[Poll] Forza Horizon's single player experience

Forza Horizon Forza Horizon 5 FH5 Discussion
1

Which of the following best describes your experience with Forza Horizon 5’s single player experience?

  • Strongly Enjoyed
  • Enjoyed
  • Indifferent
  • Disappointed
  • Strongly Disappointed
0 voters

Select whichever applies to your experience with Forza Horizon 5’s singleplayer experience if applicable

  • Too Repetitive
  • Too short
  • Lack of story
  • Lack of vehicle restrictions
  • Lack of meaningful progression
  • Other (feel free to comment below)
0 voters

Would you prefer the series return to a single player career style similar to the orginal Forza Horizon where events have their own restrictions set by the developers, or are you happy with how races allow you to use whatever car you want?

  • Events with restrictions set by developers, like how it was done in the original Forza Horizon
  • I prefer being able to hop into a race in any car I want
  • Other (feel free to comment below)
0 voters
1 Like
2

I’m just going to stick with my unpopular opinion and say Forza doesn’t need a story.
FH1 is now 12 years old and had a pretty basic story of ‘work yourself to the top and beat the boss’. I really enjoyed playing it, but I’m good for now and there are way too many games having a story like that, I’m done I’ve already seen it all, thank you.
If I want to play a good story I can hop into a NFS, or if I want progression I can play CarXStreet, but when I want to play Forza, I’m looking for ‘any car I want at any time’.

What a lot of people don’t want to realize is that the parts they don’t like about FH5 are the parts that set it apart from other games and a big reason a lot of people like Forza so much. When they introduced the CarXP system in FM, they had to redo it cause Forza players don’t want limitations or how you call it “progression”. Forza is all about ‘do whatever you want’ and FH6 will probably get in trouble with their players if they implement progression.
I have nothing against a good story, though in my opinion it needs to be separate from the rest of the game, as I don’t want to have to play through a story before I can go into competitive MP and start tuning expensive cars.

6 Likes
3

I Enjoy Forza immensely and have voted accordingly

However I clicked Other for the second question:

There are no achievable long term goals in Horizon 5:

  1. Leader boards - I play on an X-box no cheat mods = no top of leader board
  2. Collect all cars - well unless you wish to come off game and haggle for someone to give you them.
  3. Accolades - too many were 1 week only, and I’ve missed them, need a specific car, see item 2. etc
  4. Do up all cars in all formats - too many saves of that type.

Every time I think I’ve found something, I run into a wall

I want an achievable big goal! And menus that aren’t designed to be deliberately slow to use.

I’ve quit in frustration many times, one day I’ll not come back.
(I know the “Good Riddance” is coming, just save yourself the effort and hassle someone else cos I really don’t care :slight_smile: )

Could Forza have knocked Minecraft off the top slot if it had cleaned up it’s act and didn’t loose so many players to frustration and lack of goals? - I’d like to find out, but instead we are stuck with unpoliced leader boards, missing cars that sit 100’s deep in someone’s collection of rarities they’ve taken out of play and TOO MANY SAVES OF THAT TYPE!

And still I’ve come back ???

FORZA get your act together this could be great.

4 Likes
4

Prestige level 8 here so I have played the game a lot.

One of the biggest problems with Horizon 5 is the map is pretty boring. I recall discovering all roads within 2 days during the pre-launch period. Compare that to both Car X and TDU Solar Crown that I’ve been playing since they launched a couple of weeks ago. Despite specifically driving around a lot to discover new roads I’m still at about 70% discovered on both. Both of those show how bad the Horizon 5 map is.

Then the next major problem is cheating and leaderboards full of crap results. Why should I bother trying to move up the leaderboard or accolade leaderboard if I have no chance since I’m not cheating?

7 Likes
5

I’ve played the last three Horizons, so I don’t know how the original game handled things, but I do know that the franchise could use a better form of singleplayer progression than it currently has. That doesn’t have to be in the form of restricting certain car classes until you earn them (though “working your way up from the bottom” can be good if done right), or even some involved narrative (because let’s face it, that would probably be terrible), but something that takes an extended period of time and makes you feel accomplished for having completed it. I’m not counting the various stories in 4 and 5 as part of this progression, because they’re just kind of…there: you play them, you 3-star all of the stages, you collect your rewards, and you probably never think about them again. I want something more all-encompassing than that.

