Forza Horizon 4
Little Britain, big fun.
“It’s a spectacle of how beautifully your machine can push pixels around, shaming every other open world racer with its graphical prowess. ”
Ladies and gentlemen, we have only good news, if not the best of news: Forza Horizon 4 may be the most perfect driving and racing games going. It is the gamer’s game, boasting lush graphics and encapsulates the social nature of games.
Forza Horizon 4 is polished and generous in spirit, adding in new features and reworking familiar ones from every previous Horizon. It’s a spectacle of how beautifully your machine can push pixels around, shaming every other open world racer with its graphical prowess while showing off the depth and breadth of its systems. This is so very 2018, and yet rolling updates mean you will be kept entertained for a long, long time to come.
Horizon 4 is a social game, encouraging play with other actual humans whether in traditional competitive play, or – in a nod to MMORPGs – working towards a common goal in hourly events so you can score exclusive rewards. Rack up ‘influence’ – XP by another name – by watching other people’s streams on Mixer, and by broadcasting your own. Or, you can go totally solo if you want and still have a game that eclipses everything else on your console for sheer value.
Four hours in and you’re into the game proper where the changing seasons permeate the bulk of your experience. Every week, on a Friday or Saturday depending on where you live, the game shifts into a new season. It’s a clever and bold idea, forcing you to adapt to the altered landscape as you roam the map in freeplay.
Playground truly wants you to stay connected and engage with the world. Every hour on the hour, a Forzathon Live event invites all players on the map to one location and take part in a collective goal. Fellow racers are ghosts (thus cutting out disruptive, destructive trolling) and depending on the number of people who show up take a little under 10 minutes to wrap up before you’re given a reward.
Playground has iterated on its reward structure over the last few games, and knows how to tap into the collectathon with its systems. Wheelspins are back and amped up with the chance to score cars, cash and clothing for your avatar, while every car has a skill tree that buffs its capacity to earn rewards.
No matter how you play, Horizon 4 is as dramatic as you want to make it. Jump in a rally monster, leave your viewpoint on the bonnet or in the cockpit and you’ll feel the pressure of weaving a rally car through a forest while the trunks cast deadly shadows against the woodland, or pilot a hypercar down a freeway as the barrier flicks past while the needle on your speedo threatens to snap off as the motor yowls an opera of violence. Or you could spend your time tootling around the map in a convertible admiring the landscape.
Forza Horizon 4 is an ode to racing games. Playground has successfully infused the properly social DNA of MMOs into its racer, while never skimping on the handling model that makes their games so damned moreish and tactile. Anyone worried about series fatigue should feel relieved and embrace this fully. Do we have to spell it out for you? Get this, now.
Verdict
Close to perfection, this gorgeous racer is bursting with events and earns its place as a must-have.