Under normal conditions, cities and roads have looked great in racing games for a long time, though it’s the extremes where FH2 really shines. It has a noticeable impact, even on my untrained eyes. In particular, Forza 5 had problems with aliasing - visibly jagged lines, particularly along the edges of body panels - and that seems to have been completely cleared up here. The cars and scenery are as flawless as I’ve seen in any console effort. FH2 has some of the finest graphics I’ve seen on the still-young Xbox One (and launch title Forza 5 had already set a tremendously high benchmark for next-gen racers). The cars and scenery are as flawless as I’ve seen in any console effortīut boy, what gorgeous road trips those are. Getting from Nice to Castelletto takes some time, even in a 903-horsepower McLaren P1. It has a weird effect: even though FH2 is an undeniably massive open world with over 700 individual events to enter, I often found that it felt smaller than the original because you’re frequently being ushered between different event-dense areas separated by long stretches of open road. What’s different from the first Horizon, though, is that you’ll take a bunch of forced, guided road trips as you progress, relocating from village to village.
It’s a great way to familiarize yourself with the controls (especially if you’re new to racing games, or it’s been a minute since you’ve loaded up Forza 5). Wash, rinse, repeat.įH2 begins with a required, non-competitive "road trip" to the game’s home base, driving your choice of a small handful of starter vehicles. As the XP builds up, you’ll earn new wristbands, which entitle you to enter more events.
FORZA HORIZON 2 DRIVERS
Each town in the FH2 universe is centered around a multi-race championship, but there’s no real pressure to plow through those series - you can just putt around town, complete challenges, turn up the surprisingly deep radio selection (Microsoft says there are "nearly" 150 tracks in the game), and challenge other drivers to short races for experience points and cash. The basic premise of the game is to drive around and participate in different types of driving events.