Review: Forza Motorsport

As I’m revving my engine and eyeing up the competition, my fingers unconsciously begin to tremble with each passing second of the countdown – adrenaline coursing through my body. And in the blink of an eye, 24 immaculate vehicles simultaneously burn rubber down the speedway, accelerating at high speeds with motors roaring with ferocity. The corners are sharp and the competition is fierce, but when I get behind the wheel, everyone else is only visible in my rearview mirror. Forza Motorsport delivers an immersive racing experience that players of all skill levels can get behind as jaw-dropping visuals and thundering audio fuel every single competitive lap from starting position to the checkered flag.

Our goal was to create a live, connected, immersive, accessible, and ever-changing competitive racing platform that will evolve and grow with our community.

Dan Greenawalt, General Manager, Forza Motorsport, Turn 10 Studios

Before speeding their way to the winner’s circle, players are thrust into the Builders Cup Intro Series which serves as the obligatory tutorial for Forza Motorsport and provides valuable insight regarding the fresh new direction that Turn 10 is establishing with this iteration of the franchise: building up your vehicle and pushing it beyond the perceived limitations. There are roughly 500+ cars available at launch and that feels daunting but Dan Greenawalt, General Manager of Forza Motorsport, Turn 10 Studios emphasis their larger vision for the game: finding ten cars that are important to yourself which logically are different from your friends and community members – honestly quite refreshing to hear.

While I’ve never truly been much of a car enthusiast, I can at least pretend to know what I’m talking about thanks to the upgrading and tuning section of Forza Motorsport which is where I transformed into Tony Stark himself, tinkering away all through the night. Performance allows you to purchase parts that offer minor improvements to your builds or you can throw caution to the wind and manufacture a nonsensical Mr. Bean inspired 1965 Mini Cooper S which I’m confident that Rowan Atkinson would approve – the actor is also a well known car fanatic. Tuning is where things get a lot more technical and mathematically involved but Forza Motorsport explains each area including Damping and Suspension Geometry in ways that even a novice like myself can understand; doesn’t hurt to experiment.

But before setting your sights on attaining first place, it’s pivotal to test out your builds – accessible from the Tune Setup menu. Parameters here are simplified with Tracks, Track Layout, Time of Day, and Weather being the only options allowed to be altered; laps are still timed but there are no opponents bothering you whilst freestyling on the racetrack. Controls are adequate for a racing game but anyone hoping for a next-generation immersive experience on Xbox Series X|S are going to be disappointed due in part to the limitations of the Xbox Wireless Controller and its lack of any haptic feedback trigger buttons. Roaring engines certainly get the blood pumping but impulse triggers stifle things.

Limitations aside, the graphics of Forza Motorsport are nothing short of phenomenal – particularly the textures on the cars themselves and damage from sideswiping opponents. The Xbox Series X|S has lots to offer under the hood and that translates well to Forza Motorsport as Turn 10 implemented a 24-hour day/night cycle and dynamic weather system that subtly changes by the end of the race. I started out with clear sunny skies which gradually shifted to a rain soaked midnight spectacle – roads become slick and strategies needed to compensate. The photorealistic graphics and real-time ray tracing renderer elevates the authenticity of everything which makes Photo Mode ripe for social media content.

Once the game has been released, we expect to regularly add new content with monthly content drops that will help you fall in love with cars through skill and competition, as well as tweaks to gameplay and systems.

Chris Esaki, Creative Director, Forza Motorsport, Turn 10 Studios

What about the tracks?! There are twenty fan-favourite tracks – rebuilt for Forza Motorsport – and five original tracks available at launch with more being distributed through FREE monthly updates including Yas Marina Circuit from the previous three entries. That’s right, Forza Motorsport is going live service moving forward and that is going to be divisive – exciting players or turning them off. I’m optimistic this is the right move for the franchise considering other popular titles including Call of Duty and Fortnite have been able to successfully adapt well to this market. The developers are able to construct amazing courses leaving plenty of opportunities for players to improve their skills and personal times.

As if 500+ cars at launch wasn’t enough, Car Pass owners will be awarded with a new car every week for thirty weeks while others will appear in the Showroom and can be acquired through Car Points (CP) earned in-game. Players can also participate in Open Tours and Featured Tours which offer cars as prizes for completing everything within that particular engagement. These type of events are a surefire way to keep players engaged and coming back for more and the non-anxiety inducing timeframes to complete them are welcome in my book as jobs, family, and other responsibilities should always come first and foremost. Honestly, I felt like a kid in a candy store perusing the Showroom but didn’t feel obligated to buy EVERYTHING in sight – five or six serious contenders is satisfactory to me.

You want multiplayer? Forza Motorsport shifts into turbo with Featured Multiplayer where drivers all over the world compete in two different modes. Spec-Series uses pre-tuned cars to remain competitive and create an equal playing field whereas Open Series is purely BYOC – bring your own car! Content creators can take advantage of Private Multiplayer servers for community game nights or those simply looking to hang out with their friends and drive by their own rules. Campaigns are great but you can’t beat the exhilaration of multiplayer matches which is where I will be spending an exuberant amount of time in the near future; perfect for testing out all of my latest custom builds and unlocks.

Verdict

Forza Motorsport has reignited the franchise and transformed it into an experience that will continuously change as much as the drivers themselves. Pivoting towards a live service model provides opportunities for fresh content to be introduced on a regular basis and gives players motivation to come back and try their hand at something new and challenging. Turn 10 understands what works for this genre – cars and competition – paving the way for players to narrow their focus on a handful of cars rather than overwhelming them with too many flavours of oil-rich vehicular goodness.

Final Rating: 8.0/10

Forza Motorsport launches on October 10th, 2023 exclusively for Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC.

Xbox Canada provided SophistiGamer with an early copy of Forza Motorsport for review purposes.