With a packed lineup of racing games in sight, Forza Horizon 2 sets a high bar with its time trial around review circles.
The latest entry in the Forza Motorsports series follows 2012's Forza Horizon, which weaves a loose narrative around the fictional Horizon racing series in the Colorado. The original Horizon allows basic vehicle modification, while the gameplay follows the trend set by other open-world entries in the series by marrying elements of simulation and arcade-style driving.
The original Horizon was well received, gaining an 85 out of 100 on the notoriously picky Metacritic, and the follow up appears to be hitting similar time. Horizon 2 builds on the success of the original game by livening up the racing experience, without disturbing the foundation that many Xbox owners loved about the game's predecessor.
In Forza Horizon 2, the Horizon racing series leaves the U.S. behind and takes place in France and Italy. Horizon 2 looses its American bravado and picks up a European cool, offering a more lax structure to the Horizon racing series.
"In the original Horizon, as terrific as it was, the festival theme felt like a marketing hook first and a clever game structure second," states one reviewer. "In Forza Horizon 2, it's more like a philosophy, an outlook, a mood that has seeped right through to the core of the game and infused the whole thing with a pure, escapist joy."
Drivaters make their return in Horizon 2 and they're better than ever at emulating their human counterparts. Drivaters, a portmanteau of driver and avatars, elevate single player driving by pitting players against AI-controlled vehicles that learn and copy the behavior of other players.
Traditional AI drivers, just like most other computer controlled opponent, often dial their accuracy up or down to provide just enough challenge for players, but their mathematical precision and purposeful stumble can take away from a game's realism.
In Forza Horizon 2, developers Turn 10 studios made the game's open-world even more accessible and the drivatars immediately responded. Dan Greenawalt, creative director at Turn 10 Studios, said the developers had to ask themselves "what is a road" and what isn't, before making the refinements that opened up drivatars to more realistic driving.
"[The drivatars] can drive through groves and vineyards, drive between trees," says Greenawalt. "We didn't know what that would be like. We didn't know what they were going to do."
Forza Horizon 2 releases on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 in the U.S> on Sept. 30 and in Europe on Oct. 3.
