The wait is almost over. Forza Horizon 3, one of the biggest bombshells Microsoft has in store for us in 2016, will launch in a week. It is mature, refined and elegant compared to the two previous ones. Although the gameplay mostly remains the same from the franchise’s history, new elements have been added to the game which definitely make Forza Horizon 3 the best arcade racing game on Xbox One and Windows 10.
Within the first minute of playing the game, I declared this is the prettiest Horizon game ever. I was skeptical at first because the game would run at thirty frames per second, which is sort of a deal breaker for me. I had a hard time adjusting from Forza Motorsport 5 to Forza Horizon 2. But playing Forza Horizon 3, I wasn’t bothered by the frame rate at all. The entire time it was silky smooth and the graphics were stunning. Some of the things that surprised me tremendously were the particle effects and dynamic models the game employs. Since the game is set in Australia, billabongs are a welcome landscape element that not only are fun to drive through, but also show off the cool water effects in the game. In addition, trees and leaves along the road are dynamic that react to high speed vehicles passing by, making the game look way more realistic than its predecessors. The visuals have received a significant overhaul towards realism.
The handling of Forza Horizon 3 feels consistent with Forza Horizon 2. Even with traction control and assists off, I rarely spun off the road. Drifting is so easy and controllable, which is what the game encourages you to do all the time. Even with weather effects like heavy rain, the roads aren’t as treacherous as in Forza Motorsport 6, in which the car loses grip and veers off uncontrollably. The off-road part of the game is just as exciting as on tarmac. Beaches and sand dunes are excellent locales for extreme stunts even though your vehicle exhibits less grip.
As mentioned earlier, the format of the game remains largely unchanged. The player participate in events, unlocks new locations, and eventually reaches the end. However, Forza Horizon 3 offers unprecedented freedom for the player to choose how they go about doing that. First and foremost, you are no longer a nameless participant in the festival. You are the boss of the festival, and you have a name. All the events are customizable through a mechanism called Blueprint. It allows you to decide how you want the race to be. For example, you can allow only cars from Barn Finds to enter, or cars from the 1980s and so on. The Blueprint you design can also be shown to other players, and you can also choose Blueprints from the rest of the community. This creates a highly personalized racing experience which I haven’t seen offered in another racing game to date.
You can also choose a unique avatar and pick one of the countless names. This enhances the game’s experience because little touches like that leave a lasting impression on the player. You feel like it’s your game and you belong in the world. For those wondering, yes, you can be called Master Chief and drive the legendary Warthog.
There are a few new features that are definitely worth mentioning. The first is capturing Drivatars. Depending on their in-game progress, different Drivatars offer different amount of bonuses to your race. However, it takes a while to find the Drivatar that actually yields the most rewards if you have a lot of friends on Xbox One. The music in Forza Horizon 3 now supports Groove Music, which is excellent in my opinion. I preferred Groove Music the entire time because you can listen to the tracks you love. This is another amazing feature in the game. While you can use background music too, I felt that it overpowered the sounds of the title, like the growls of a powerful Ferrari engine. If you use Groove Music from inside the game, those audio issues disappear and it played just like another radio station. The title also offers you an extended trial of the service so everyone can experience it.
Apart from that, the host on the radio now also plays something called Skill Songs during which you receive double the skill points. Skill points now can be used not only to unlock perks, but also can be redeemed as instant rewards such as credits or experience. This helps you level up faster and get more wheel spins.
So far, I’ve completed half of the game, and I unlocked the final showcase event. However, it could take casual players months to complete the game. I still have to do all the Barn Finds, Bucket List challenges, and upgrade all the festival sites. I’m sure I’m missing many other activities here. Forza Horizon 3 probably can keep me busy until Forza Motorsport 7 comes out next year. I know this might seem like a tedious grind, but for a true fan, it’s absolutely an enjoyable journey.
When it comes to flaws, I can barely find one. There was one time I lost ANNA and when I relaunched the game it got fixed. So it was a tiny glitch. What I feel can be done to improve Forza Horizon 3 is to make racing lines a different color. The blue line sometimes gets blended in the reflection of the blue sky and can’t be seen properly. That’s really it if you’re nitpicking. Forza Horizon 3 is as close to technically perfect as any game can get. The pop-in experienced by many in the demo has also been eliminated. I wasn’t able to test out HDR or the Windows 10 version on high settings because I don’t own a television capable of displaying increased colors or a computer powerful enough to properly run the game. I’m sure they’re fantastic if you own an Xbox One S and a supported television or an expensive gaming machine. However, because I wasn’t able to test that, this review is only for the Xbox One version.
Summary
In conclusion, Forza Horizon 3 is a masterpiece that offers you an epic driving experience in an open world environment. It has been refined and greatly improved upon from the previous games especially when it comes to visuals. New features make this game uniquely better than any other games of the same genre.
Xian was a regular ICXM contributor between 2015–2017, publishing 162 articles across game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative.