A popular critique regarding FH5 is how progression is practically non-existent, with the game making it a piece of cake to get money and cars. PG does this to appeal towards younger kids who just want to play the game without needing to grind, which leaves players who want to start from the bottom and rise to the top disregarded. This is a topic that has been done to death and I don’t see the need to get too deep into why it’s bad, but I want to suggest a compromise that could leave both parties happy. I believe there should be an optional mode in the difficulty settings that makes it where the game is a lot more challenging to progress through, with the bonus of being able to buy seasonal playlist exclusive cars from the autoshow. What I think the suggested mode should do is make cars more expensive, ditch super wheelspins, reduce the likeliness of getting expensive rewards from a normal wheelspin, and (assuming they pull the same thing they did in FH5) only give you ONE car to start the game with. Both groups can have it there way without the game being catered towards one individual style. I wouldn’t mind feedback in the comments on how to improve on this idea too.
Something else I want to mention too is that in the Hot Wheels DLC for FH5, PG proved to us they could have a proper progression system, so I hope they can do it for the base game for FH6 this time.
Ideally, I would love Horizon 6’s initial campaign to mirror Horizon 1’s, but endgame gameplay should largely remain the same as Horizons 2 through 5. Horizon 1’s biggest Achilles heel was, upon completing the single player campaign, there was no way to drive any car on any track without playing the online multiplayer. A more open-ended endgame is definitely the way to go, but I also agree the initial run of the single player campaign should be more handcrafted and more progression oriented.
Controversial opinion, since I’m huge champion of progression, but I’m actually fine with the game’s economy being overly generous. We’re slowly reaching the point where the car list is creeping towards 1,000 cars, and the pricing on older and rare cars like the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe are reaching unrealistic levels of credits needed to purchase. Inflation in the real world is bad enough, video games don’t need it too.
My counter proposal is, again, mimic Horizon 1’s progression of having the first round of events be limited/restricted to specific vehicles and performance classes. Players can have Bugattis in their garage during the early parts of the game. They just can’t use them until later in the game with the exception of free roam.
Either that, or at least design the endgame to be more generous than the initial run of the campaign. I’ve recently revisited Horizon 3, and even with VIP bonuses, it’s nigh impossible to purchase all the vehicles in the Autoshow because the payouts are so slow even on higher difficulties and all assists turned off.
In short, there’s a couple of ways of everyone getting their cake and eating it too.
exactly!! This is my biggest complaint… the cars are wayyy to easy to get. For ex; a GTR35 no grind no nothing. You can basically start with a beast of a car.. and that’s it. which to be fair, its a simcade and ppl have jobs i get it… but there is no progression or “work to get it” type of vibe. so when cruising or doing car meets, the cars don’t really mean much since anyone can buy them so fast….
I think some sort of change to this would be awesome. so if you do pull out any car its a “oh wow you bought that” rather than everyone having it…
Or maybe some sort of Dual option like you mentioned of letting players “start from bottom” and “deny” wheelspins, free money, free cars etc in return for something would be cool to. Like you mentioned , as an example if we chose to Grind and progress slower.. maybe some new cars coming not previously in Forza Horizon games, can be purchasable in autoshow for those of us who choose “progression.”
like some of the newly added JDM cars or any others deemed “Rare” or those that have never been in a Forza game.
Then those who don’t choose “progression” would ofc get wheelspins, money, etc… and can still aquire Rare cars but through Festival Playlists or buying them but in Auction (considering they’ll have much more Cash than those who chose progression style of gameplay)
Midnight Club LA would have us start with a 240sx if i remember, and it was a blast progressing toward more expensive and Rare cars that took hard work to get. I am a full time employee with my own side business, so i get it… we are busy to grind . But , It would be nice to have an option or if some sort of Progression was implemented into Multiplayer.