Doing so requires you to endure some loading screens given the inroads made by games like Need for Speed: Rivals, it's disappointing that the single-player progression and online racing aren't better integrated. You may also conduct road trips with friends or strangers. It's difficult to tell just how well Drivatars mimic the behavior of their real-time counterparts, but given the aggressive approach of a friend's Drivatar-a friend that drives in a similar way in direct races-I'd say that's a good sign. As you rush from one destination to the next, you're accompanied by AI representations of your friends called Drivatars. Luckily, a good road trip can put you back in the right mood. It happens as you crisscross the open worlds as well that sudden roadblock can put a real damper on the fun, given how little warning there often is. It's here that Forza Horizon 2 gets in its own way, encouraging you to rush over hills and through meadows towards your destination, only to throw that all-too-common knee-high stone fence in front of you. Races take you off the pavement and into the fields and dirt, where you must learn new ways to control your mount. There are places to enjoy the open road, but in festival races, the fun comes not from the breeze rushing through your hair, but from the tension of a demanding course, and the resulting relief of having effectively manipulated a two-ton machine into winning position. Horizon 2's liberal rewind system allows you to erase silly mistakes during this process. The easy-ish AI doesn't put much pressure on no, it's the car/track system that you overcome, not the computer drivers. The curvy, multi-terrain tracks require a subtle touch and forward thinking. It's not a difficult vehicle to come to grips with, however-not like the Ariel Atom 500, an extreme track toy whose lightweight slipperiness demands the utmost patience and finesse.Īnd thus we return to the taming of the beasts. Even a seemingly unimpressive vehicle like the Subaru WRX STI has its delights I'm in love with the common but irresistible pops from its exhaust.
The credits you earn as you race and explore the overworld come in quickly enough to ensure you can usually afford the vehicle you require to compete, and many activities, such as the bucket-list challenges that have you catching air for points or drifting with abandon, temporarily provide you with the car you need, free of charge. This is the life! And what a life it is, to give you access to so many wonderful vehicles. You pass one hot air balloon after another while an operatic aria warbles from the soundtrack. You're speeding alongside a hypertrain, or accompanied by roaring fighter jets. The festival's showcase races are even more exultant. Planes (not pictured), trains, and automobiles. "Cars are awesome and you're awesome!" proclaims Forza Horizon 2, with so much earnestness that you can't not believe in its confidence. At festival hubs, laser lights flash across the sky, ferris wheels brighten the horizon, and throngs of celebratory crowds cheer your arrival loudly enough to provide lift to the helium balloons hovering above. The chatty narrators grow tiresome in their attempts to hype you up, especially considering there's no real reason to do so: Horizon 2's atmosphere bursts with adrenaline and enthusiasm. You're here to participate in the Horizon Festival, a typical driving-game framing device that leads you from one race to the next, and puts you in control of one car class after another. Victory in Horizon 2 is sweet not because you beat the other racers, but because you and the vehicle overcame your differences.Īs in its predecessor, the game's tracks are carved out of an attractive open-world, this one based in the French and Italian countrysides. And once you wrestle this hulking creature of steel and fiberglass into submission, it is yours to command. You aren't going to be hugging curves in that Camaro, but you can drift sweetly into them, after all. Like any game with the Forza name, this one understands that to appreciate the joy of racing, you have to first know the animal, hear it purr, and know what draws its ire. Of course, cars like this aren't meant to just be ogled: as beautiful as they might be, both in real life and in the remarkably attractive Forza Horizon 2, they are wild metal beasts, and you are their tamer.