My true achievements profile on Forza Horizon 4 says that I have spent over 120 hours playing this game. That is a lot of time spent on one game. The funny thing is, I got my Xbox more than a year ago, and have had GamePass ever since it was available.
Still, it took the pandemic for me to discover this game. I like it. I like it a lot.
Racing Beautifully The first thing to say about the game is just how gorgeous the game looks. The Xbox One hardware is 7 years old. Still, this game, is right there with RDR2 in terms of grand visuals. The cars are so detailed, the grass is so real, the sky just amazing and other cars, incredibly detailed.
All this with very little graphical failures or screen lock ups. Once in a while, the Xbox will struggle. Traffic cars, trees and sheep will appear a second late than they should. This happens so rarely and gracefully, you almost don’t mind.
Everything else is so smooth, you can forgive this.
Cars a Plenty You are spoilt with choice. I decided to get the ultimate add on bundle, only a few hours in. The game is free with GamePass, and Ultimate bundle was on sale that day. I got bond cars, Lego cars and Fortune Island cars. On top of that you keep getting cars from Wheel Spin, completing track events and series events and doing online races.
Further, you have the auction house. You can just log in and get some really good cars without much effort. On top of all this, there are tunes from community which are readily available. No matter which car you have, you can just use it for everything from speed traps to drifting to danger zones.
Comfortably Online For some one like me who does not enjoy online games, this game was a surprisingly welcome experience. I dabble in Fornite, every now and then, but, that’s about it. I am completely out of the online scene.
In this game, the online experience is non-intrusive. You see other players in the roads. If you want, you can race with them, interact with them. Otherwise, they are just there. You are just there. Nobody is disturbing nobody. Since we are all at home, it’s actually a welcome sight to see other cars with player tags on them.
The game is balanced extremely well in both online and solo (which is also online) mode. No matter who wins or losses, you always get that fun driving experience. The game has lot of casual gamer friendly features that take out any frustration I might have had with other racing games.
Final Note
The pandemic is taking its toll on everybody, including me. If not for the pandemic, I would not have re-installed this game. However, the pandemic is here to stay and this is a game that I found myself pouring hours on top of hours.
If you are like me, just buy the Ultimate bundle, get all the cars, use whatever assists you need, and just enjoy.
[Review Originally published on my medium post 'Forza Horizon 4 Review 2021'
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https://medium.com/the-sanguine-tech-trainer/forza-horizon-4...)]
5.0