Developer: Turn 10 Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Platform: Xbox One, PC
Tested on: Xbox One
Forza Motorsport 7 – Review
When someone asks you for a fun racing game that feels real, chances are the first that will come to mind is Forza. As a powerhouse that started on the first Xbox console it has made many fans over the years, it is a well-known series for car enthusiasts that like to drive and customize their vehicle. After the showcase at E3 many gamers were left baffled with the initial presentation of the amazing graphics and gameplay. Now we have our hands on the actual game and can’t wait to tell you in-depth about how it turned out.
Story
In the world of Forza 7 there are six holy cups that only the best racers will be able to collect. Each one of these will prove your worth as a driver and along with the prizes you win you must stride for the ultimate goal: get the Forza Drivers Cup. On your way there it is also important to become the large car collector to build up your driving reputation because you cannot be king in only one car. Progress feels well: not too slow or too fast. Some races need to be unlocked by having a certain level, and not all the events need to be cleared in order to progress.
Graphics
During its debut on E3 many gamers were amazed by the graphics, shown in 4K, during the presentation. These were only improved since then and the attention to details remains in each iteration. To talk about this graphical prowess, we must start with the functional dashboards inside the vehicles. While not always fully working, each of them are very detailed and easy to read. In a race game, driving with many opponents can sometimes lead to little accidents. Beautifully made bodywork damage gives you a little sinister smile when you harm your opponent and see him pulling up at a later stage with their battle scars that you inflicted. Another fine aspect is the improved weather elements, it makes the game that more realistic. Rain reacts very organic like it would when you’d be driving in the open.
Sound
For years Forza has been known to have some great sounds, from the enjoyable driving music to the amazing sound effects. The music has been toned down since last versions and in this one Turn 10 decided to cut the music in races altogether. In the menus a bland generic theme plays and this does not really increase the mood for speeding. Vehicles themselves still sound great with the details clearly played out. Another new feature are the many voiced parts in menus talking about the events and things the famous drivers did in their days, or hand out tips to the player.
Gameplay
Forza 7 is a racing simulator with a very large repertoire since the first title dates back from the original Xbox. The key behind the success of this series is the realistic driving engine and the ability to fully customize vehicles to stand out in the crowd and to give your ride some serious attitude. Those building blocks did lose some of their charm when you notice that the customization is pretty restricted in this title. While you are still able to fully build the race cars step by step, using them in events is either so limited or expensive that many will opt for a pre-build configuration. Another annoyance is that, while available in previous versions, this time you are not able to test out your fine-tuning on the track and this makes creating the ultimate setup a long struggle. A thing that makes no sense is that a homologated vehicle is as expensive as a factory-spec one. This breaks realism and will hurt the wallets of those who want to create their own fine tuned monsters for open races.
Forza’s engine has been fine-tuned and crafted into one that is a lot of fun to play with. Thanks to this setting, cars are easily controlled and very easy to drift with. Controlling the game is easy with a gamepad, because the steering is very responsive and other inputs flow perfectly so you have no frustrating errors while driving hard. This is very good for the many extra mini-games such as car bowling, autocross, overtaking and many more.
In a perfect world it would be sunny everyday and the weather would not turn bad but in the real world these things just happen. That’s why the dynamic weather is such a cool addition to this game, one moment it is nice weather and suddenly it can turn into a rainy storm that will make driving more challenging by creating mischievous puddles that will break your grip on track. As night time falls the track will turn dark and you must rely on your skills and lights to get first over the finish line.
Purists may say that the addition of loot boxes ruin the bonuses you were once used to, and this is because disabling assist used to give you some extra cash to reward good drivers, but these days you must activate mods. This will frustrate long term players because the spiked difficulty does not give extra bonuses anymore. Lootboxes may contain mods that increase money or alter the race, have cars in them or even a new costume for your driver. Acquiring cars isn’t just having the money, to get more rare versions your collectors level must be high and this increases with each car you own. Sometimes you can get lucky with the special vendor that will sell unique pieces for a high price.
A downside to such a large game is because this all takes a while to load, waiting for a race to start takes several minutes until you can start it up. While in other games it also takes some time, exiting to the menu screen (while you can perfectly install mods or adjust your tuning) is not an option.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a fun racing simulator where you can feel like an absolute boss while sliding through the corners this game will be fun for you. The long term Forza fans will feel a bit let down with the drastic changes done to the vehicle collecting and the lesser use of customized vehicles in normal modes but for any normal player these things are not any real bad points.
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