Forza Horizon 4 Review on PC

Hot day. The sun reflects off the chrome elements of the body. Mirage ahead from the scorching asphalt… filled stands, disappearing beyond the horizon. The signal is given – key to start. Clutch pedal, brake, turn of the key – hundreds of spirited stallions are ready to take off, emitting a fierce roar and pushing the tachometer needle up.

All these sensations are familiar to any racer. And it is not necessary to have a driver’s license or be in the cockpit of a racing car at all. Because the video game industry has given us a wonderful genre – racing games!

Some people love spending hours tinkering with the gears of the transmission, changing gear ratios, trying to win a couple of hundredths of a second in acceleration speed to the coveted first hundred km/h, or maybe even the second. Others enjoy collecting all their favorite cars in a virtual garage. And some just like to speed over 350 km/h, forgetting about the existence of the brake pedal, and be the coolest.

And here is where the main feature of Forza Horizon 4 comes into play – it is capable of equally pleasing all categories of racing game enthusiasts!

English drift

This time, the “ruling” of the Horizon festival was entrusted to the meticulous English – it is the streets of Great Britain that we are going to travel. However, English pedantry has still been left out of the game world – one should not expect meticulously recreated roads and cities of foggy Albion. Yes, the local architecture and landscape design pay homage to their inspirations, and in some places you can even see a few landmarks, but it is far from the feeling of the vastness of The Crew 2.

The game opens with a very beautiful and skillfully staged race, throwing the player behind the wheel of a variety of vehicles. After that, in a tutorial mode, we quickly go through all the seasons accompanied by short cutscenes that introduce us to the game.

Although, in my opinion, this tutorial is absolutely unnecessary for the game. Simply because all you need to do is drive out of the garage. Further questions like “what to do?” will be answered on their own. The game rewards you for every step you take. Leveled up? Great, here’s a free chance to spin the wheel for useful prizes. Knocked down all the fences in the area with your bumper? How gracefully you do it, receive bonus points and a multiplier bonus!

Where we are going, roads are not needed

Even a seemingly ordinary auction for multiplayer games here has extraordinary appeal. Not every beauty from the local car park can be obtained from a store or a seasonal pass. By the way, there are over 750 cars of various classes, eras, and body types in the game. Some cars only appear in the game for a certain period of time. Naturally, such specimens become highly desirable and their prices skyrocket. For example, I was lucky enough to become the proud owner of a Ford Crown Victoria with a police body kit, just like in half of the Hollywood action movies from the 90s. You should have seen how eagerly I outbid other players!

And no one forces you to play the way someone else has planned before you. No tricky manipulations with resources or game progression. If in the aforementioned The Crew 2, every new car is perceived as a significant investment that still needs to be accumulated, here both the currency and the cars themselves are raining down on you from the sky in an endless stream. However, over time, it becomes very difficult to decide for yourself “what do I want to drive today?”. My personal car collection, for example, exceeded a hundred “steeds” in just 15 hours of gameplay!

The physics model is very flexible – you can either surround yourself with assistants from all sides and drive with the sterility of a bot from Gran Turismo, or disable absolutely all stabilization systems. Even those that are present in any modern car. Moreover, in the company of friends, each player can choose their own level of control difficulty, participating in the same race simultaneously. Just don’t tell your friends that you secretly turned on a couple of assistants.

You can completely ignore the races themselves, as they were designed by game designers, and have a race according to your own rules. Who said that the Lamborghini Huracan was not created for off-road racing?!

However, such absolute freedom has one significant drawback – interest in the game is likely to last only until you can come up with goals and ideas to entertain yourself. After experiencing the possibilities, you simply won’t want to go back to the usual race clearing on the map – where haven’t we seen that before! Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem. Just invite your friends to the game!

The finish line

Here we are, approaching the final lap of this racing review. Overall, Forza Horizon 4 handles all the tasks it is supposed to perform. The game offers us a kind of perfect world for any car enthusiast and racing spirit. A world where radars exist to drift past them as quickly as possible. A world where every couple of kilometers you encounter a legendary car with a ridiculous vinyl wrap all over its side. Where there is no police and everyone is just happy about your spontaneous drives through the city center.

This is still a representative of the new world of calculated and dimensionless game services… but deep down it has the same roots as old NFS, Midtown Madness, and Test Drive. So there’s no need to risk yourself or others – start up the lively Forza Horizon engine, invite friends, and get ready!

Especially since Steam often has sales, and you can grab the game for half the price. Xbox console owners can even enjoy it with an active Xbox Game Pass subscription – what a great entertainment for the summer season!