Thinking Five Steps Ahead In Forza Horizon 3

Saying goodbye to the French riviera of Forza Horizon 2 is bittersweet. With its coastal setting, it was the closest many of us had to a Western-developed Out Run. The shift to the wide open spaces of Australia in Forza Horizon 3 feels both necessary and sensible. It’s a prime setting for the series to expand to 4x4 racing. That itself poses its own unique tests. As the Ubisoft’s The Crew bluntly illustrated, open world off road racing presents a Pandora’s Box of difficulties. It’s not just a matter of anticipating an incoming corner, it’s also about approaching a dirt hump at the right angle in order to stick a manageable landing. It’s about thinking seven steps ahead rather than three. If you’re off just by a couple degrees, falling well off the track is not an unheard of scenario. Playground Games has their work cut out for them; it needs to load the 4x4 races with challenges while also being forgiving in the right places. At least it will still have the series’ rewind feature.

When you’re driving around the main landmass of the Australian continent, you can be sure that you’ll have your share of modern urban environments, deserts, spacious caves, jungles, romantic beaches, and highways. Microsoft’s E3 demo had a similar degree of variety, starting with its sampling of vehicles: a Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4, a BMW M4 coupe, and a Ford Shelby GT350R. Taking the BMW down an Australian highway was unsurprisingly as familiar as tearing through the asphalts of the prior Forza Horizons. Along with a scenic dam, the route smoothly transitioned into a dense, yet non-hostile jungle. There’s also a heli-transport carrying a car in the distance, presumably in the midst of another race. This little touch help emphasize an open world rich in activity. And similar to prior Forza Horizons, you’re persistently rewarded for your skills, whether you’re logging high MPH through a speed trap or deftly drafting a car. It underscores one of the series’ biggest draws, about how Horizon loves to congratulate you for playing well without you needing to set goals ahead of time.

Playground Games is also looking to ratchet up the series’ absurdity. As a callback to the airplane races of the previous installment, Forza Horizon 3 has you race the heli-transport as well as the jeep it’s carrying. Silliness begets silliness as the transport waited until the last 50 yards of the race to drop the jeep on the track. From a real world perspective, it’s a preposterous way to race, but that’s not the point. The series’ reputation for not taking itself seriously is now a trademark.