It’s no secret that progression has become something of a pain point in Forza titles, especially Forza Horizon. Most of us enjoy the sandbox style gameplay, where it’s not hard to have more than enough money to buy any car in the game. However, many in the community feel that the game would benefit from a more restrictive career that forced players to make consequential decisions about the vehicles and upgrades they purchase.
I think we can have our cake and eat it here. I propose a system that starts off much less rewarding than current games. One that allows the player to select a starting car and then forces that player to stick with that cars for the majority of the early to mid game. Forza’s tuning and upgrade system is more than deep enough to support interesting gameplay even in tuning and upgrading a single car. After learning to adapt and upgrade the car from lower classes, the game slowly gives better payouts but never too much. I think a good goal would be for most players to end up with about 8-12 vehicles at the end of the career portion of the game.
After the player completes the career mode the classic Horizon experience opens up. After becoming the Festival Champion our driver is a famous racer and garners sponsorships and appearance fees making our payouts for every event have a Champion Modifier applied that adjusts the game economy back to the sandbox style game we have all come to enjoy.
I think this would increase the longevity of the game for many and create unique memories for players as they struggle their way to the top. Players have felt disengaged from the game world for a long time. If they have a reason to care about their cars they will. when they are handed out like candy they feel like nothing, but if they are something we have to learn to rely on they will always stick with us. In most racing games that first car holds a place of honor in the garage. In Horizon they are quickly forgotten but I think these changes could make us care about our cars again.