Highlights
- Forza Motorsport offers an AAA racing experience with advanced AI and stunning graphics, while its campaign mode provides a refreshing and straightforward racing experience reminiscent of old-school racing games.
- The game's linear progression and track-based stage selection allow players to focus solely on racing to the end of the track, without the complexity of different race types found in other titles, providing a focused and enjoyable racing experience.
- In a gaming landscape filled with open-world racers, Forza Motorsport's return to traditional track racing is a welcome change, offering a pure racing experience that appeals to long-time fans of the genre who prefer a more old-school approach.
From the advanced AI powering players’ on-track opponents to gorgeous graphics made possible by the powerful ForzaTech engine, Forza Motorsport is unafraid to take advantage of the latest technology to deliver an AAA racing experience. But even as Turn 10 Studios touts its latest title as being ‘the most technically advanced racing game’ on the market, the basic structure of the game’s campaign mode is a refreshing callback to the genre’s past. With its largely linear progression and track-based stage selection, Forza Motorsport offers the sort of simple, straightforward racing experience that’s become increasingly rare in recent years.
This return to the roots of the genre feels particularly welcome at a time when racing titles, much like many other genres, have increasingly embraced the open-world game format. By letting players’ focus remain squarely on getting to the end of the track, rather than keeping track of the countless different race and event types on offer in other titles, Forza Motorsport is able to deliver a racing experience that feels both focused and fun. This single-minded pursuit of posting the fastest time on the track provides a welcome change of pace from Forza Horizon’s open-world format and harkens back to old-school racing games.
The Straightforward Mechanics of Forza Motorsport Set It Apart from the Horizon Games
The open-world locales of the Forza Horizon games have helped the franchise find a devoted fanbase, but their lack of linearity can sometimes leave them feeling unfocused. For players who simply want to load up the game for a few laps around the track, it can be overwhelming trying to choose from the multitude of racing styles on offer in each entry. The sheer number of game modes in Forza Horizon can also feel superfluous for players who prefer to focus on one style of racing without being forced to take part in different race types simply to progress through the game.
It’s not only the Forza Horizon series that’s embraced this trend, either, many modern racing games have made the switch to an open-world format in recent years. This is why Turn 10 Studios’ decision to keep Forza Motorsport focused squarely on traditional track racing feels particularly welcomed. While it may not offer the expansive landscapes of the Forza Horizon series, it delivers the type of pure racing experience that’s become hard to find in a gaming landscape increasingly overrun with open-world racers. It’s exactly this sort of old-school approach to racing that makes Forza Motorsport so appealing to many long-time fans of the genre.
Forza Motorsport’s Old-School Style Is a Welcome Return to Racing's Roots
While fans of old-school racing games aren’t entirely bereft of options, with Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo games still offering the same streamlined experience they have for decades, these types of titles have become few and far between. The options for traditional racing titles on Xbox Series X|S are even slimmer, with arcade-style titles representing the bulk of the driving games on offer. This makes Forza Motorsport and its straightforward, largely linear gameplay a welcome arrival on the popular platform.
This sort of old-school simplicity is one of the game’s biggest strengths. What Forza Motorsport lacks in variety and spectacle when compared to some of its recent competitors it more than makes up for with its rock-solid driving mechanics. And while players are limited to the confines of the 20 tracks included with the game at launch, the numerous features in Forza Motorsport meant to realistically replicate real-world racing mean they should have a great time every time they get behind the wheel.
By blending the latest in modern technology with an old-school structure, Turn 10 Studios provides players with a worthy successor to the best racing games of the past. And while the pace of play in Forza Motorsport may be a bit more restrained than the over-the-top, open-world antics of the Forza Horizon series, it still delivers a thrilling driving experience from start to finish.
Forza Motorsport is available for PC and Xbox Series X/S.