Forza Horizon 3 is absolutely the bigger, better, more
badass sequel to Forza Horizon 2 that fans wanted. There is no doubt that it looks better and, maybe, plays better,
and the wealth of event types of fantastic, but longtime fans of the franchise
will also likely get a sense of déjà vu as the core of the experience has been
the same for three games now. It is
still great, don’t get me wrong, but we’ve done a lot of this before and the
thrill is fading a bit.
Of course, that feeling really only applies to grizzled
veterans like me with hundreds of combined hours with the first two Horizon
games. If you’re a Horizon newbie, on
the other hand, Forza Horizon 3 is a nearly perfect game that stands as one of
the best racing games of all time. And
even if you are a cynical Forza series curmudgeon like me, there is still
plenty to love here as it really is objectively better than previous
entries. See all of the details in our
full Forza Horizon 3 review here.
Game Details
- Publisher: Microsoft
- Developer: Playground Games
- ESRB Rating: “E” for Everyone
- Genre: Racing
- Pros: Looks gorgeous; 400+ cars; great feeling gameplay; event variety; best car sounds
- Cons: Not a huge leap over FH2; doing events twice … ; showcases are boring now
- MSRP: $60
FH3 takes place in a fantasy chunk of Australia where a big
city, rolling farmland, rain forest, and the outback are all within 5-minutes
of each other, but the unrealistic terrain layout gives you some great variety
in the scenery so it is easy to forgive.
Previous Forza Horizon games had you competing to be crowned the top
racer of the festival but Forza Horizon 3 flips things a bit and puts you in
charge of the festival itself. This
means you get to choose how the festival is build up and your progression
through the game. In practice, though,
despite being the boss you still end up doing the same stuff you did before –
winning races, doing PR stunts, etc. – so it doesn’t really bring a meaningful
change to the experience.
Similarly, the events you play through haven’t really
changed much either. The map is
littered with races – both checkpoint and circuit style – as well as PR stunts
that have you blasting through speed cameras or doing bucket list challenges
where you have to meet specific goals in specific cars in set time limits. There are also barn finds where you get a
hot tip on an abandoned car somewhere and have to go find it. Once you reach certain progression
thresholds you also open up showcase events where you race a car against a
fighter jet or a train or other crazy things.
And, of course, in between events you are free to roam around Australia
to explore, race head to head with other drivers, and generally goof off.
If you’ve played the previous Horizon games all of that should
sound familiar because we’ve done all of this before and, I have to admit, the
thrill is sort of fading. The showcase
events in particular, which were so unexpected and over the top and crazy in
Forza Horizon 1, are just plain boring now (especially when you notice the
severe rubber band A.I. that makes them almost impossible to actually lose
despite how close they seem). Bucket
list cars and barn finds have similarly lost their luster. I just don’t care anymore. The actual races themselves are fine, though
I’m not a fan of the game essentially making you run a lot of them twice – once
in an Exhibition and then again as part of a Championship series.
Forza Horizon 3 does do a few new things too,
thankfully. There are now drifting
challenges where you drift along set sections of roads for points and I like
the new PR stunts that have you flying hundreds of yards through the air off of
crazy jumps. I also really love the new
drone mode where you can fly a little drone all over to take photos and take
really dynamic videos of cars racing around.
You also now are tasked with building a team of skilled racers (from the
drivitars of your friends, of course) and their performance contributes to your
overall success, which is pretty neat.
Ok, time to drop the cynicism and start shouting Forza
Horizon 3’s good points from the rooftops.
The gameplay here is really, really, insanely good. The Horizon series just hits a perfect balance
of being a decently realistic driving sim – though dialed way, way back from
the actual Forza Motorsport racing series simulation gameplay – while also
being intuitive and fun to pick up and play for players of any skill
level. It feels incredibly good to play
and I love the wealth of options you have to make the game play however you
want it to. Want more of a sim
feel? Turn off assists. Want it to be easier? Turn assists on and tweak the A.I.
difficulty and other options. I love
that it lets you tune the experience to be whatever you want.
Not only can you customize the overall experience in Forza
Horizon 3, but you can customize and tune all 400+ cars as well. You can upgrade them all with new
performance parts and fine-tune a wide range of settings to get exactly the
performance and handling you’re looking for.
You can also customize the way they look with a fantastic livery
editor. If you aren’t patient enough to
make your own designs, you can also choose one from dozens and dozens of
designs other players have made. Being
able to wrap my car in silly anime girls or ponies or other ridiculous nonsense
is amazing.
I also can’t talk about Forza Horizon 3 without emphasizing
just how fun simply goofing off in the game can be. You are free to drive pretty much anywhere you want – including
straight through forests and farmland and over hills – and it is
incredible. Racking up huge skill point
scores just goofing off and jumping over mountains is awesome. Exploring is fun. Doing head to head street races with drivitars you meet on the
roads is a ton of fun. Just driving
around and breakneck speeds to see what you can see is extremely
enjoyable.
I think the above paragraph outlines what is the real secret
to enjoying Forza Horizon 3 fully, particularly if you’re perhaps getting a
little bored of the series staples like I am.
Don’t try to do all of the events at once. Don’t just rush from one thing to another. Take your time. Explore. Goof off. Don’t treat the game like a job you have to
finish ASAP. The key to the Horizon
franchise’s success is that it gives you the freedom to play however you want
and do whatever you want, whenever you want, so take advantage of it. That way you don’t get burned out. There’s a ton of fun stuff to do in Forza
Horizon 3.
The presentation is at the same time very, very impressive,
but also sort of a slight let down. The
cars all look amazing and highly detailed and perfect and Australia looks great
for the most part, though it is hard not to feel like big chunks of the
environments were lifted straight out of Horizon 1 and 2 which doesn’t help the
déjà vu I mentioned earlier. The new
rain forest section is pretty stunning, though, and it is incredible how dense
the foliage is. Lighting effects are
wonderful throughout and the water – in the form of rain as well as rivers and
lakes you can drive through – is fantastic looking. The fact the game runs at a locked 30FPS despite looking this
great is extremely impressive.
The sound is also very good as the Forza franchise has the
absolute best engine sounds in the entire industry. The cars all sound unique and realistic and just plain
great. The game also has a wide range
of radio stations to listen to covering several genres, though I’m not crazy about
the song selection. You can also make a
custom radio station with a Groove Music subscription, or you can use a
background music player on your Xbox One, though that doesn’t integrate into
the game seamlessly like Groove does.
When everything is said and done and the dust settles,
I can easily say Forza Horizon 3 is a great, almost perfect, racing game that
no race fan should pass up. The formula
is starting to wear thin, however, so I really hope that Forza Horizon 4 is
able to shake things up a bit, but until then Forza Horizon 3 still has a lot
to offer and is a ton of fun. It looks
and sounds fantastic, has an incredible list of fully customizable cars,
features lots to do, and offers some of the best pure racing gameplay you’ll
find anywhere. Forza Horizon 3 is
absolutely fantastic and well worth a purchase.