Forza Horizon 4 review

Reviewed on: Xbox One

“Don’t live the vacation of your dreams, live the life of your dreams”

That’s how Forza Horizon 4 begins, which, I’ll say right away, is the best racing game ever made.

Some may disagree with my opinion, but it’s undeniable how the Forza Horizon series has been evolving since its first title in 2012, bringing innovations and outdoing itself with every version: it’s as if it were competing with itself.

Forza Horizon 4‘s main novelty is the 4 seasons of the year, which change every 7 real days. Don’t think it’s just a skin on the map; it’s a total overhaul of the map and gameplay with every season. Try driving a Porsche on a track full of snow: it’s almost impossible!!!

Forza Horizon 4 throws you straight behind the wheel of a 2018 McLaren Senna while you cruise through Scotland. At first, the game takes you through the 4 seasons, to give you an idea of how the game will play out; but it’s short, until you reach the “Horizon Festival”. And here your journey begins: over the next hour, you’ll run several types of races and events, with several car classes; from cars that don’t top 100 km/h to supercars. It works like a prologue, until you reach the current season of the recurring week, and that’s when all the Online modes are unlocked. Here it gets even better: every 7 days, more specifically every Thursday, the game changes the season, with specific races, events, hidden cars and everything else the game has to offer. If you didn’t do something in autumn, and the season turned, it’s only a month away, friend!

You can play FH4 “offline” from start to finish; however, as soon as you start the game, you’ll be dropped into an open world, exactly the way you left off your last session, but with human players driving around and showing off their cars, each going about their own life. As you pass them you notice they are ghost drivers, but nothing stops you from going after them and calling them out, challenging them to a street race right there. If you want to disconnect from the world, or have some external problem, the game will be there, complete, with no problems. Only some modes won’t be available, like “Forzathon”, a sort of RAID, where everyone is invited to complete a series of objectives in co-op with everyone on the map.

GAMEPLAY

Forza Horizon 4 brings the same mechanics already implemented in Forza Motorsport 7, and they are more precise than in FH3: you feel more control of the car, even with more than half the assists on, and the more you tweak your gameplay to be realistic, the more you feel you’re really at the controls (or the wheel). The controller’s force feedback is increasingly explored: you feel the jolt of gear changes even more, especially if you play manual, and all the imperfections of the terrain.

The impression of the cars’ speed was also improved; something that was perfect in FH3, but Playground still managed to improve. You can go from a simple arcade experience to something closer to a full simulator. With that, a casual player can have just as much fun as a lover of the genre.

The game runs at native 4K and 30fps, or you can choose 1080p at 60fps on the One X; on the regular Xbox One, you’ll always run it at 1080p 60fps. Personally, I liked playing in 4K at 30fps more, but the game remains beautiful and fluid in whatever setting you prefer.

GRAPHICS / AUDIO

Well, here we have, in my opinion and that of many people I’ve been talking to who are playing it, the best-looking game of the generation; but not just beauty, also performance, level of detail and realism. It’s incredible how the tire tracks are left in mud, sand, snow and asphalt. How the game comes alive in spring, with colors that leap to your eyes. In winter, with all the snow across the map, you feel a more depressive mood, but not without a life of its own. In every season you feel the difference, each with its own beauty.

The cars are far more detailed, with better reflections. The game world is also very beautiful and very detailed. Every detail of both the vehicle and the scenery was carefully crafted by Playground Games.

As for audio, every fan of the franchise knows there’s nothing to change: all the sounds are very well represented, from 3-cylinder engines to naturally aspirated V12s. The soundtrack is much better than the previous ones; what was already good got even better, with better, friendlier DJs commenting on events all the time, cracking jokes and chatting with you. And of course with incredible voice acting from the team, all very natural, as is the GPS. There is a problem with the voice sync of your avatar in some animation moments, but since that’s not the focus of the game, it goes unnoticed. But of course an update could help with that.

CONCLUSION

Forza Horizon 4 is a game for lovers of the genre and non-lovers alike. It’s an incredible game for those who like cars, open worlds, and even RPGs, since it has many RPG features. Playground Games outdid itself once more, even beating the incredible FH3, which practically held a TOP 3 spot among racing games, and now Forza Horizon 4 presents the best racing game ever made. Although it needs improvements in some parts of the online (something that works, but can sometimes bother you when starting some matches).

Fun: 10
Audiovisual: 10
Gameplay: 10

Version tested on Xbox One X