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Forza Motorsport is back. After more than six years since Forza Motorsport 7, Turn 10 Studios have delivered their new vision for the iconic franchise, which has been built from the ground up for the new Xbox Series consoles and PC.
Ever since the game was officially revealed back in 2020, Xbox and Turn 10 were pretty adamant that Forza Motorsport would be a truly groundbreaking racing title, with unmatched visual fidelity and a physics system that would put the beloved predecessor to shame.
But did it deliver? Is Forza Motorsport truly the Forza game we've been waiting for? I've spent over 30 hours playing the game on PC over the last week or so, racing on all 20 tracks in the new Career Mode and other modes the game has to offer. Here's what I think about Xbox's latest exclusive.
BUILDERS CUP CAREER MODE
Forza Motorsport Career comes with a total of five class categories that include five series each and each series comes with five races on different tracks. Obviously, every series introduces a different car class so you'll be racing in blazing-fast Super Cars, powerful American Muscles and classic old-timers to name a few.
You'll pick one of the unlocked series, choose your preferred car that fits the class category and you're ready to go. Before every race, you'll be able to familiarise yourself with the track and the car in Practice sessions, which clock at ten minutes or so. Just like in real life, Practice sessions are perfect for setting up the car by tuning breaks, and suspension and finding the car's limit so you know what your ride is capable of in the actual race.
Setups actually do matter in Forza Motorsport, as you'll discover if you mess up and get an oversteer monster. The difference that you can create by tweaking the setup is not marginal, which should make racing enthusiasts quite satisfied.
The Builders Cup career mode will take you on a tour around the world so you'll visit iconic venues like Spa Francorchamps, Suzuka, Catalunya, Silverstone and Le Mans but also tracks new to the series like the gorgeous Hakone and Kyalami to name a few. You won't have to unlock tracks in Forza Motorsport as all of them are available from the get-go in free play.
The gameplay loop of the Builders Cup is fairly simple but engaging. In a mini-league format, the goal is to win the gold medal and progress to the next series until you eventually unlock a one-race showdown event and get the ultimate prize which includes a special car and bags of currency.
Some may argue that more could have been done with the Builders Cup and I somewhat agree. The career mode feels a bit too simple to my liking and lacks different modes and perhaps some specific challenges to make things fresh as the practice-race-upgrade loop can start feeling monotonous after a while.
LEVELING UP
During practice and in every other session you'll score points to level up your car and unlock upgrades. Be it a single-player free-play race, a featured multiplayer or something completely different, Forza Motorsport rewards you for driving your car with Car XP.
Since this is a bit of a controversial topic among the community, as the level-up system was quite polarising, I must say that I find the whole CARPG concept refreshing and engaging, giving you a strong sense of progression and making you really connect with the car.
I know this is what Turn 10 have been saying all along but honestly, it's the truth. Levelling up in Forza Motorsport is probably the most fun I've ever had with the career mode in the racing sim genre.
This is mostly due to the game's excellent corner mastery system that makes every corner an opportunity to gain valuable XP. So how does it work? Well, you'll receive scores from 1 to 10 depending on how fast you were on a particular set of corners.
You'll get the lowest score if you go off track or make contact with other drivers, while fast and clean racing will get you close to a perfect 10. The higher the score, the more CAR XP you receive and the faster you level up your car.
Knowing that you can earn more points by being focused and driving fast will turn even those boring dominant races into a fun experience as you'll always have this urge to get a good score from every corner, regardless of your track position.
PHYSICS AND AI
The Forza Motorsport series is considered to be a simcade among the racing games community. This is a term used to describe racing games that are challenging and require high skill but still don't simulate every aspect of a car like true sim racers like rFactor or iRacing do.
The latest instalment of Forza Motorsport leans towards the sim genre more than ever before thanks to its improved physics system that makes cars feel more realistic on track.
Describing the feeling of driving cars in Forza Motorsport is difficult as you really have to feel the new physics system. You may recall that cars in previous Forza games had this floaty, unrealistic feeling. I can confirm that Turn 10 managed to improve on this in various ways.
One of the most impressive new driving improvements is also noticed when you drive over kerbs, which feels so good that you'll never want to stop driving over them. Again hard to put to words but it genuinely feels like the tires precisely connect with every bump, every small gap in the kerb.
