In recent years, Forza has surged to the head from the pack in the racing genre. Basically going annual having a steady rotation backwards and forwards between its main series and Horizon spinoff, Forza has become synonymous with top-notch racing. Forza titles have started to be noted for delivering highly customizable gameplay that suits a variety of audiences, no matter whether they're looking for the best arcade racer or sim-heavy experience-while also innovating with features like Driveatars. However, using the latest main series release in the form of Forza Motorsport 7, the franchise might have been caught looking in its rear-view mirror at the competition hot on its tail, taking its eyes off course long enough to make a couple of costly errors that may let that competition close the gap.
Forza Motorsport 7 features a suite of offline and online modes designed to engage players like never before. The sport touts 32 tracks-the most ever inside a Forza game-with more than 200 different configurations. The game's only completely completely new track, Dubai (highlighted by features like sand blowing across the asphalt), is accompanied by dozens of returning tracks from Forza 6 as well as fan-favorites Suzaka, Mugello, and Maple Valley (brilliantly re-created the very first time about this generation of console after being last seen in Forza 4). This balance of tracks from throughout Forza's history goes quite a distance to keeping the knowledge feeling fresh, as players know it'll be some time before they may begin to see the same track twice.
You'll get to tackle a lot of those track configurations in the new single-player campaign that tasks you with climbing the ranks in six different championships, culminating within the Forza Driver's Cup. There are a number of various circuits in every championship-usually themed around familiar motifs seen in other Forza games like Hot Hatch or Classic Muscle cars-as you try to gather enough suggests stand atop the podium and unlock the next championship. Each championship also offers a few Showcase events that will test out your driving skills in various and exciting ways. Some, such as the car bowling featured in Top Gear, return from previous games; others, like besting professional rally car driver Ken Block inside a head-to-head race in identical cars, adds a more personal twist to a familiar racing mechanic, as Block provides you with some narration before the race as to why you're racing those particular cars.
I will say the commentary is weak this go-around in the Forza folks. Be it the game's general narrator droning on, certainly one of a variety of professional racers who sound like they're definitely more comfortable behind a steering wheel than a microphone, or even some Top Gear magazine editors who are taking themselves a bit too seriously, I'd usually attempt to skip any audio introductions and get right into each race as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, the rest of Forza 7's presentation is stellar as always. The game's 700 cars-including a lot of Porsches after Microsoft's latest partnership deal, plus some other cars admittedly ported directly over from Forza Horizon 3-still look absolutely stellar on the track. And, to anybody's shock, each car handles understandably, by using it feeling like you're fighting to help keep some cars on the track as they hit 200 MPH, while others corner like a dream despite the fact that their top speed is nothing to create home about.
Also making its excess of from Horizon 3 is that game's dynamic weather system. Night and rain are nothing new on Forza tracks. However, having the sky suddenly open up on a track three laps in on the four-lap race, or starting a race at sunset and achieving the sky turn pitch black over eight laps at Daytona, is a nice addition to the mainline series here.
Forza Motorsport 7 also upped its game with regards to personalization. Not just is its vaunted car customization suite, which allows you to paint and modify the look and tuning of your car, back and bigger than ever before, however, you may also now customize your driver to some degree. Over 100 different track suits are available in the sport, and you may make your driver (man or woman) wear any of them to actually send a note about who they (and, thus, you) are. I'd still love to check this out taken to a higher level at some point, where we can customize our suits to a level of detail that we can the cars we drive, but this is another part of the best direction for that series.
Not exactly what continues to be added or changed about Forza 7 has been successful, though. To try to lower the barrier of entry in to the series even more, a fresh Easy Mode continues to be added that simplifies the controls to the point where you're barely even controlling the car anymore. While I don't mind adding this feature for folks who might feel they need it, I do mind the fact that the old system of rewarding more credits for people that like bumping in the game's difficulty and switching off a variety of assists has been abandoned. Considering how difficult it can be sometimes to buy the really high-end cars with in-game currency, this change feels like it is just enhancing the grind.
This all leads us in to the new Mods system. Mods were introduced in Forza 6 as a method to challenge yourself even further when you played the game. Some Mods would give you speed boosts, however it would come in the sacrifice of handling; others might kill your acceleration, but enhance your cornering ability. Each card could be used as many times while you wanted, and were a neat little optional addition that experienced players could use to help boost their playtime. There have been several limited-use, super-rare Mods that would modify your driving ability, but additionally reward credit or XP boosts.
Now, all Mods fall under this category. Every Mod you use has only 1 to 5 uses depending on rarity, and may reward you with credits or XP, and even occasionally both. To get these Mods, you have to spend in-game currency to spread out loot boxes-the more currency spent, typically the rarer the Mod. So, you begin spending in-game currency to earn more in-game currency, to invest in-game currency, to earn more in-game currency, to invest in-game currency, to earn more in-game currency, and also the cycle continues. Unfortunately, it typically costs a lot more to purchase those Mods than the credits you get by using them, particularly when you do not know how many credits a given race will net you. Using a Mod that provides an additional 30% credits after the race is excellent, but when you don't know if you are winning 10,000 credits or 5,000 credits for a first-place finish means gleam small gamble when you use the card. Overall, it makes you wonder the reason why you would even make use of the Mod system at all at this point.
But then, there are also loot boxes that give Mods plus cars or track suits (most of which are only obtainable in said loot boxes). So, a few of the fanciest cars and prettiest track suits-not there's that lots of them-are behind this randomizer. You will not need these to beat the sport or hop online to experience friends, of course, but if there's a car you really want stuck in a loot box, you are in a pretty tough spot. There's also a new leveling system for your garage, where buying certain low-level cars will help you unlock high-level cars faster. All of this seems to really attempt to pressure you in some not so subtle methods to subscribe to the game's microtransactions system.
Also, surprisingly, lots of online features for Forza 7 aren't offered at launch. Forza Leagues and, curiously, the Ah still aren't up and running even in the writing of the review. Turn 10 says they'll have them up soon, but we're kind of in the dark regarding when specifically. The microtransactions and store also aren't ready to go, therefore we can't accurately judge the way they might tempt people into spending real life cash-just that, like those additional features, we know they're coming, like among those dynamic weather storms I pointed out earlier. The rest of Forza 7's online features appear to be working fine, and you may still easily race as much as two dozen other players online at any time without any lag thus far within our experience. Beyond that, you can upload race screens from Photo Mode or replays of the races, as well as all of your custom car designs to Forza's servers with no issue.
Forza Motorsport 7 has done everything you'd want from a racing game sequel-more cars, more tracks, and the return of that tight gameplay-showing why Turn 10's efforts remain the best choice from the pack. The brand new Mod and in-game currency systems, however, really detract from what's otherwise another great racing experience-and might make you want to think twice before jumping into the driver's seat again if you aren't big on grinding for those credits.
