Forza Motorsport 2 Review
May 29, 2007
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Whatever you're looking for in a driving game, Forza Motorsport 2 will serve it up in spades. Microsoft's latest driving game sets the benchmark for next-gen realistic racing, blending an accessible difficulty level with realism that'll satisfy even the most picky car fans. It's great on your own, it's great online, it's packed with vehicles and tracks, and it plays like a dream. In short, Forza Motorsport 2 is everything fans of its outstanding predecessor have been hoping for.
Surprisingly, Forza 2's not going to knock your socks off visually. It aims for smoothness rather than visual pizzazz -- you'll see the difference in the really quick sections where Forza blazes along faster than a fat lass rolling down a hill. Given the choice between a few flash-in-the-pan graphical gimmicks and Forza's creamy smoothness, we'll take the latter every time, even if it means your friends aren't going to be quite as impressed with the game. Besides, if it's uber-realism you're after, the photo mode provides plenty.
You're probably be familiar with the routine of Forza's single player game: Buy a car, race it, win money, upgrade your car, win some more money, buy a new car, repeat. You progressively gain access to higher tier championships as you play, and the progression is sensibly thought out, from broad, open competitions to more specific manufacturer (or even model) centered races. Some impose horsepower limits, making you pore through the upgrade menus to find the perfect combination of mods to get you just under the bar with maximum drivability.
One particular stand-out: Some hours into the game, you'll unlock a new tier of races with high-dollar rewards. The catch is, you're limited to just one model. Suddenly, you must set aside your main ride's 450 horsepower and hop in a Ford Focus. A stock Ford Focus. This makes Forza a dramatically different game. The howl of a high-powered engine in your rear speakers is gone altogether, replaced by a meager, almost embarrassing whine. The switch from high-powered, high-adrenaline racing to trundling around in a grocery-getter is challenging -- not to mention a little humorous.
Forza lets you control the difficulty level for every race. You can toggle ABS, traction control, damage, tire wear and so on. When playing on harder settings, you'll receive an extra percentage bonus on your winnings. The bonus isn't huge, however, so you're free to pitch the game's difficulty at a level you feel comfortable. Turn on all the aids and stick to easy-to-handle cars and it's almost an arcade game. Grab an overpowered rear-wheel drive missile and push the realism to maximum level, and any driving sim fan will be in for a challenge.
Thanks to ever-improving console technology, we're really beyond the point where discussion of the realism of a driving sim like Forza is useful. By now, the art of making a virtual car move in a lifelike way seems to be pretty well understood, and Forza's cars convince completely -- much like the rest of the handful of realistic car games still around. One area Forza sets itself apart from the Gran Turismo series -- its main competitor -- is the way it makes you feel.
In Gran Turismo, there's a very narrow window in which you feel like you're driving right on the edge of available grip. Push it too far and you'll lose control dramatically. Go too slow and you feel like someone's granny. Forza, on the other hand, seems to create a much wider zone of excitement. Even if you're not constantly on the verge of losing control, it feels like you might be. Which is more realistic? No idea. But we know which one plays better.
It's much easier to judge the realism of Forza 2's computer controlled cars, and, on balance, it's impressive. They create an impression of genuine, fallible drivers without racing too clean, or turning the whole thing into a game of bumper cars. It pulls off the odd boneheaded move, and does occasionally suffer from one of the plagues of console racer AI, which is the tendency to slavishly protect its racing line while ignoring all other traffic. On balance, though, it's more than adequate.
It's worth breaking off here for a moment to discuss the Forza wheel. OK, it's not actually called that (it's called the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel instead), but it might as well be. It certainly makes a great difference to the Forza experience. You feel every little bump; every nuance of the racetrack. Lock the wheels under braking and you'll feel the front end go disconcertingly light. Hit the rough stuff and it'll fight you for control. Microsoft just trimmed $20 off the price tag, but it's still a costly offering. But take it from us -- it's worth every penny.
Single player mode not doing it for you? Fire up the online mode. You'll find a commendably complete set of racing and community functions. You can auction cars to other players (for pretend Forza money, naturally), watch others race, compete against your fellow Forza players, race in an online career mode -- the whole lot. As we're increasingly coming to expect from Xbox Live games, it Just works: Every feature you could hope for is in there, and the interface, as usual, is slick and trouble-free.
Another interesting detail will be to see how the demand for individually customized cars pans out. In the original Forza, some talented players were able to use the game's comparatively limited painting tools to create astonishingly complex designs. It's not hard to see those fetching big (virtual) bucks.
Picking holes in Forza 2 is not easy. But our only real gripe with the game is that the car list is a little, well, pedestrian. All the usual suspects are here, but it would have been good to have a few more oddball selections. Where's the Ariel Atom? The Bugatti Veyron? The Caterham 7? Fingers crossed that the developers are holding back the off-the-wall stuff for the inevitable downloadable updates. We'll see.
To put it mildly, Forza 2 is not a difficult game to recommend. Not only is there no driving game on the Xbox 360 to match it, there is no current-gen driving game to match it, period. Any car fan with a 360 in the house is sure to be delighted with Forza 2. You'd be crazy to miss it.