The new tire model and track surface temperatures work great, too. Sometimes, the race will start in cold conditions and end with the sun shining brightly in the sky. While you may struggle with grip in the first part of the race due to colder weather, the car will suddenly come alive when the conditions and track temperature improve.
All these gameplay improvements in actual racing make a world of difference when compared to older Forza Motorsport games. I'd even argue that the latest instalment of Motorsport is a more realistic and enjoyable driving experience than Gran Turismo 7.
Another part of Turn 10's major set of changes is the AI. When it works, it provides incredible, high-stakes, wheel-to-wheel racing but that rarely occurs.
Most of the time the AI acts unpredictably, braking where it should have its foot on the gas, hitting you when there's more than enough space for both cars or completely backing out from a duel even when there's a clear opportunity for overtake.
Additionally, the pole sitter will constantly create this large gap after only a few corners, followed by a group of two to three cars and this happens in almost every single race. Once you overtake them, the AI simply doesn't fight back. In 35 hours of gameplay, I can only think of a few scenarios where I had to defend my position.
It's a shame as the actual driving is incredibly well executed and you can only imagine that smart AI would add another layer of immersion to the experience.
GRAPHICS
Forza Motorsport generally looks great. Car models are highly detailed and the new paint system can make them really pop under the sun. The improvement over Forza Motorsport 7 is clear but if you're looking for Gran Turismo 7 car model quality, you won't find it in Forza Motorsport.
Sony's exclusive is still superior in this segment which surprised me to be honest as the models Turn 10 showed in some pre-release trailers looked much better than the ones we got in the launch version.
The team even specifically mentioned the quality of their shaders, showing us gorgeous shots of rims and engines, which looked really impressive.
This is also true for various textures, environmental assets, foliage and post-processing effects, which are either completely missing from the game or have seen a significant reduction in the level of detail.
Maple Valley, the track that Turn 10 used to showcase the world premiere gameplay of Forza Motorsport is the most obvious example of the visual changes.
Remember those cones and rich foliage at the end of the pit straight that Turn 10 used to emphasize the new graphical features? Well, they're completely gone and the same goes for a whole set of assets and rich foliage near the iconic barn.
Post-processing effects like the gorgeous patches of volumetric mist that made this particular location look incredible have been removed too. This is obviously a major disappointment as Turn 10 clearly emphasized these features in pre-release footage only to have some of them removed from the game for whatever reason.
But nonetheless, Forza Motorsport is still a feast for the eyes especially when the time of day and weather come together to give everything on the screen a big visual boost. The best example of this is during sunsets when environmental detail and cars really look next-gen.
Night races obviously look great, especially in rain or fog when the global illumination does its magic, creating such an atmospheric and rich look around the tracks.
Midday races are eye candy too, resulting in nicely saturated colours that make tracks like Hakone really pop. Sometimes though, lightning doesn't really come together as it should and this usually occurs when the camera is looking in the direction of the sun.
The game gets this hazy look with washed-out colours, making everything look bland and downright ugly but these are very specific scenarios that don't occur that often.
VERDICT
Forza Motorsport is a great starting point for the new era of this popular racing franchise. While it's far from perfect and has plenty of room for improvement, it's a very good racing game that has plenty of identity and qualities.
Racing feels great and that's what really matters in the end. Some may find the game's inconsistent AI and simplistic Career Mode a big drawback but if you can turn a blind eye to some of these issues, you'll get plenty of fun from this one.
Notes:
-We asked Turn 10 Studios about the visual changes when compared to the pre-release trailer but by the time this review was published, the devs did not provide an answer. We'll make sure to update the article when Turn 10 respond.
-The review will be updated with the Multiplayer segment once the game is out as we didn't get the chance to fully experience the multiplayer with full lobbies. The devs did participate in some sessions but it wasn't enough to make a full judgment on this game mode.
The Good
The new physics model makes a world of difference- The corner mastery system is great
- CARPG concept is unique and gives a great sense of progression
- Visually stunning at times but...
The Bad
...can look bland and washed out in specific weather and time of day- Inconsistent AI that can be quite erratic on track
- The Career mode is a bit too simple
