Courage is for a few: it really takes a lot to take something that works - like the previous chapter - and innovate it in many ways, as happens in Forza Horizon 4. The boys of Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios, not happy with the enormous success they had with the third iteration of their hybrid racing game, with tones halfway between simulation and arcade, they are ready to make the brand's open-world saga make the right leap towards a perennially connected generation to the internet.
The Principle
The game brings us back to playing the role of a participant of the Horizon Festival, a great event that this year was organized in Edinburgh and its surroundings. As always, the map is divided between huge expanses and cities, making the game experience - and the various races - different from each other. They come in Forza Horizon 4 the influence points, which represent a bit of the success that your character has within the festival: these will be necessary to unlock, as you advance in the game, the various seasons, the first big news of the title.
There are four seasons, and each brings numerous changes to the playing field: the muddy autumn and the humid spring will closely resemble each other in terms of dynamics, while summer and winter will change the various tracks to dry or snowy respectively. This will require the player a thoughtful choice of the medium, the set-up and the way to compete on certain tracks, changing the dynamics of the game from time to time (and multiplying the differences between race and race). If for the first four seasons you find yourself changing them by accumulating points, once you have finished a complete cycle - and completed the challenges at the limit of the possible between trains, planes and rafts - you will get to the heart of the game.
If until now, for about 5 hours, you have exclusively followed race after race, course after course, jumping from one season to another, after the first cycle you will enter the online world of Forza Horizon 4: every season it will in fact be managed by the online server, will be the same for everyone and will contain spectacular and unique challenges, but above all timed. These various championships, consisting of a few races, will lead you to have to make a thrifty choice of vehicle, set-up and upgrades: it will in fact be necessary to use the vehicle class and genre expressly requested, which will lead you to try always different cars.
The best driving game of recent years.
Accompanying the timed event mode there will be the various races, this time divided into 25 different types: you will go from classic street racing to rally racing, eventually arriving at drift, drag, or special missions such as stunts. Each of the types will have a level and, each time you go up, you will receive a specific reward. The prizes will also arrive when you go up in the generic level, leading you to accumulate vehicles, gadgets for your avatar or wheels of fortune: special tokens that will make you spin a wheel where you can win the most disparate prizes. All this will be managed through the houses (which can also be purchased via in-game credit) scattered throughout the game map, which will act as a hub for selecting and modifying vehicles, as well as changing the appearance of your avatar.
If all this is not enough, a post dayone update will allow players to create their own races, customizing the route, the type of vehicles to use and all the necessary details. The set of contents makes Forza Horizon 4 the best driving game of recent years, turning into a tribute to players who love the four wheels in all its nuances.
An online world
We have already talked about the seasons of Forza Horizon 4, but if those will shape the static online component, the dynamic part will be managed through the #FORZATHON Live, events that will appear randomly on the map and that will require 12 players, connected to the same server, to participate and carry out challenges together, accumulating points according to the requests made (speed, drift, skill). By completing the #FORZATHON Live and its challenges you will unlock Forzathon points, which will allow you to purchase special items on the #FORZATHON Shop (in turn with limited duration).
To conclude this online component, the system will manage the other cars with autoghosting, a feature that will avoid unnecessary collisions with rival vehicles (or companions). You can also talk to them through preset messages that you can unlock. With the other players you can also form teams and leave for the Team Adventures, competitions that you will play together with other players and that will benefit every single player.
In terms of customizing your avatar, in addition to being able to change the aesthetics through clothing that you can win with the various wheels of fortune or by completing levels of certain types of races, you can also choose which celebrations to perform in case of victory - mocking some of the most famous moves like the Whip Dance, by now you have almost become memes - or what messages you can send to your opponents / teammates. All the management of the other players will take place through clubs and rivals: if in the first case you will have group mates with whom to exchange advice and challenges, in the second case you will find players who, for one reason or another, have become your rivals and who you want continuously challenge in various disciplines.
In short, Forza Horizon 4 pushes the limits of the video game and takes you into a living world, made up of people and races. You will find your rhythm in there, and only you will decide what to do or not, whether to think about the most classic races or have fun with impossible challenges between 50s cars and trains.
Where the online ends up the usual ones Drivatar: digitized version of friends and playmates who will behave on the track like their real counterparts, making up for the usual monotony of AI in driving games in the case of single player.
Spoiled for choice
The game features approx 450 cars, from more than 100 different companies: each of these can be internally customized (selecting various types of components), externally (changing spoilers, bumpers or anti-roll bars) and also varying color and aesthetics (with designs created from scratch or imported from those of other players). If you can buy many of them, some will be unlockable only once you find their derelict: these will be legendary cars, and after finding them you will have to wait some time before they are dusted off.
Modifications will play a fundamental role within the various races and championships: especially when vehicle restrictions are high, the difference between victory and defeat will affect your ability to choose, such as whether to modify the traction of a certain vehicle, whether to set it so that it has a heavier weight and is less out of control, or if you need to ride a vehicle that immediately turns perpendicular to the first corner to take advantage of the drift.
All this depth, however, remains an unnecessary element for the completion of the game: the vast choice of difficulty will give you the chance to set Forza Horizon 4 however you want: if you prefer an arcade title, the game aids will allow you to think only of speed. If, on the other hand, you love technicalities, you can customize every single part of your vehicle, managing power, acceleration and stability. These selections will not be divided neatly, but you can play with the various options to transform your experience in the way that suits you best.
Technically, the game on Xbox One X has two options: the first, for those who love high resolution, allows you to play with a 4K, HDR and 30 fps, while those who want to experience true speed can run at 60 fps but at 1080p (always with HDR). Even if you don't have an Xbox One X, the details rendered in Forza Horizon 4 of British roads and typical buildings won't go unnoticed, given their beautiful workmanship. In the sound we find noises that all those who have seen a car race will recognize without problems, and radios divided by genre, complete with a station dedicated to old classics like Beethoven (great return after the previous chapter).
