Forza Horizon 2 Review.
Developer Playground Games
Publisher Microsoft Studios/Turn 10
Platform Xbox One
Release Date 3rd October 2014
Forza Horizon 2 is the sequel to Playground Games & Turns 10’s Forza Horizon. Forza Horizon came out in October of 2012 on Xbox 360 and showcased stunning open world racing around Colorado. Frequent exciting battles between friends offered endless hours of entertainment and that is before you get on to collecting and tuning your cars. Forza Horizon 2 has surpassed all of the above.
Forza Horizon 2 is again an open world racing game set around the “Horizon Festival”. This time the festival has moved from Colorado to Europe (southern France and northern Italy). One moment you could be driving through Nice taking in the vineyards, the next you are crashing through a wheat fields or dodging bales of hay trying to get an edge on your opponents.
Once you boot up the game you are shown a live action trailer to set the tone and introduce the Horizon Festival. After this you are straight into the action, you are able to free roam around the festival or take part in one of 700 driving championships. Each is tailored to the type of cars you own. Unlocking new cars unlocks new race types. These races are varied and balanced to allow you to get the most out of the game.
The most fun for me was had with the showcase races, here you race against trains and planes. It offers an solid fun alternative to your standard race to the finish line against other cars.
Speed cams don’t dish out fines but rather collect your fastest times so you can compare against your friends.
Buckets lists is Froza`s way of breaking up the action and offering challenging tasks for you to complete
Every race and challenge you complete earns you Credit (Cr) which are used to further tune your ever growing collection of cars.
The experience system works as you drive recklessly, drift and weave in and out of incoming traffic. Getting enough experience will allow you to spin a slot machine for certain amounts of Cr or a free car. Every level up will award you with a skill point which will allow you to select a perk. Perks are bonus that can give you 10% extra reward on a clean race, fast travel and many more.
Dynamic weather is evident in Forza, from the scorching sun beaming on the car to the clear light of the night sky. Even just driving around the weather can change from a bright sunny day to a rainstorm. Rainstorms look beautiful and dangerous in Forza horizon 2.
Forza Horizon 2 has over 200 + cars ranging from vintage cars to hyper cars. Each car handles very differently to each other, from starting the car to steering. Each car you can select a paint design from the community.
Car damage, first you will lose a bit of the steering control with minor damage but rack up enough and you’ll see your windscreen cracks and lose top speed, however if this is not your thing you can easily change the car damage setting.
You are only a one button press from joining an online game, once you can join an online game it will give you a little timer at the top, so you do have a couple seconds to finish racking up your skill points in a drift etc before joining online.
In the free roam you can drive anywhere, or take a road trip with your friends to a location to start several races modes. We tested the multiplayer during the review and it was a lot of fun from infection mode to another road trip to another race and so on.
During your single player mode you can see you game populated with your friends drivatar. You can challenge any of your friends drivatar any time by going up to them and press “X”. At some points there will be a pro drivatar which you can challenge to gain more Cr.
The Menu layout is more stylish, where you can keep up to date with news, community events, bucket lists, wheelspins and many more.
Overall: Forza horizon 2 is greatly improved on the original game. Off road racing, beautiful graphics, 200+ car roster. If you love Forza 5 and the likes of test drive unlimited/need for speed then this is right up your alley.
Score 4/5
Please Join us on your Social Platform of choice
