a full day/night cycle as well as changing weather. If you manage to time it perfectly, you will be able to see the lights of the houses come on individually as the sun sets, and then all of the street lights will start to illuminate in unison throughout the city. It really has to be seen to be believed.

Is that a bug on my windshield?

While the game’s environments have been given a life of their own through small but thoughtful touches, the effect could not be pulled off without the Forza franchise’s famous flair for photo-realistic graphics which, thanks to the power of the Xbox One, are simply incredible.

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Admit it, you thought this was a photo at first glance.

Most of the attention to detail has been poured into the cars themselves, which is understandable, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world has been left out. When it rains, water pools in dips and depending on the severity of the rain, will remain on a flat road surface. Cars will reflect in the water, along with anything else if you swing the camera around.

Speaking of rain, small droplets will be visible on car bodies and windshields and water will gush out from the back of the tyres as you speed along. Car bodies are ultra-smooth, trees and grass have detail and definition and buildings have added extras that make everything look absolutely believable. In short, Forza Horizon 2’s graphics are astoundingly good.

To drive home the point, all the images used in this review were captured in-game. We know it’s very hard to believe, but if you’re familiar with the Forza franchise at all you wouldn’t expect anything less. Impressively, Turn 10 and Playground Games exceeded even the most ardent fan’s expectations, including this one.

Your chariot awaits

Naturally, you will need a shiny, beautifully-rendered vehicle with which to compete in the championships, and Horizon 2 isn’t shy about making them available. Some of the fastest (and slowest) cars in the world are available for purchase with your hard-earned in-game credit.

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She’s just so pretty…

There are over 200 cars for you to collect and drive, some of them a bit eccentric while others are your run-of-the-mill models. The 2014 Lamborghini Huracán is featured on the cover of the game, but other hypercars include the McLaren P1, LaFerrari and the Lamborghini Veneno.

But don’t worry if you struggle to keep your chariot on the road while everything whizzes by in a blur, as there are cars available to suit almost every taste – even ones that red-line at around 100 km/h.

Since this is Forza, don’t expect all cars to behave the same way, because they won’t. There is a definite difference in the handling of different models, which can be tweaked by making small adjustments to their engines and bodies. Offroad cars handle better when ploughing through some poor farmer’s grain crops, while Extreme Track Toys like the Ariel Atom blast off into the distance from the starting line.

The cars slide, brake and launch exactly as their real-world counterparts do, which is one of the reasons the Forza franchise has become such a huge success. If it wasn’t for the realistic handling, Horizon 2 could have been just another driving game, but this is Forza – realism is what they do, and they do it well.

I’ll take the optional extras, please

A number of aspects from the first Horizon made their way into the sequel, such as the Barn Finds. During certain parts of the game, you will be pointed toward a specific part of the map; in the designated area, it is up to you to try and find a barn in which a car is hidden and if you can find it, it’s yours.

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I’m half-convinced real life doesn’t look this good.

Speed cameras also make a return in the sequel, and have been placed throughout the world. It’s incredibly fun to see how fast you can careen through them, but they serve no other purpose than to show you how fast you were going at a particular point. Your results can be compared to those of your friends, which can inspire you to drive ever-faster through them to ensure your name remains on top.

There are new things in the game, too. One of the best changes developer Playground Games introduced is the ability to check out your friends’ cars through online “Car Meets”. While the Auto Show functionality is still in the game, you can travel to one of the Car Meets and inspect your friends’ current rides just as you would in Auto Show. It’s a new take on an established concept, and it’s been done really well.

Pump those tunes

Driving through the countryside can be a little boring if you don’t have some music to keep you company, but don’t worry, Horizon 2 has you covered. The game features about seven radio stations that play specific music, like drum and bass, classical, pop or indie rock. Each one was recorded with real DJs talking between tracks to lend the stations an air of realism, and every now and then you’ll even hear them talk about things that happened in the races.

While it’s great that you have a huge open world area to explore, sometimes you need a little direction, and this is where ANNA comes in, the game’s Kinect-based navigational helper. To activate the GPS, all you have to say is ‘Anna’, and options will appear on the screen. If you get really good at it, you can say ‘Anna, nearest event’, and she will direct you there.

You’ve got a friend in me

What would a racing game be if you couldn’t kick dust into your friend’s windshield? Very dull, that’s what, but of course that’s not the case here. The game features a number of online options for you to choose from, most of which are identical to the races that you find in the single-player portion.

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Prepare for lift-off.

There is an Online Freeroam mode as well, where you and a bunch of mates can just drive around racking up skill points. These points are used to buy perks that have different effects, like fast travel costing less and getting 10% discounts when buying new cars. They’re well worth unlocking.

There is also an Online Roadtrip mode where you and your friends drive to a specific town; do it within the time limit and you can earn yourself extra experience points.

Another brand-new feature is the Bucket List, a series of challenges that you can do by yourself or co-operatively. Ranging from easy to really tough, they usually involve driving a car through a speed camera at a specified speed or above, or making it to a checkpoint in the allotted time. They can be quite hard but they’re also highly satisfying to get right.

Something to ponder

Forza Horizon 2 is one of the best racing games we’ve played this year, and the Forza franchise continues to set the benchmark for what racing video games should be all about. With that being said, while the graphics are stunning and the cars handle like they would in real life, no game is perfect and Horizon 2 has its share of peccadilloes.

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Happily, not looking good isn’t one of them.

The narration of the festival and all of the happenings are voiced by an NPC, Ben Green, who is – in the game’s lore – a former Horizon Festival champion. While we have no problem with someone explaining to us what we need to do, Mr Green seems like he has a slight case of verbal diarrhoea, as he never keeps quiet. He becomes rather annoying after a while, and worse, there is no way to skip his talking bits.

Using ANNA, the voice-activated GPS function, is very handy but it can also be problematic. While it’s really nice to get around without needing to take your eyes off the road, ANNA’s reliance on Kinect successfully understanding spoken commands means she doesn’t always respond as she should. We found speaking in an American accent helped, but it would be better not to have to.

By far, though, the biggest problem we have with Horizon 2 is that the tracks are repeated a bit too much for our liking. After going through the various championships, you start to memorise the smallest of dips, turns and lampposts. This is not necessarily a problem, but when you have over 300 roads to drive on spanning a huge area in southern Europe, one would expect a bit more variation than is delivered.

But even with those niggles, Forza Horizon 2 is truly one of the most enjoyable, graphically-intensive and fast-paced games to have been launched on the Xbox One so far. It is thus highly recommended to racing fans, Xbox One fans and anyone who likes copious amounts of eye candy, challenge and content in their driving games.

Game: Forza Horizon 2
Developer: Playground Games (XO), Sumo Digital (X360), both supervised by Turn 10 Studios
Reviewed on: Xbox One
Available on: Xbox One, Xbox 360

[Images – Microsoft]

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