I’ve been dying to slam this game since it was announced. The original Forza Horizon was mediocre and Forza 5 was a huge disappointment in almost every aspect of the game. That being said, Forza Horizon left a favorable impression on a majority of the folks who played it, and Forza Horizon 2 is one of the most highly anticipated racing games of the current generation. Have I been too harsh on Playground and Turn 10? I have put my prejudice aside and have given the newest Forza game a clean slate.
Unsurprisingly, Forza Horizon 2 starts off almost the same as the first game. The player arrives at the Horizon Festival, this time set in the Mediterranean instead of Colorado, and is greeted by Seth Green’s British twin. The drivers race to the festival hub, which serves as a free fast travel point, car lot, upgrade garage, and paint shop. The festival is tiered like the first game, with colored wristbands marking the player’s progression towards the finale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XZGHw2__0E[width=650,height=366]
Road Trip
Playground has progressed the Horizon series like it should be done: removed what doesn’t work, enhanced what was good with the original, and tried out some new things. Horizon 2 features several satellite hubs in different cities near the Mediterranean and has incorporated roadtrips between these cities as part of both the single player and multiplayer experiences. Drivers are given a time limit to travel between cities, which rewards XP if successful. Once at the satellite hub, the player participates in a four race championship in their choice of car types (hypercars, modern muscle, vintage racers, etc) with races scored on a point system. Whoever has the most points at the end of four races wins the championship and the cars race to the next city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gif393KN83U[width=650,height=366]
Once the player has won fifteen championships, he or she can participate in the finale: an epic point to point that traverses the map and nearly every type of terrain and weather in the game. The winner of the finale is crowned champion and goes at it again, this time with British Seth Green participating in the racing.
Slinging Some Dirt
The most welcome change and attractive part of Horizon 2 is the nearly unrestricted free roam. Drivers can bust off of any road and traverse nearly the entire map. River beds, vineyards, farm land, forests, gravel, dirt, and grass are all accessible at all times. No place is safe from the destructive will of Horizon participants.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMtbrTrYxjs&list=UUeUIaIHNJKlpTBo0iXuaLA...
A great deal of the racing is centered on off road events, but not necessarily restricted to rally or AWD monsters: if you participate in a championship with your priceless vintage Ferrari or Bugatti Veyron, you are just as likely to run that bitch in an off-road race as you are with a Subaru or Bowler.
A Little Something on the Side
Playground has preserved the idea of the showcase events: side events that pit the driver in a race against jets, trains, cargo planes, and even hot air balloons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNgj1MIzXPY&list=UUeUIaIHNJKlpTBo0iXuaLA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lowRyWZVSg&list=UUeUIaIHNJKlpTBo0iXuaLA...
Another little side slice of fun are the bucket list events. These challenges range from hitting a certain speed in a McLaren or Koenigsegg through a speed trap, piloting a rally car through a forest at night, catching air in a GT-R or classic Dodge Hemi, racing the clock cross-country in a Bowler, and reaching a destination within a certain amount of time in a particular car. My favorite was racing a classic Ferrari 250 GTO down a winding Italian coastal road...the LaFerrari challenge was a close second.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MwvJcVt83o&list=UUeUIaIHNJKlpTBo0iXuaLA...
Multiplayer games have returned and are part of the online multiplayer roadtrip. One of the four events in the road trip will be King (Keep The It) or Infection, etc. While these games aren’t necessarily new to Horizon, they have been incorporated brilliantly into the structured multiplayer part of the game.
The Nuts and Bolts
The most surprising part of Horizon 2 is the similarity to Forza 5. Nearly all of the upgrade and tuning options from Turn 10’s current gen offering are available in Horizon 2, making it the deepest arcade racer ever developed. That being said, the arcadey driving style and forgiving physics render tuning almost unnecessary, and cars with my Forza 5 tunes on them handled nearly identically to their untuned twins.
The list of cars is equally impressive, sporting as many cars as Forza 5 had at launch...just over 200. Most of these are copycats from Forza 5, but there are a few gems that are unique to this game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McJFfxo8E2Q&list=UUeUIaIHNJKlpTBo0iXuaLA...
Like Forza 5, Horizon 2 is populated with Drivatars. If you have a friend that has played either current Forza game, then they have a Drivatar somewhere in the game. You can challenge these Drivatars to races, and then post the results on YouTube. Good times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqGN7pcrstg&list=UUeUIaIHNJKlpTBo0iXuaLA...
You Knew It Was Coming
There are always drawbacks to an arcade style racing game, and Horizon 2 has not dodged every cone in it path. Every driver looks identical, which really kicks the creepy factor up several notches at the start of a race. The radio channels are numerous, but all of them play shit music geared for a much younger audience than the old man writing this review. Horizon 2 also has a limited shelf life: yeah, it’s fun to play and the racing is great, but it doesn’t have the longevity of a sim racer. However, the impressive multiplayer modes and side missions will give it a second life of sorts after the single player is complete, but most folks will not be playing it a year from now.
Horizon 2 is also chock full of embarrassing glitches, pop-up, and server issues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHI0bsDMHGU&list=UUeUIaIHNJKlpTBo0iXuaLA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p6kxevTQ3c&list=UUeUIaIHNJKlpTBo0iXuaLA...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGkV1L9w4Ek&list=UUeUIaIHNJKlpTBo0iXuaLA...
Sarcasmo Says
Forza Horizon will never be the definitive racing game, but it was never meant to be. Horizon 2 delivers a visually stunning and accessible racing experience set in one of the most gorgeous corners of the planet in some fucking bad-ass automobiles. It’s better than TDU2, better than any NFS or Midnight Club, and better than Grid or Dirt. It kills me to say it, but Horizon 2 is better than Forza 5. This is probably the best arcade racer I have ever played. Forza Horizon 2 has earned our highest rating.
