Review

It all begins with a lie. After a quick drive up the coast to meet Tegs from Grange Hill – yes, it really is him – you opt to begin your first race. “This game features no A.I. drivers” comes the announcement, highlighting the fact that this game features the Drivatar system introduced in Forza Motorsport 5. This, in theory, means that you are always racing against virtual representations of other players. Fine, you might think. But not only did I find myself racing against people who hadn't played Forza Horizon 2 yet, but also against people who hadn't ever played a Forza game before. The game was simply pulling names off my friend list and creating characters automatically. Seems like the very definition of A.I. to me!

Fortunately, this is the last bad thing I can say about Forza Horizon 2, which is easily the best racing game I've played on the Xbox One to date. If not the best game, full stop. Since the day I got it, no other game has had a look in.

Just like the first game, this is an open-world racer centered around a fictional festival. This time the festival has moved from the USA to Europe, more specifically France and Italy. The scenery is never less than spectacular with rolling hills, mountains and fields as far as the eye can see. Invariably, if you can see it, you can drive to it. The first major new feature is off-roading - there was a very small amount of this in the first game but here you are constantly encouraged to leave the tarmac and venture across fields. Some really outlandish short-cuts can be discovered by the truly adventurous driver.

Off-road races now take up a fairly large percentage of the championship events and it must be said, these aren't as much fun as road races. It can be quite difficult to see where you are going without switching to an outside view of the car and plouging through farmland in a Lamborghini or Ferrari is more than a little unrealistic! However, whether you're drifting in an American Muscle car, bouncing across fields in a 4x4 or hugging the tarmac in an exotic sports car, the handling is always spot on. If you're someone who likes to get under the bonnet and tinker, then all the usual settings and options you would associate with the Forza series are here.

The developers have realised that having to drive back to the Festival in the centre of the map each time you wanted to buy a new car, upgrade your current one or collect a new wristband was too much of a chore. So in Horizon 2 the Festival now has six additional hubs around the map where you can do all of those things. The Championship structure means that you will cruise to new location at the end of each Event which is initially enjoyable but the sheer number of Events you'll have to play through eventually makes these road trips quite annoying.

As a solo experience, this is a fantastic game and it achieves everything that Test Drive Unlimited couldn't. It's the only racing game I've played where I can just sit back and relax as I drive. However, try to race online and the quality drops quite considerably. Playing over Xbox Live takes the form of Freeroam, Road Trips and Car Meets where I spent more time trying to set up events and looking a loading screens than I did racing. Furthermore, I could find no option to make lobbies private to race against just my friends, so we were always stuck racing against people who would rather crash into my car than try to take a corner properly! It's all far more complicated than it needs to be.

Visually this really is a treat. Aside from the scenery, which isn't quite as varied as it was in the first Horizon, the cars themselves look incredible. Add to that the variable weather effects (the look of rain on chrome has never looked so realistic) and night racing you have a game that is easily a match for Forza 5 in terms of looks. Playground Games have managed to maintain a smooth frame rate at all times.

I can't recommend Forza Horizon 2 highly enough. Driving fans should buy it immediately, if they haven't done already. I really really wanted to give it a 9, but the disappointing online options and surfeit of minor niggles have pushed it down to an 8.

About the Review

Platform

Microsoft Xbox One

Developer

Playground Games

Publisher

Microsoft Game Studios

Released

3rd October 2014