Going to start off by saying there is a good bit I like of Horizon 4 over the other Forza games, but I also find myself going back to previous games.
Ill start by things I am happy changed, then go into why I find myself playing the previous one more.
First off, Horizon 4 finally brought it with more realism as far as car specific sounds go like they had in Motorsport 3, which I was wondering why that disappeared for a time to begin with. Now every car has a very specific realistic tone, not some generic half made tone like a few of the games between Motorsport 3 and now had.
Another great thing from Horizon 3 to now, no more needing a Lambo engine, or even the option of such, in every single freaking car. V12 swaps in every car in existence is no more. Also, the engine swaps available are more idealistic to the specific car. Also on this note, the different engines make more respectable power. Before, if you wanted to do a racing v8 engine of some sort in H3, you would find it capping out around 800hp. Damn near no muscle car v8 would make over 1000hp. Now we have more engine options that will make it in the 4 digits and not be absolutely decimated by the 1515hp engine that was in everything in H3. Definitely gave more fairness to racing different platforms and having a more personal touch on what each player prefers to race with no huge default advantage gap.
One particular fun and exciting new bit from H4 is Forzathon Live. Being able to do Forzathon events in this way definitely is a lot of fun and was a great expansion on the game. They touched on this in H3 with the playground games that would sometimes pop up, but this is a whole new level of fun with the constant live world map.
Houses and businesses were an interesting addition. Businesses are a cool idea, but not so sure how much of a difference they really make to me personally at least for the game play. The houses however I do like. Being able to go somewhere besides the festival and having your own preferred place to go to is a good aspect of the game.
I think this is the last bit of what I like, and that would be the addition of the drift angle kits and axle width. I definitely enjoy just breaking out from the typical races and drifting along the tight bends just to unwind a bit and the angle kits make this a bit more fun and the axle width gives a better look for some of the cars. More controllable drift angle with the proper tuning makes connecting each corner at a greater speed much more achievable and therefore much more pleasurable in general.
The changing seasons I also highly enjoy. I loved Blizzard mountain in H3 and was really happy to hear that got expanded on. Makes for more fun taking pictures, different experiences racing, and more fun doing specific custom tuning.
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Now for the list that is really hurting the experience of this game. Ill start with the very minuscule things, then work up to more aggravating issues.
First off, H3 playlists were much more uplifting and inviting. With the exception of say Timeless, just about any radio station had fun music that drew you in and got you more into the game. H4, the music is mundane, boring, easily tuned out. Not sure if this was supposed to be of more “peaceful” nature to portray the setting in such a way, but it makes it easy to get tired during the game play.
Also, what happened to the car list?!?! I’m sure there are some legal copywrite issues that lead to this, or at least hopefully that’s the reason, but some of the fan favorite cars are completely gone. And I know some people like oddities, but to have some of the original favorites replaced with vans, or the 3 wheel Morgan nobody ever uses, is a bit disappointing. New game should come with new exciting cars, not the same list minus some favorites, and adding some oddball off the wall cars. There are a few newbies that are exciting, don’t get me wrong. Just sucks that it came at the expense of some original fun street cars as well. Maybe they are coming later as additions though, its a little early still which is why this is up as one of the minuscule points.
Now for a part that I get, but think it should be done a bit differently. The drift sections on the map. Seems like its split, half on road, half off road. I feel like they should have the off road ones labeled as a rally section. It wont even count points unless you are on off road tires, and the faster you go through it and the more angle, the more points you get. The actual drift sections should be on road surfaces only with an on road setup, and work the same with more points for more speed and more angle. Again, minuscule aspect, just something I thought of.
Now to get into some bits that are making game play a bit more irritating. First Ill start with objectives and game progressions. I spent 3 hours playing, already completed all 5 showcases, and probably could’ve done it faster. I like to goof off a lot though. There’s only 1 main central festival this time. So the feeling of accomplishment by progressing to the next big thing such as a new festival, or new showcase event, isn’t there. What seems to be all the big unlocks is already done so incredibly early in the game. H3 was exciting in splitting up the map to unlock new festivals, and to get each new festival, you had to do the showcases. So it took some time to work through. Now the showcases, and the races, and everything is thrown at you right away, its more like trying to make sense of a giant mess, than progression. Even the barn finds, I am currently only missing 2 barn finds right now. (Again, I goof off a lot). There were times I had 4 barn finds at once on my map. Every single thing you can do in this game, and all the different directions, are thrown at you and bombarding you into confusion. The main stuff is done. Its now like I played Spyro, beat the boss, now I’m just looking for random gems I missed. That’s not fun, there’s no story left. So the overall story line here is actually less than disappointing. It needs a new word because so much was over so quickly.
H3 was a lot more upbeat, inviting, and had a decent progression. Funny thing is, I thought the progression in that game was a little fast even because you could get into a super car so fast and race x class right from the first area. Overall progression was a lot better at least.
Now for the last thing that is just incredibly annoying. I am so sick and tired of these wheel spins. Okay, I get we have more avatar customization now, so there are cool little things we can win. And it opens up winning things so we aren’t always getting cars or racking up 10mil in 2 days of racing. Cool, I get that. But then you added the super wheel spin in as well. So you tried to create a gap in winnings, then gave more chances to win, so had to make that gap even larger. Wheelspins are just frustrating now because I’m either getting a dab dance move no one sees for more than a second at the end of a race and doesn’t care about, some stupid horn for the cars, or stupid santa shorts and a gold metallic top to make my avatar look like they are working the corner in winter. Might get a car or money 1/10 spins. Meanwhile its all frustrating stupid stuff that maybe 20% of players even care about, because the rest actually play the racing game for racing and driving, not dressing up their avatar in a chickensuit and making them do the carlton dance at the end of a race.
So to sum it all up, I’ll play Horizon 4 for some of the cool new features when I want a change, but will otherwise replay Horizon 3 as it is a better overall game that had me drawn in for longer than 3 hours. I’ve now put about 14 hours into H4, completed a couple different portions of gameplay, and it’s still boring and monotonous.