Out of what I have played, I think 3 did it the best. As you leveled up, you got to unlock and then upgrade the various Festival locations, which unlocked new events and stunts at each one. It gave you a choice on where you wanted to focus, and from what I remember it took a decent amount of playtime to get everything fully unlocked. Granted the final Showcase that “ended” the progression was super-lame, but you can’t win them all. And even after you finished that up, there were still unique championships at every single race location that would take a whole bunch of playing to fully complete. (One of these days I’ll go back and actually finish those.)

4 was the worst for me. I barely count that initial seasonal cycle as “progression,” as it was really more of an extended introduction, plus it didn’t take much time at all to work through. I pretty much broke it on my original playthrough by redeeming all of my Car Pass cars at the start; I got so much car collector influence that it turned into a season speedrun. After that you have leveling up the various Horizon Life disciplines to unlock all of the events and stunts, but again, those don’t take long; a couple of Playlist weeks would get you most of the way there. And then there’s…pretty much nothing. Unless you count buying player houses or something, but besides one or two most of them don’t do anything functional.

I thought 5 was a step back in the right direction, but not enough. The expeditions were legitimately fun, and again they gave you the choice of what parts of the game to unlock first, but each one was too short, and after they were done all you were left with was the Playlist again. Ideally I’d like to see 6 take this idea and build on it somehow.

Honestly the expansions have usually had the best progression implementation. In 3, Hot Wheels and Blizzard Mountain both had the star system that forced you to not only win each race, but complete certain tasks while doing so, some of which were legitimately challenging and took multiple attempts. In 4, Fortune Island had the treasure hunt novelty but was pretty bare-bones otherwise, but in contrast Lego Speed Champions had that entire huge challenge board that you had to fully complete to unlock the final race. Hot Wheels in 5 did implement the strict class-based restrictions, which I thought worked reasonably well, and then Rally Adventure had the whole leveling system to unlock everything. The problem with the latter two is that they were ruined by the Playlist, because you had to complete most of them in the very first week if you wanted to start doing the Playlist events. Brilliant design decision there.

TL;DR, give me something as extended as 3, and maybe work in some of the design choices form 5.

10 Likes
6

I think it shows MS’s influence more than this, same as you I’ve always wanted a bigger map, I’d be happy if the graphical quality was still just at FH2 levels if it meant the map could be vastly bigger as a result.

But FH is a first party flagship game for MS and arguably their most reliable bet now, so it has to look as pretty as can be to show off the console, and ultimately that limits how big the map can be, graphical quality and map size in any open world are at opposing ends of the spectrum, and the devs have to/are forced to make their game at a particular point on it.

I think it’s rubbish but go on any news site or YouTube video comments sections and look how much people obsess over graphical things that really don’t matter in the bigger picture of any game, ray tracing for example, yeah it’s nice but it really isn’t one of the factors that makes a game good or bad.

But ultimately and sadly stuff like that is what catches the eye of casuals so games aiming for as broad an audience as possible focus on minor and superficial things like the aforementioned ray tracing, it’s easier to sell that to someone who only cares about/notices surface level stuff than let’s say…reworked AI or an in-depth gradual progression system.

I expect FH6’s map to be bigger but not by any huge jump, if it’s a Series exclusive that will help a bit but it will still be stifled and limited by MS demanding that the graphical quality is as high as possible.

7 Likes
7

I’m honestly astonished by some of these answers. Must be a lot of lurkers who didn’t play the older games voting.

Well, regardless, I really think Horizon 6’s career mode could benefit from a mixture of both its modern interpretations and the original. Personally, I think the best option is to have two rounds of the career mode.

Round one requires the player to compete in events with restrictions. This is a good way to prevent players from immediately jumping into Bugattis and killing any sense of progression the game can have without having to get rid of the game’s generosity.

Round two then allow players to complete all the events a second time, this time allowing the player to drive whatever they wish. Completing both rounds is required for 100 percent completion.

I feel like this a very good way to bring progression back to the games, but also prevents life after the career mode from being overly restrictive. Best of both worlds essentially. It also means the career mode is bit longer, so it should no longer be possible to complete the game in a week (excessive binge gaming notwithstanding).

5 Likes
8

It doesn’t really need a story. Just progression and context. Horizon 2 and 3 were aces at that. Feeble attempts at a story have only been a Horizon 4 and 5 thing. Horizon 1’s campaign was pretty typical of its time, and one of the better ones.

This is separate issue entirely. Progression itself isn’t the problem. Badly paced progression is. Games like Motorsport 8 and TDU Solar Crown just have flawed economies from top to bottom. Most older racing games (not at all, but most) were never this problematic with progression to the point where you got stuck and/or had to grind for eternity. If progression and the economy is handled with care in Horizon 6, this won’t be as much as problem as you think it might be.

