Racing Game Preview: The Crew, Forza Horizon 2 & Driveclub
Forza Horizon 2
The gameplay demo for Forza Horizon 2 that I got to try out gave only but a brief taste of the overall driving sensibility of the game. Limited to a 5-minute race total (including any time spent rewinding crashes), there didn’t seem to be as much of an exploration of the overworld as one would have hoped. I did, however, get to feel out how a bright yellow Lamborghini drives both off road and on in an weather-changing setting, which was tons of fun despite its restrictive setting.
I’m not sure in what terms the Forza Horizon 2 handling is aiming for, and I’m sure that driving a very fast and floaty car in the Lamborghini in an open setting is not a good indicator of simulation, but racing through the streets and through the farmland offered a very fast feel to my racing movement. As such, going too fast and not hitting the brakes hard can see players fly off the handle and crash into stanchions and barriers. Because it is essentially a supercar, it became hard to gauge just how exactly much of a sim the game actually is, as expert drivers can whiz through and avoid scruffing up the car.
What I don’t want to see more of is the homogenization of racing titles that melt towards this style points sensibility, regardless of sub-genre, to the point where each and every game within racing does it.
The game does utilize the Forza 5 graphics engine, and looks brilliant at 1080p and 30 FPS for its sub-genre of racing titles. I wish the development team would sacrifice a max native resolution in order to push to that sacred 60 FPS racing experience that the team captured in Forza Motorsport 5, but the realities of an open world game do come with its caveats. However, of either The Crew or Forza Horizon 2 open world racers, the latter graphically blows the former right out of the water. To be fair, it doesn’t seem to have as large an overworld map as The Crew, but does offer a variety of terrains to drive around in.
As with most sequels, there has been some changes to the gameplay. Forza Horizon 2 now offers a point system that rewards for dangerous maneuvers, close calls and advancing in position. To me, as a non-racing aficionado, I’ve begun to see a pattern of games rewarding points not simply for placing first, but for playing stylishly while doing so. In a title that doesn’t limit play to a pre-defined racing course, it makes sense, to a limit. However, what I don’t want to see more of is the homogenization of racing titles that melt towards this style points sensibility, regardless of sub-genre, to the point where each and every game within racing does it. The goal should be to branch out, but not in one specific way that I’ve seen a lot of in recent memory.
The weather system was also added to Forza Horizon 2, which came into play about 55% of the way through the race progress. While I’m not sure the exact dynamicism behind it, I could feel traction changes beneath my car, which definitely becomes a problem on a narrow cliffside road going at incredible speeds. The change in gameplay mechanical requirements on the fly added an extra sense of challenge, and did wonders to change up the mood from blazing fast to cautious and controlled acceleration.
When it comes to exclusives, it’s safe to argue that Forza Horizon 2 comes with an appealing uniqueness in its creation that will give Sony a worthy challenge to top. I’m not sure if this is the killer app the Xbox One needs right now, but will definitely play an a title worth picking up for avid racing fans. It’s a celebration of cars and car culture among amateurs, while racing like professionals.