A beautiful looking game with some impressive race locations that also aims to make the experience social

Sep 19, 2014 09:56 GMT  ·  By

Forza Horizon 2 might be the game which will show what the Xbox One home console from Microsoft can deliver in terms of visual quality this fall even if the focus should be more on the racing action and on the included social elements.

The teams at Playground Games and Turn 10 are aiming to deliver a title which really manages to up the adrenaline level of the players as they go both on and off the road in order to earn rewards and win races and then move to a coastal North Italy track in order to race some airplanes.

The first impression of Forza Horizon 2 is that it looks beautiful, even when live action festival shots, totally unnecessary in my opinion, are mixed with shots of the supercars included in the game, and the impression continues through all the races included in the demo.

A simple handling model

Forza Horizon 2 is not a racing game that aims to deliver realism or complex recreations of real-world tracks, because the spin-off series has always been more interested in fast driving and in impressive environments.

The handling model is easy to understand and to use and the included vehicles do have personality and tend to challenge the player when it comes to control, especially when moving down narrow roads at top speed.

The off-road sections are spectacular, even if players need to stretch the limits of their suspension of disbelief when their cars collide with huge bales of hay, and the race against planes shows a disregard for logic that could make the full release a true festival.

Drivatar and social elements

Forza Horizon 2 also includes the Drivatar that was first seen in Forza Motorsport 2, and the models based on other players work well, with plenty of moves designed to stop the player from reaching the number one position, from which they can then control the race.

The game always delivers rewards for gamers, basically complementing them on all their moves during a race, and there are rivalries that develop and gamers are encouraged to try and top the times of their peers on tracks designed for speed.

At the moment, the biggest draw to the new racing title is the way it looks and it will be interesting to see how the rest of the mechanics coalesce when the full version is out.

Forza Horizon 2 will be launched on the Xbox One on September 30 and at the moment gamers can pre-order a variety of versions of the game which include a VIP pass and a Car Pass, which covers extra content that will be introduced after launch.

Forza Horizon 2 Images (10 Images)

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