Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Disappointing"

Forza Motorsport - Microsoft's answer to Sony's iconic racing sim series Gran Turismo, does a spin-off from its traditions of track based, purely-realistic driving in favor of an open-world adventure the likes of a Test Drive game.

So can this legitimately be called a Forza game? Yes and no. Basically, Turn 10 was the overseer of this game's development, while Playground games called the shots. You will find many of your favorite rides from Forza Motorsport 4, including your share of Ferraris, Lambos, and muscle cars, while bringing back some of Forza 4's best DLC cars in the form of the Hennessey Venom, Ultima GTR and Ford SVT Raptor. All together, there are a competitive selection of cars for this open world - based on Colorado, but not as deep as previous entries. The graphics, while featuring breath-taking textures, may focus a little bit too much on scenery - the cars don't look nearly as sharp as they do in the last Forza, and the game, which runs at 30 frames per second, may present itself rather jarring when compared to the smoothness of 4's 60 fps.

The car mechanics, while acceptable to most, are by no means completely realistic - they are meant to be more accessible to the average gamer. By that note, the game, in a most stark contrasts to the seriousness of previous entries, is rather Americanized. If that conjures up memories of the DiRT games, you are right on the money - a female announcer (yes, she may annoy the crap out of you) is accompanied by some of the very music heard in DiRT 2.

The single player campaign lets you free roam as you please (following the intro races), driving around what is a rather scenic world. You will find ranches, dirt roads, bridges, freeways, and towns to drive around. The game world is, say, considerably larger than GTA IV's Liberty City, but nowhere near that of Test Drive Unlimited or Just Cause 2. The 'campaign' features your typical series of races against other drivers, as well as more creative gimmicks such as racing an airplane, a hot air balloon, and a helicopter. Some of them can provide a thrill or two, but in the end you'll just merely do the campaign to get it done (and the achievements that follow).

The multiplayer (which is your most likely reason for getting Horizon) contains many of the game modes you would find in the DiRT games, or more specifically Forza 4's additions. Sadly, it's only up to 8 players, discontinuing 4's ambitious attempt at 16-player online. You will find your typical point-to-point and circuit races, but also Cat and Mouse, King (where you try to keep the "it" as much as possible), and Infected (where you try to avoid colliding with an infected car). The latter two of those modes are played in open areas (unlike on a race track), which is more fitting, and can be rather fun at times.

You can also free roam around the map with your up to seven buddies. While you may find your share of enjoyment just cruising, and many challenges compel you to work together to complete tasks, there is one rather major caveat: NO AI TRAFFIC. That's right, the bystander traffic driving around during the single player game is not available on multiplayer. So if you want to have chases around traffic with your buddy, I guess you're gonna have to wait for GTA V.

The paint shop returns, and is about identical to Forza 4's, so the interface should easily be picked up on. There's also a feature to use the vinyl groups from your Forza 4 game, which can be quite useful and time-saving. But while you can take pictures of your car, there is no replay save feature that proved ideal in 4. And given the lack of detail on the cars, it's a feature you just might overlook.

In the end, Forza Horizon is a decent, if not half-hearted attempt to bring Forza to open world driving. Looking past the game's shortcomings, namely car textures, the lack of AI traffic in multiplayer free roam, and the arcade-like feel of the game, there is still considerable fun to have in Forza Horizon. But if you're looking for a racing game to go down in legend, you'd best be waiting for future titles, namely GTA V or Forza 5 - should the latter come out later next year as expected.