Monday, February 22, 2016

Forza Horizon 2 (Xbox One) Review


Forza Horizon 2 is an open world car racing simulator that was released on the Xbox One by Playground Games and on the Xbox 360 by Sumo Digital on September 30th 2014. This is the second game in the Forza Horizon lineup which is different than regular Forza racing where in this game you are attending a car festival (very similar to the one in the original Fast and The Furious movie) with an open world map set in France.




This game gives you lots of different choices besides standard racing including setting a high speed while driving past cameras, driving up on a car you want to race and challenging it and even finding barn finds to get restored.

VEHICLES:

There are over 200 different vehicles in this game and most of them are free. This game has everything; classic muscle cars, 90's rally cars, hot hatches, modern sports cars, off road vehicles and track day vehicles like the Ariel Atom. If you're even remotely into cars you'll find something you'll love to drive. Every car also has a full realistic dash board. I usually drive with a third  person  car view but after trying it out I enjoyed it and did pretty well using it.



TYPES OF RACES:

There are a couple different styles of races in this game. You get the normal ones like complete a handful of laps, race from point A to point B and off road races. All the races are around the same time length, usually no more than four or five minutes which helps you get driving different cars quicker.
Off Road race in my Merc

Road Trips - The game has six different locations on the map and each has 28 different challenges for you to drive in. When you complete a set of races you pick a new location and then you race to the location with other drivers for fun and points.

Bucket List - These races are just what they sound like. Some examples are drift a Ferrari Enzo in the rain, wrestle a Shelby Cobra 427 to 155 mph and escape to the country in a Mclaren P1. You'll find bucket list challenges located around the world. Each one has a specific car and a specific goal for you to complete it.


DRIVATAR:

In my opinion this game is worth it purely for the Drivatar. In this game you do not race against any computer controlled players. Instead you drive against real life players Drivatars. When you start the game the computer learns how you drive and create a Drivatar for you. Once that's done if you're friend plays the game they will race against your Drivatar which drives exactly how you race. Every single car in the game is run by a Drivatar, no computer drivers. If non of your friends have played the game you'll be racing against stranger's Drivatars, I do not know how these are decided. If you're a dirty driver who smashes into every car in a race your Drivatar will do the same.



Besides making each race more authentic and exciting it can create some funny encounters. Numerous times during a race you'll see someone just crash in a very hilarious manner, something you'd never see with a regular computer controller racer. When you're driving between locations and not in a race you'll see cars crashing into stuff, drifting or doing donuts, and driving everywhere except the roads.

PRESENTATION:

This game looks phenomenal. Everything from the locations to the cars to the weather look amazing. The game has a day and night cycle that looks very good. It also has rain at times that looks very realistic and also makes the cars handle like how they would in real life in the rain.

The game has a bunch of radio stations to listen to while driving. I hated them all, and usually put on either classical or silence. The music just wasn't for me. One thing I did find odd was that the game starts you out with three different radio stations and completing races unlocks more to listen too. I found that very weird.

The cars can take damage and it looks very lifelike. Unfortunately it doesn't affect the handling of the car which I found a bit disappointing since in Forza it does.

Here I am demonstrating excellent driving skills in a sweet GNX

Another thing I found a bit weird is when your side windows are damage they crack like the windshield which isn't what would happen in real life. The windshield is laminated so in an accident you don't have shards of glass flying into your face which is a good thing. Side windows aren't laminated to keep prices down so when they break they shatter. This is just nitpicking on my part but when I was driving around I knew there was something wrong and it took me a bit to figure out what my brain was trying to tell me.

Here's my Ford GT-40 getting slammed into by a horrible driver


DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT:

Here's where my biggest issues come from. I understand DLC and it wouldn't be problem for me it's just the way it's integrated. You can buy a single car for $2.99 or 6 cars for $4.99. It seems almost stupid to just buy one car when you can get 6 for only two dollars more. The problem is you can't pick and choose the cars you want. Each pack had one car that I wanted and I would have purchased a six pack if I could choose what I got. Instead the makers of the game got nothing from me.

The game also has two DLC expansion packs that are more than just cars. One is called Storm Island which has new races in extreme weather like tropical storms and thick fog. It also comes with six new vehicles to drive, a new barn find, off road upgrades and 24 new championships for $19.99. Not too bad of a price for what you get.

The other expansion pack is the Porsche Expansion. In the regular game you cannot buy any cars by Porsche but you can buy RUFs which is an aftermarket company that takes real Porsches and modifies them. I don't know what is up with Porsche and not playing with the other kids because it was the same way in the original Gran Turismos on the PlayStation 1. For $9.99 you get 10 Porsches to drive, 10 Porsche Bucket Lists challenges and 10 Porsche Rivals challenges. It's not too bad of a price for what you get it just seems a little grimy to me. I'm not sure about the Porsche Expansion but the Storm Island Expansion is only for the Xbox One.

There are a couple of specific car packs like the Fast and the Furious pack which gets you the iconic cars from the movies.

I found a golf course and decided it needed donuts


SUMMARY:

I'm a very big car fan and car racing game fan who's played many different racing games over the years and I can safely say that this is my favorite racing game off all time. The cars handle well, sound great, look even better and I enjoyed having cars driving all around that you can race. This game is worth it just for the Drivatar. I enjoy the regular Forza style racing games but I just loved this game. The only thing keeping it back for me was the music and the exclusion of Porsches in the regular game keep this from being a perfect 10 so I'm ranking Forza Horizon 2 a 9 out of 10!


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