Forza Horizon 4 Review: The Best Arcade Racer of This Generation
Our Verdict
Forza Horizon 4 takes the beloved arcade racing series to new heights with a stunning new open-world and countless activities, goals and play styles to go on you coming dorsum for more than.
For
- Living, breathing open world
- Myriad play styles
- Satisfying handling
- Gorgeous visuals
Against
- Confusing progression system
Tom's Guide Verdict
Forza Horizon 4 takes the honey arcade racing serial to new heights with a stunning new open up-world and endless activities, goals and play styles to keep you coming dorsum for more.
Pros
- +
Living, animate open world
- +
Myriad play styles
- +
Satisfying handling
- +
Gorgeous visuals
Cons
- -
Confusing progression system
The old adage goes that y'all tin can't be everything to anybody. Pleasing all of the people all of the time is incommunicable, a jack-of-all-trades is a primary of none, and if y'all desire to succeed, the secret is to do one thing really well — lest you lot spread yourself too sparse and lose the plot.
At this indicate, I've toppled seemingly every dry stone fence in the Forza Horizon 4's U.K. countryside, embarked on an epic journey from the Cotswolds to Edinburgh that wouldn't wait out of place on a certain BBC motoring show, slid and scurried across a frozen lake and bounded through the muck and mire of endless Welsh bogs. And if I'one thousand sure nigh anything, it'south that nobody at Playground Games has ever heard any of those tired aphorisms.
Forza Horizon 4 dreams big in a way racing games rarely do anymore. Certain, the map's massive and in that location are hundreds of endlessly modifiable cars, but what makes Horizon stand out isn't simply the breadth of its content — it'south the life of its world, and the understanding that you are in control of your ain destiny every time you step in information technology.
Forza Horizon 4 review: Your kingdom
While previous entries in Microsoft'southward arcade racing franchise have been gear up in Colorado, French republic and Australia, for the quaternary installment the Horizon Festival heads to the United Kingdom. At the outset, that choice might seem relatively unimaginative, merely very quickly you lot realize how it plays to the game's favor.
Kickoff, Warwickshire-based Playground Games isn't ashamed to admit that Horizon 4 isn't merely a love letter to the abode of motor racing — information technology's a love letter to home, period. The map is 52 square miles wide, which makes it about as large as Horizon 3'due south Land Down Under. Simply not a single space of this globe is wasted.
I was fortunate enough to spend a few months in Brighton while I was in college, and in that location's a certain familiarity to the environment Playground'due south created. But I don't think you need to have had an experience like mine to go that sense.
This is a lush, inviting world, with an attention to detail that I surmise could exist achieved just by people who take a deep understanding of the source material. Although I'm sure it's a somewhat arcadian version of the U.Thousand., it manages to stay authentic. There'south a thrill to blasting down narrow public roads, boot upward leaves in the fall every bit you slither through rolling greenish pastures dotted with cottages, castles and an excess of roadwork.
Ane of my biggest gripes with one of Horizon 4'southward contemporaries, The Crew ii, is that so many of your journeys in that game are spent on sleep-inducing highways between city centers. And once yous get to your destination, what you lot find is a Bizarro-esque approximation synthetic by aliens who have never actually been at that place. Horizon four thankfully avoids this trouble, partially considering its earth is better designed, and partially because players have to re-learn it every week in a sense, when the seasons change.
The map cycles through winter, spring, summer and fall on a weekly basis. It'southward a first for the franchise, and every transition brings major changes, both in aesthetics and in gameplay. Winter especially forces you to attack sure areas differently, as it functionally turns the surroundings into a gigantic snowfall rally. You might find that your McLaren Senna isn't quite every bit maneuverable when there's a layer of ice scrambling the friction between your rear tires and the road surface, and you'd be amend served with i of the many high-riding hot hatches that enthusiasts in this part of the earth tend to like so much.
Forza Horizon four review: Endless horizon
Eventually, you'll take to pull yourself abroad from the thrill of exploration, start earning some cash and begin plying your trade at the Horizon Festival. And, boy, there are then many means to ply.
Of course, you could run the festival-sanctioned events. But at that place are also street races on the open road, rally stages, cross-country raids, drift competitions and the like. And across all that, Horizon 4 allows you to moonlight every bit a stunt driver, a cabbie, or on one occasion, Master Primary himself.
Once y'all end the single-thespian prologue, the game thrusts you onto its always-connected customs. You'll casually pass other drivers while gratuitous-roaming, and Microsoft says the servers are equipped to handle 72 players in the same earth at once.
You tin partner upwards with a couple of friends and set off on squad-based adventures that offering serious prizes for completing common goals. There are Rivals events that mimic Driveclub's asynchronous challenges for fastest lap times, car clubs where players can congregate around shared passions, and an auction business firm where gifted artists volition find yet further ways to earn their dues.
