Forza Motorsport Review

After many years of waiting, Turn 10 and Xbox Game Studios’ Forza Motorsport finally launches in a year without Forza Horizon. Is the racing game good enough to be worth playing, or should you spend your time somewhere else?

Forza Motorsport Review

Forza Motorsport starts by talking about how each car has a journey, from the showroom to the race track to the winner’s podium. Your journey begins with a choice: Which car will you start with? Once you decide, the racing can finally begin. The first cup is a tutorial that lasts a few races and teaches you the basics of Motorsport. After that, Tours opens up, giving you many different spots to race. I want to be clear: This is not Forza Horizon, and there is no open-world component. Forza Motorsport is all about the cars and the racing.

These guys figured out how to do racing long ago, and I am happy to report it’s still some of the best in the business. The cars handle like a dream, taking precise turns while the straightaways let you blast off and feel the acceleration. Due to the accessibility options, you can make it as easy or hard as you want. You choose your start position and how well the AI drivers brake and handle. On the easiest difficulty, all you have to do is steer, accelerate, and let the car brake for you. The more difficult the race, the more credits you earn.

Credits are used to buy cars, but you need to earn Car Points to upgrade your current vehicles. You get these by leveling up cars in races or in practice. The higher your car is level, the more parts they have unlocked for boosts. The best part is that you can automate everything for the best car with a single button. Anyone who wants to change the air in their tires, weight distribution, or anything like that can, but for novices like me, the auto feature is the way to go. The only downside is that the Car Points take a while to earn, so fully tuning a car can take hours.

Online starts you in a Qualifier Series to see how good you really are. If you wanted, you could tank it and race only noobs until you got found out. You’ll likely need to rent or buy a car for this, but renting is free; you just won’t earn Car Points. Unlike single-player, you can’t rewind, and there are qualifying laps you can do to place. It makes sense, but sometimes lobbies have 30 minutes of practice and other times, you load in with only five minutes left and can’t even qualify. Still, there are plenty of events and races to do with friends or against random players.

The other big thing about Forza Motorsport is their emphasis on clean and “pure” racing. You rack up Car Points by passing people and get multipliers by doing it without hitting other cars, driving off-road, or crashing. Making a mistake will reduce the bonus to one, no matter what. Online is even more intense because you are ranked by skill and how clean you drive. If you crash into drivers a lot, you are put into lobbies with other players who do that. It’s a sound system, but occasionally, the clean lobbies have players still crashing into you.

There is also this Rivals mode where you race against ghost cars and other players for the best times. The car is chosen for you, and a new ghost car appears each time you beat a rival. It is an excellent way to grind a track and level up a car quickly. Also, beating your friend’s ghost car score is always a good time.

I’m not too into cars and brands, but all the ones you want are here. Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, Hyundai, and Ferrari are just some that make the list. If you enjoy collecting cars, you will have plenty to do in Forza Motorsport.

As for tech problems, I had no bugs, frame drops, or crashes. However, online I had a couple of issues loading into lobbies. Nevertheless, it was always clean when racing.

While I still think Forza Horizon is the better series, there is no denying Forza Motorsport has the best driving around. Racing fans should pick up Game Pass and give it a go.

This review of Forza Motorsport was done on the Xbox Series X. A code was provided by the publisher.