Forza Horizon 4 (Review)

Usually when anybody gets into the 4's and the 5's of any series, things start to get stale. Sometimes you usually run into a same feeling game, or you wind up seeing games run into the issue of changing too much. For examples of the latter, look at Resident Evil between 5 and 6, or Halo 4 and 5. For the former, look at most of the CoD's that were released after Black Ops 2.

But with the Forza series, each one seems to get better. Though with Motorsport isn't much my style, as it focuses more on laps around tracks, as well as Nascar style racing, Horizon has been more my jam. Now Motorsport is done by Turn 10, Forza has always been done by a fairly newer studio, Playground Games. Playground Games was founded in 2010, and strung together by a team from tons of previous studios like Ubisoft Reflections, Bizarre Creations, Criterion Games, and many others. All the games to this date have been Horizon games, but with the open world racing game, each title has pushed the brand to new heights. Now I missed out on Forza Horizon 3, even though I wish I hadn't, but 2016 was a crazy ass year, one of the best IMO since 2012. So really, I'll talk about things I noticed were massively different from Forza Horizon 2, to Horizon 4.

The big change, was the introduction of the seasons. Now when I heard about the seasons, I thought they were saying that the seasons would change every 3-4 months, with the actual seasons. However, in the beginning, you'll experience all the seasons, as it fast forwards you being in Horizon for a year, before competition starts to ramp up. Over the course of that year, you learn about who you'll be doing races for, and also have a few story lines open up for you like being a "stunt driver" which is really cool. After you get through the beginning races, which should take you around 4-6 hours, you'll see that the seasons actually last roughly about a week, week and a half. With each season, brings new races, and new rewards to try and garner. Each season also looks, and feels much different, which is important, because if you don't feel like it's different, than what's the point? Each season is just so detailed, with the leaves floating in the breeze in fall, the snowstorms whiting out the roads, and the rain in the spring is spot on. Of course there are day and night cycles as well. Another big change is the #Forzathon events. Now it might have been something added in 3, but once again, I never got a chance to check out 3, so for me, it's brand new. Think Forza's version of public events from Destiny, or Alerts in Warframe or The Division's Dark Zone. You'll get 15 minutes with whoever shows up from the server, to try and complete 3 challenges. Some of them are trying to score points from drifting, some are scored from points in a speed trap, some might be points launching yourself off a ramp. There are about 5-6 different types of challenges that I've seen, if you can complete them, you'll score yourself Forza points. You can use those points to get additional wheelspins, sometimes on rare cars, sometimes on character items like clothes or emotes. These are fun enough, and I'd love to see them continue to evolve them, but time will tell.

So speaking of cosmetics, everything is earned in game, no M/T, which to me is fantastic, especially with the shitfest that was Forza 7 last year with lootboxes everywhere. Presentation is at an all time high, with winners doing an emote that you can unlock, and put on your character. You can also select from a preset of like a dozen or so characters to have, change your hair and clothes, and try your best to make them the best version of you as you can. However, I hope that if we ever get a Forza Horizon 5 some time in the future, I'd love to see us be able to make our own person. But the amount of stuff you can get for your created character is more than fine in this game. There are dozens upon dozens of items for you to unlock. Also, you have 400+ cars to unlock and customize to your liking, using either other people's designs, or creating and uploading your own. Credits are pretty aplenty too, and there are FAR more than enough things in the world for you to go earn them.

Graphically, this is the best looking Xbox One game out there, hands down. It's sad, because I don't think the game gets enough love EXCEPT from critics, but the games just get better and better. Even Forza Horizon 2 still kind of holds up. But some of the detail in the bricks and stones in the stone walls is amazing. The trees and leaves look so detailed, and of course, every car looks amazing. Specific places that you can take photos in front of look exactly like they do irl, recreated to perfection. The amount of detail, in my honest opinion, is even greater in this game, than Assassins Creed: Odyssey. Hands down. We can argue why that is, but this game just shows how much the creators really love what they do. The soundtrack is also one of the best soundtracks I've had since Burnout Revenge, which is still, to this day, my favorite racing game. Songs from The Killers, Chvrches, Foo Fighters, Underoath, I Prevail, Starset, Eyes Set To Kill, and so many other groups. You'll find something you'll like with the 6 stations to choose from. Everything visual and audio is just about perfect in this game.

My one small gripe, is that sometimes when racing off road you'll feel a bit floaty, no matter how much grip your tires have, or how high your handling is. It's like, the one thing that stood out in my mind, because everything else is just so tight and spot on. It doesn't happen often, and usually when it does happen, there is always the rewind feature. I finally started to get a grip on it in the end, but it's something you may notice when you're flying downhill. Otherwise, most of the games mechanics haven't changed much button layout wise, but it feels even tighter than it did in FH2.

Overall, this game is just a huge amount of fun. The issue with it, isn't the game itself, it's the genre. Most people don't look for a new racing game like they do a new FPS or survival game. The issue really is, it's not looked as a system seller, and more of the icing on top of the cake, which is sad. This game is great, and like I said earlier, is my second favorite racing game ever. My final verdict is...

9/10

It's a near perfect product. If they can just give us the ability to make our own avatars from scratch, and maybe continue focusing on giving more story/backstory than it could easily be a 10. But that's it for me on this review, I'm working on Assassins Creed, and of course, I'm wrapping up my thoughts with Black Ops 4. So you will see both of those later in the week, sooner rather than later. Til than, I'll see you guys soon.