Forza Horizon 4: The Oversteer review

Full disclosure: I loved Forza Horizon 3, it’s actually my favourite racing game of all time, edging out Midnight Club: Los Angeles, and Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005), so the fourth installment has big shoes to fill.

Set in the UK, Forza Horizon 4 follows the same recipe as the previous games, a bunch of racers gather at the Horizon festival (kinda like Splendour with cars) all gunning to be the best at the event.

The game kicks off by giving players a taste of what’s to come such as the McLaren Senna, changing seasons, showcase events (which pits a car against something ridiculous) and off-road racing.

Afterwards, you get to choose your own character and your first car (Ford Focus RS, Audi TT S or Dodge Charger R/T) before slowly being introduced to each event.

There’s several different racing series throughout the game, which include On-Road, Off-Road, Cross-Country, Drag Race, Street Racing, Drifting and Stunt.

Annoyingly, for each race there’s no longer a countdown to allow the player to get ready. Instead, the races start with little warning, which can catch you off guard. 

The changing seasons is easily the biggest feature added to the game and it makes a noticeable difference (visually). Summer is bright and sunny, winter turns the map into a snowy wonder land and even freezes lakes, spring brings rain and lots of mud while in autumn trees lose their leaves. 

Each season makes for a stunning backdrop and sometimes you just want to stop and admire the scenery, but because it’s so beautiful it seems a little unrealistic. For example, there’s a beach that looks way too golden to be located somewhere in the UK.

Gameplay-wise, winter alters the dynamics the most with snow making cars harder to control, but overall it doesn’t feel much different from the previous game, which isn’t a bad thing.

Variety has always been a strong point in the Forza series, especially the Horizon games. At launch, the game has 450 cars (100 more than Horizon 3) with more to join the roster through future paid and free DLC.

However, if you’re a Toyota fan you’ll be disappointed to find there are only three off-road trucks representing the brand while Mitsubishi and Lexus are absent altogether due to licensing issues.

If you’ve played any of the previous Forza games, you’ll be familiar with the customisation system as it’s identical To Horizon 3. Although, outside of the vehicles you can modify your character's look, so between upgrading both you'll find yourself in the menus for hours.

Unlike the Motorsport series, which gets repetitive, there’s plenty to keep the player coming back for more in Horizon such as speed traps, speed cameras, drift zones, daily challengers and barn finds.

There’s nothing I like more than spending hours hunting down 15 barns spread through the map, it’s also great not knowing what car you'll discover next, just don’t listen to the in-game radio as it’ll ruin the surprise.

A big part of Forza is the online multiplayer and up to 72 players can be in one free-roam session.

Up to 72 players can be in one online free-roam session.

Among the usual races and ‘playground’ games, players can now create teams with their friends and race other teams from all around the world.

There’s also ranked Adventure, which increases or decreases a gamer’s ranking depending where they finish after every race.

It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows though, I noticed load times can be long and when switching between menus there's some lag. At the launch of the game, we were told if your Xbox is low on storage space (like mine) this can affect the smoothness, but it still seems more noticable than in Horizon 3.

Verdict:

Forza Horizon 4 is a great game and you don’t have to be a hardcore racer to enjoy it. Anyone can easily spend hours just exploding the map and taking in some of the gorgeous views before jumping online to race against or with friends. Has it lived up to the hype? You bet and while Horzion 3 was great, No.4 manages to be even better. It’s actually close to perfect, with laggy menus and slow load times being its only major letdowns. 

Rating: 4/5

Is Horizon 4 the best Forza to date? Let us know in the comments.