From loading up Forza Horizon to finishing the game to write this review I have loved nearly every minute of the game. The game offers a great competitive single player and multiplayer and due to this Forza Horizon is the best driving game out on the market at the moment.

Forza Horizon’s single player is an open world race festival which sees you race through several categories to gain entry into an 8 car race to be crowned king of the Horizon festival. The open world nature of the game is the best portion of single player as you can simple just drive around a large area of Colorado in both day and night. As you drive around you can challenge fellow Horizon racers to one-on-one racing for credits which are used to buy cars and upgrades; choose which race to enter which are either point to point races or circuit races; take part in sponsor challenges which include doing drifting, passing, and more; Star showdowns (these happen when you complete a category); Find hidden cars; compete in showcase events which see you racing against choppers and bi-planes; racing for credits in street races; If driving around to events isn’t your thing there are quick travel point to help you get to your location quicker.

Races are fun and challenging with cars not exactly being easy to control as you have to make sure you don’t over drive the car and lose control. The AI of competitors is great as they don’t give up easy and make it difficult to pass and they are also prone to making mistake just like you would be. In races you can also rewind time which means if you make a mistake you can rewind time and start from a point where you think you should be able to not make the mistake again. When you complete a race you receive credits and additional credits with a mileage bonus, bonus for beating a star, and a bonus % depending on the difficulty you are in.

Finally there are the upgrades and the cars. Upgrades are boring and all they do is upgrade your car to the next racing category. They don’t allow you to make in-depth changes to the car, so if you like customizing cars in games this game doesn’t provide it. For upgrades you can get discounts by driving into upgrade signs which is handy and if you break all 100 signs you get 100% discounts. In terms of cars there are large amount of licensed cars including the likes of Volkswagen and Lamborghini. Cars in the game aren’t exactly easy to control as I said above which is great, so some cars with less powerful brakes will require you to break earlier and cars with weaker launches will require you to be more careful with your revs as a race starts.

With a great single player, the online multiplayer might not be able to live up to it, but Forza Horizon’s multiplayer is just as good as the single player.

The multiplayer gives you a choice of 5 playlists which include: Beginners, social racing, veteran racing, pure skill, and playground. Beginners is for those new to the series and racing games, the difference from social to pure skill is the options open to you, social allows you to select your car and upgrades while pure skill allows no upgrades or car selection. As for the last in the playlist ‘playground’ this playlist is full of enjoyable games to play which include: cat & mouse, infected, and king.

The multiplayer has a levelling system, but it doesn’t appear to mean anything as your car selection comes from the cars you own in the single player and if you need to buy cars in multiplayer you can use the credits from your single player campaign too.

The online races from what I saw are all point to point races and people can drop in and out of races. Completing races provide experience instead of credits and just like at the end of a single player races experience is handed out depending on your finishing position, mileage bonus, player multiplayer (this means you get a bonus multiplier depending on the number of racers example 7 racers will give you a x4 multiplier), and finally there is a skill multiplier which gives you extra experience for doing skills such as drifting etc.

If competitively racing wheel to wheel against other people isn’t your thing then the playground might be for you. The playlist is just a set of game types where you can sit back and enjoy relaxing games. King is a game which requires you to try and stay king the longest and when you are king you have to avoid other cars because the car that crashes into you becomes king, the person who stays the king the longest when time runs out wins. Infected is another fun game which sees you trying to avoid infected cars which when they hit you make you infected, the last car that isn’t infected wins. Finally cat & mouse is a circuit race where the cat must stop the mouse from completing 2 laps, there are 4 cats and 4 mice drivers and while the game is fun it is rather difficult and likely best played with friends.

On the last positive before I talk some negatives is the fact the amount of work Turn 10 studios put into the game feel like it was in the real world. The game has three in-game radio stations featuring real world music which are played by Rob da Bank, renowned BBC Radio DJ. There is also real world companies are also in the game with the likes of Adidas, Rockstar energy drink and more.

Now all the positives are done here some non specific negatives I saw. There are two noticeable negatives which are texture pop ins on some buildings, this didn’t happen too often but when it did it was rather noticeable, the second negative is the fact some objects you think you might be able to crash through such as bushes are treated as solid objects.

SCORE: 90%

Forza Horizon is a must play for any racing fan with a great open world single player and enjoyable multiplayer which combine both competitive and fun events.

Forza Horizon Information

Developer: Playground Games
Publisher: Turn 10 studios-Microsoft Studios
Genre: racing
Rating: 12
Platform: Xbox 360
Release date: out now
Website: http://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/FH/

[Show slideshow]