Forza Motorsport is a good starting point for newcomers to the series
Forza Motorsport, among its headline features, proudly has more than 500 different cars in the game. Scrolling through them, it is clear to me that a tremendous amount of time and effort went into faithfully recreating these cars.
However, I have a confession: I'm not a car person. This piece is written from the perspective of someone who doesn't know a lot about cars at all. This is also my first Forza Motorsport game.
While the fact that the 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray or the BMW M8 GTE are in the game was lost on me, what Turn 10 Studios has done with the career mode sounded appealing.
Related: F-Zero 99 review
There is a heavy focus on building and customising your cars through an RPG-like system. In short, the Builders Cup has you race different tours across different car classes, and by being out on the track, you gain experience. Everything from overtakes to nailing a segment is rewarded.
By levelling up a car, you can spend points on performance upgrades, allowing you to improve areas like braking, handling, and acceleration.
The RPG elements provide an additional layer to the gameplay loop, which is actually quite ideal for an inexperienced player like me. If a race went poorly, that was fine — there was still overall progression for my car. There's just something innately satisfying in seeing the numbers go up.
As a result, it becomes a little bit easier to grow attached to the cars you use the most. As someone who has no interest in the different car brands and models, this is a welcome benefit that helps to set the vehicles apart in-game.
The underwhelming part is that any small improvements to a car feels rather insignificant. RPG elements are often at their most satisfying when you notice the benefits, but I couldn't discern the difference between, for example, a handling score of 4.1 and 4.3.
Long-time fans will be surely able to notice these differences, though — similar to how they will be the ones who will most appreciate the differences in how each individual car feels to drive.
For those people, the minute upgrades will likely feel good after shaving off a few tenths on a lap — and the same applies when it comes to maximising the performance of the car via tuning, adjusting things like the tyre pressure, camber angle, and spring stiffness.
However, what costs me the most time in a lap are basic things like mistakes, poor cornering, and inconsistency. Yet I was never frustrated, and that's in large part down to the very generous options available for difficulty and assists, which helped me to become comfortable with the game at my own pace.
Related: Bomb Rush Cyberfunk review
It's what a lot of games should be striving for. By providing more options for the player to adjust their experience, you're making the game more accessible for people who want to try something new and who are out of their comfort zone. These settings played a huge part in my enjoyment with Forza Motorsport.
The learning curve was far less intimidating than it could have been, as I was able to turn off assists one by one and slowly dial up the AI difficulty over time.
If there's one thing I would change, it would be to make rulesets more customisable. For example, there doesn't appear to be a way to play with simulated tyres and full penalties while keeping the rewind feature on, as far as I can tell.
On the plus side, Forza Motorsport has further accessibility settings including colourblind filters and screen narrators, as well as a wide variety of blind-driving assists for visually-impaired players (like steering guides and audio cues for turns and deceleration).
Everything else about the game appears to be solid as well. Importantly, the handling of the cars feels suitably weighty while being responsive. It's a lot more appealing going for practice runs — spending the time to learn a track and incrementally improving on lap times — when the driving itself is engaging.
There are 20 tracks here with multiple layouts, offering a decent variety, while dynamic weather, track temperatures, and a day and night cycle combine to make each race feel a little bit different to the last one.
It's a game that, I think, is newcomer-friendly and a good starting point if you've ever wanted to give the series or the sim racing genre a go. There will obviously be more to like for car fans, but this also comes across as a polished title that's considerate towards newer players.
I've enjoyed the hours I've spent with Forza Motorsport, and I can see myself going back and playing some more.
Platform played on: PC
Forza Motorsport is out on October 10, 2023 on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Game Pass. The Premium Edition allows early access beginning October 5, 2023.
You Might Also Like