Unpopular opinion of my own here, but racing games becoming so dependent on their multiplayer modes is one of the many factors that’s really neutering the genre, and Horizon especially. Most racing game nowadays are so bare bones because developers expect the multiplayer mode to do all the heavy-lifting, and Horizon is no exception. I’m not advocating for the removal the multiplayer mode obviously, but sacrificing the single player doesn’t fly with me either.

8 Likes
9

I agree in many ways.
I just think it would be best to get rid of progression at all and see the Forza games as more of a sandbox experience. Like BeamNG or most sim racing titles, where you own all cars as soon as you buy the dlc or if they’re standard in game and you can just do whatever you want.
The progression in that sense would then only come from accolades and challenges and not making money and buying cars.
The stories from FH2 upwards just didn’t do it for me, but FH2 & 3 at least had somewhat good progression as you said. I think a big part is also the Festival Playlist which somewhat hinders the player from having a feeling of achievement and therefore progression and is too repetitive and not to start talking about the FOMO. But I’m still not a fan of the driving races to make money, because if we’re honest, who’s not already rich after playing for 10h, the game just litters you with credits to an extend where you just ask yourself why is not everything for free already.

That of course coming from me who is usually bored by single player as real opponents are just so much more fun. I can only hope that FH6 brings a pleasant SP experience, while not compromising but expanding the MP experience with new modes, I would love Ranked to return, as that was something in FH4 that had a really good progression.

10

Well, you and I are never going to see eye to eye then, because we have complete opposite ideas of how these games should be.

3 Likes
11

I played FH1 for the first time after 2 years of FH4/5 and was absolutely bored to tears and frustrated beyond belief. terrible, cheesy, grindy, awful story and physics, no open map, paywalled upgrades… one of the worst gaming experiences of my life. you can’t go backwards with these games. I’m interested in playing FH3 to some extent, but nostalgia is the only thing the original has going on.

edit: I’m also one of those who believes 5 is immeasurably better than 4

12
  1. Allowing cheaters to the extent PG has is completely unacceptable. Attempting new rivals times or PR stunt times rings hollow when the leaderboard is full of scummy cheaters
  2. “Seasonal” accolades/races that never come back. Absolute hogwash. it’s one thing If I miss out on a car or cosmetic item, but creating lost media on purpose is just vile.
  3. On a more minor note, very little reason to keep playing after achieving the Hall of Fame. I suspect many casual players stop here.
  4. Story /writing are milquetoast at best, insipid at worst. Don’t even bother with a plot and voice acting
4 Likes
13

You really found Horizon 1’s story, dialogue, and voice acting bad compared to Horizon 5’s vague idea of all those things? I’m scriptwriter by trade, and I found Horizon 1 almost Shakespearian compared to what Horizon 5’s story missions revolved around, and that’s not even getting into the general bad game design of most of the missions.

1 Like
14

in terms of story and dialogue it’s sliiiiightly better, I guess, but not enough to make it a good game

15

I suppose that progression has to be a trade-off between the sense you’re going somewhere and the sense that this is some grind to be got out of the way. But at some stage it has to come to an end.

Obviously, there’s still prestige, but all that tells everyone is that you play the game a lot. Nothing comes of it, and just because I’m prestige 7 doesn’t mean that some level 75 player won’t legitimately DNF me in a race.

Kudos is another measure of progression that has no consequences. It doesn’t prompt me to acquire more and one of the means (I’m looking at you, gifting) is annoying.

I mostly ignored the stories (which I loathed in FH4) until they got forced on us, and I only completed the rest because I was bored. I thought the quality of the voice acting in the Do(ugh)nut Media story was especially phoned in, with each character recording their parts of the dialogue separately, which was then spliced together in a studio.

I endured the pain and suffering that is Horizon Open to reach level 1,000 in two parts a year apart during which time the car-and-tune exploiters seemed to dominate that game mode even more. It’s a good advert for the awfulness of Anything Goes. No, anything should not go because the playing field is the least level surface it’s possible to imagine. You either join the ranks of the assimilated or get annihilated. I mostly got annihilated.

I’d like to see better curbs on Open races that might be done quietly in the background. For example, if my S1-class car has 450hp, other cars in my lobby have about the same. I won’t be trying to race players whose cars have 1,000hp. Matchmaking might be (say it tentatively) nice. What about driver and safety ratings; or better still, cornering ratings?

