From the moment you launch Forza Horizon 2 you become instantly addicted to the power and beauty of this game. The intro can only be described as A work of visual art lovingly wrapped in a blanket of hypnotic audio.
Whether there's fireworks in the sky, or a great tune on your chosen radio station, you just can't escape the festival atmosphere of this game. It changes your mood and makes you feel like partying... I'm actually starting to wonder if the hypnotic beginning has a genuine affect?
You are thrown into a huge open world, and it really is huge. It's vast, beautiful, the detail is stunning and varied. Roads range from big city to difficult twisting country roads with stone walls each side, to highways with long sweeping corners that are perfect for drifting. I felt like I could drive these roads forever. Whilst driving these roads you are actually supposed to attend festival races, but to get to each race you need to travel... and wherever you travel there is always something to catch your attention. Speed cameras where the idea is to go as fast as you can, hidden stunts to complete, 100 cash boards to collect, 100 discount boards to collect, wherever you turn there is an opportunity to gain XP, you even get XP for each new road travelled!
The festival races are fun and add some difficulty to the game, there are racing aids which make the game easier. They're the usual racing aids that you would expect, abs, racing line, braking assist, steering assist etc. But what I love is the incentive to turn them off! The more racing aids you turn off, then more XP you gain for each race. Each race can be raced in any class so you're not locked down to certain cars, you can race in your clapped out old banger or you stupendously fast McLaren. The beauty is that you will always be evenly matched with cars around the same power as yours, so racing a slow car doesn't mean you will lose, the race will just take longer.
Each location has several festival races, when you win all of these you are presented with the opportunity to compete in a showcase race. These are epic, you are in a car racing against... wait for it...helicopters, and planes! Crossing a finish line in a car while kicking up dust into a pilots face is great sense of achievement. These races are difficult and set a challenge but they certainly are a great spectacle.
The range of cars available is stunning! I used to own a Mazda MX5 so naturally the first car I looked for was that, and it was there! My favourite car (Viper) was also there. There are over 200 cars available and they range from a slow but cool Mini, to a Lamborghini Gallardo. Whatever car you chose you can upgrade most of it, brakes,wheels, gears, drive shaft, clutch... the list goes on! Once you have upgraded the car to make it fast you want it to look good, and man can you make it look good! I've spent hours designing and applying vinyl and decals to the car to make it look good. Currently I'm racing a black Lamborghini Gallardo with a grim reaper on the bonnet and sides. It's awesome! If you feel like you are unable to make something cool with the ample shapes and samples of vinyl you can also download them from the Storefront. Other players generously create masterpieces and offer them for sale in the Storefront. You can buy these with credits that you earn from races. Some of these designs are not the best but there are some absolute corkers there! There are hundreds of designs and the fact that these are user generated means the list is growing and improving every day.
Once you have transformed your car into a four wheeled beast, you need to show it off. This is the time to take your beast online and show off while cruising with friends. There's an online mode for any mood that takes your fancy. You can go online with your friends cruising the huge expanse of the open-world, or you can chose online races or games. The races are self explanatory. The games are “King” or “Infected”. King is a car version of capture the flag, and “Infected” is like a game of Tag, don't get hit or you're infected. Both of these game modes are fun, challenging, fast paced and highly addictive.
Overall this game can only be summed up with one word... SPECTACULAR! Graphics, gameplay, sound, and detail all leave you in awe wanting more. If I could rate this game more than 5 stars I would, I will be playing this game for a long time.
