Hello Playground games, Turn 10, and fellow Horizon fans. Since 2016, I have been enamored by the Horizon series starting with Forza Horizon 3. Following that title, I played all Horizon titles after that and acquired the previous 2 titles so I could learn and play the titles that started it all. I’ve played racing games since 2004 with my first 2 games being NFS Underground, and Most Wanted, then playing the titles that followed that specific series, playing the Test Drive Unlimited series, and The Crew series. All this experience has really allowed me to understand what I want out of a racing/driving game, and I think that the Horizon series needs to implement several changes to not just serve the dedicated fans but also fulfill the living festival vibe they want so badly.
- Meaningful Progression
o Bring back the wristband progression system. Each wristband is for its coordinating PI level that you are allowed to drive. You must complete a certain number of races (increasing in number per promotion) to progress to the next wristband level.
o Implement new bosses for each wristband, and have “mini bosses” for each race type:
§ Road Racing
§ Offroad Racing
§ Rally
§ Cross Country
§ Drag Racing
§ Street racing
- Living Festivals
o Bring back Horizon 3’s upgradable festival mechanic and enhance this by the addition of materials delivery missions to build the festivals.
o After that certain festival is built, the player unlocks certain events, pr stunts, and new car delivery missions for that festival using the Ford Dually and a trailer to haul cars to the festival sites.
o Delivery missions for the festivals could also be expanded to include part delivery missions using the vans that are in the game, or a box truck could be added. These routes would be from the respective festival to player houses since we have garages in the player houses.
- Taxi service
o Bring back the taxi service that was in Forza Horizon 4 but with a twist. Implement A.I. to keep this a steady and reoccurring event type instead of having the service act like a Horizon story.
o All taxi and delivery jobs should be available in free roam to keep immersion and allow changes in scenery and weather with the constant evolving world without loading screens.
- Rally!!!
o Include the mechanics that were added in the Rally adventure DLC from Horizon 5, just enhance them with a legit co-driver with pace notes, not a helicopter and have these events on the main map instead of behind the paywall of DLC.
- Drag Racing
o Enhance drag races to have a real working drag tree system or at least a visual tree system so we can have real drag races.
§ Include pink slips and betting since all the races in Horizon are street legal, betting just adds to the feel and raises the stakes. You could also add this with the mini boss feature I mentioned above for more rewarding gameplay.
- Immersion
o Allow players to walk around their cars, houses, garages, and meetup locations (like parking garages).
o Enhance the simulation difficulty setting by adding fuel and tire wear and having gas stations around the map to refuel. (This is still toggleable like the setting in the game now, this just adds to the immersion for the sim setting.)
- Event types
o Add these events to truly allow players freedom of choice with polished races instead of relying solely on the fantastic event lab feature.
§ Lap elimination races: last driver on each lap is eliminated
§ Outrun races: a racing version of tug-of-war that drains the opponents meter the farther ahead you are.
§ Touge battles- 1v1 mountain battles
§ Drift events: Add dedicated drift events outside of the drift zone pr stunts. That way players can have real structured drift competitions.
§ Championships: Bring back championships outside of the festival playlist.
§ Time trial events: allow rivals events to be selected in the specific race menu, not just secluded to a menu item.
- Horizon Stories
o Enhance the “Horizon” story chapters with more depth, variation, and personality. You could use these stories to add to the lore and exploration of the map to make sure that the map is fully used.
- Exploration
o Bring back beauty spots and real barn finds.
- Vehicle trading and lobby system
o Allow the players to sell and trade cars with friends, without having the auction house or the gifted barn find “feature”
- Accolade and Hall of Fame
o Keep this!
o Just add more titles and emblems for players bragging rights that show up on their name.
- RANKED RACING
o Please bring this back and improve it using the club rules from Forza Motorsport to ensure proper racing and sportsman-like conduct.
- Map addition
o Since Horizon 6 is set in Japan, add the Hakone circuit from Motorsport and add an oval and figure 8 in the layout to truly make it a playground.
- Horizon Test Track
o Keep this but enhance it, make the test drive a real function when upgrading cars in festivals or in player garages.
- Festival Playlist
o STOP RECYCLING CARS and add the cars to the auto show or implement the backstage pass feature earlier in the life cycle so FOMO isn’t the main feature in the game. FOMO sucks.
o ADD GHOSTING IN THE TRIAL OR ANY PVP EVENTS, if ghosting isn’t an option, penalize rammers and dirty racers with time penalties.
I understand that this was quite the read but, as a dedicated fan of Horizon and open-world racers, these changes to Horizon could truly cement the series as a true Festival racer and serve the community far more than you may realize. I hope that these changes don’t come as harsh critiques but sincere and passionate pleas for change. I love the Horizon series, but I do wish that it would fully live to its potential, and be the juggernaut of the racing game and open world franchise.
Sincerely,
Logan