Horizon Tour at least has some constraints on it. I’ve been playing it a fair amount of late, but must admit that it’s not much of a challenge because it’s the preserve of newer(/casual) players – with rare exceptions, and if I’m not winning all three races, I’m getting podiums. And, er, where’s the rewards for all this? Accolades? I don’t believe there are. Badges? I don’t recall them. And again, I’m doing this because I’m a bit bored and because I’d like to race other players, but refuse to do Open races outside of the Festival playlist.

I have no interest in the Eliminator, PGG, Super 7, Eventabs, Hide-and-Seek, or taking photos. The test track seems to have died a death because it featured in a couple of recent playlist events, which suggests that PGG were trying to encourage (new/more) players to use it. If I want to test a car, I do a race or two.

The FH4 map is better. Building this with the Eliminator in mind was a terrible decision because the picturesque stuff got shoved to the sides. Instead, we got emptiness with evil rocks, evil trees that would’ve broken in FH4, but don’t, and evil logs. And bigger ≠ better.

The expansions are a once-a-playlist visit. I have reasons for visiting the HW expansion on other occasions, but that seems to be a past thing these days. RA just seems to be a test for drivatar pathfinding on twisty roads. These are why I’ll just buy the base game of FH6 and wait for the Christmas sales to get the expansions.

5 Likes
16

There is to much traffic in solo mode, especially when doing pr stunts, then they suddendly spawn 100000000s of Npc cars and drivatars out of fresh air.
It was even worse in FH4, then it could be almost impossible to complete a pr stunts because of traffic cars and drivatars, but still it would be awesome to have a function to turn off traffic completely, if a sim game like Farming simulator can have it, Forza can.
Also the AI is way to intrusive during races, both in solo mode, and in convoys, always blocking you, pushing you, shoving you, even ramming you, doing everything they can to stop you from overtaking, if a real life racing driver did that, they would lose their license.
The golden rule in Forza is : Brake to late : Go off the road.
Brake a second to early : Get rammed by the AI.
So AI with more spatial awareness would be golden.

2 Likes
17
  • Too Short
  • Not Enough races (still)
  • Game just showers you with wheelspins, I hardly feel rewarded for my efforts, more lucky with my pulls.
  • No single player endgame to speak of whatsoever outside of the playlist, meanwhile FH3 had nearly unlimited endgame. The only limit was your own creativity in imagining new events.
  • Open world feels empty and is unengaging compared to FH3.
  • The soul of this franchise has been sacrificed on the alter of open matchmaking.

There have been legitimate improvements to the franchise, but the fundamental design of the game has gone down the toilet. But sure lets make a hide and seek mode instead of dealing with that.

7 Likes
18

Preface: Gen X gamer here so I was an adult before the internet was ever invented. If we had issues with someone we had to settle it face to face in person and not hide behind a keyboard 20k miles away with no consequences. When we told you to get off our lawn we really meant it. So with that said we were forced to do just about everything in life single player style without any yt or Google backups.

The first few decades of video gaming were all single player with a few exceptions of a 2 player as the only multi-player option. That in itself forced the industry to put out great games because if the single player content was bad then the game would fail completely.

The last decade or so the shift to multi-player has become the standard simply due to all of the children whinging and crying " I want to play these with my friends in the same instance ". As an example look at what happened to the latest Motorsport. A bunch of Horizon players were moaning about progression. The devs heard and listened then implemented their own interpretation of what they thought the audience wanted. Well as we know all of those same players are the ones complaining about the progression implementation. ( Be careful of what you wish for…)

All games need single player content from the day one player to the 5k hour endgame players to this day still for replay ability. It’s not just this series franchise or even gaming in general. I think it’s more about how time has a way of changing many things. This industry is no exception to that end.

To this day one of my favorite car games was NFS Porsche Unleashed (released 2000). Because it combined a tutorial style skill learning then followed by actual racing or stunt events against the clock involving what you just learned.

4 Likes
19

I guess my question is, what are we comparing “single player” to? I do virtually zero “online” stuff other than sharing tunes, to me the entire game is single player, right down to the weekly playlist. having other players or drivatars on the map or in races means very little to me

3 Likes
20

The dialogue in the game is something a Saturday morning cartoon characters would have. And not even a good cartoon.
Environments in the wilds look nice to me but the towns give me that liminal space feel. Guanajuato feels so unnatural place that I avoid going there unless I need to race there. No leisure visits.

I also miss the Business missions from FH4 as they gave me more attachment to the world. Now I’m just a perpetual visitor and not actually part of it.