Still you prefer to act out your automotive fantasy, Horizon 4 volition not only encourage you lot to do it just turn it into a trade. And while it's normal to find yourself a little overwhelmed every at present and and so, the game does a decent enough job of keeping you on chore when y'all desire to be, thanks to a digital assistant chosen Anna that tin exist summoned at a moment'due south notice to give yous an objective based on what you lot're looking to achieve.
Don't let the carefree vibe and flashy arcade thrills fool you, though, as Horizon four is needlessly complicated at times. Even when gratuitous-roaming, y'all accrue "Skill Score" — a form of experience that, as far every bit I can tell, builds up when yous do literally anything. Striking your top speed, your score increases. Pull off a drift, you go some more. Even running into things — something that requires literally no skill at all — rewards you lot with numbers that plug into other numbers and spit out Skill Points, which can be redeemed for perks on a per-vehicle basis.
Note that Skill Points aren't the same as Influence Points, something y'all earn past — amid other things — streaming on Mixer (how'due south that for shameless cross-promotion?). The PR Stunt challenges have their own currency as well, and, ultimately, if you do all the things, you level upward, which unlocks more than events.
The problem with being reinforced with a flurry of meaningless numbers for every trivial action is that information technology kind of devalues all your achievements. I finished 11th in one race, merely to be lauded by one of the event organizers for my finesse backside the bike, given a hefty sum of cash and somehow awarded enough XP to level upward. In those moments, it feels like the game just isn't listening.
Forza Horizon four review: Nailing the basics
My best communication to anyone starting out in Forza Horizon four is to simply ignore all of that mathematical noise. The game is set up in a style where yous physically cannot play information technology without progressing, so you're amend off strapping yourself into your favorite ride and letting the numbers sort themselves out.
In fact, I'yard confident your favorite car is in Forza Horizon 4, considering there are more than than 450 models available before y'all get to the DLC. And they run the gamut from '60s prototype Le Mans death traps to classic Ford hot rods, country-of-the-art hypercars, seemingly indestructible pickups and, of course, the tragic three-wheeled Reliant Robin. They all drive quite nicely, besides (well, except for the Robin), because unlike other arcade racers, Horizon'due south physics engine is built off the basic of Forza Motorsport'south expertly tuned handling model.
That doesn't make Horizon 4 the kind of punishing simulation that would intimidate Project Cars veterans, though information technology does mean you can somewhat tailor the feel to your preferred caste of realism. Rest assured, you'll never be dancing on a pocketknife'due south edge trying to control whatsoever of these cars. Nonetheless, there'southward enough feedback through the steering and nuance to the weight transfer that the physics all the same feel rich, rewarding and believable, even if they aren't necessarily realistic.
Ultimately, it's an experience that works because of its accessibility. The Horizon serial has long been one of those few racers that transcend the niche reputation of the genre and manages to exist universally entertaining. I can easily run across all of my friends flirting with the explorative nature of the game without the difficulty of taming those mechanical beasts turning them away. At the same fourth dimension, at that place's plenty depth here for seasoned drivers to get their kicks, also.
It helps that Horizon iv is a thoroughly beautiful matter, specially for an open up-world game. Playground cut no corners hither; every petty detail is a sight to behold, from water pooling in puddles on gravel roads, to the exquisite textures of the cars' interior trim, to the way trees filter sunlight when springtime hits. Y'all'll delight in the mode competitors block the projection from your headlights during nighttime races, and go entranced past the flares that mark checkpoints reflecting off all that sheet metal.
Forza Horizon four is locked at thirty frames-per-second on the standard Xbox One, just playable in two modes on Xbox One X. In that location'due south a "Quality" 30 FPS setting that outputs in native 4K, and a "Performance" lx fps option that scrubs some of the finer details for a faster frame rate. The game is playable on PC as well, via Xbox Play Anywhere. For this review, I used an Asus ROG Zephyrus laptop to experience the game on Ultra settings.
Additionally, information technology'due south important to note that Horizon 4 is included in Xbox Game Pass at launch, which is a huge boon for subscribers of the $10-per-month service.
Forza Horizon 4 review: Verdict
It wasn't long ago that Forza Horizon was the odd spin-off to Microsoft's gold racing franchise that seemingly came out of nowhere. 6 years afterwards, it's practically carrying the torch of the arcade racing genre single-handedly.
That's not to say there aren't alternatives out there, but regarding quality and quantity of content, the only racer that approaches Forza Horizon four is, well, Forza Horizon 3. This is the next "default" racing game — the championship anyone who has a passing interest in going fast should buy, and the benchmark that The Crew and Need For Speed volition keep to be weighed against.
Much like its predecessors, Horizon four earns that reputation because information technology does practically everything well. It works every bit a solitary experience but flourishes with a group. It's fun purely to drive, but likewise offers unparalleled customization for creative types, and an assortment of activities exterior of being commencement to the cease line. It'southward outgoing only never watered down. Quite but, Horizon four is whatsoever you want it to be.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/forza-horizon-4,review-5775.html
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