Imagine being in control of the biggest car festival the world has ever seen. As the boss, you control everything, from the type of cars to the music stations. Your goal is clear, create a reputation so unbelievable, that every driver from across the world wants to be part of your experience. Forza Horizon 3 gives you this opportunity and gives you the most beautiful playground ever seen. Welcome to Australia.
The outback is calling
Australia forms the new scenery of the Forza Horizon and it’s by far the best-looking map we came across with. The sunny Rio of Forza 6 already showed the potential of sunny locations but nothing can be compared to the rough outback of Australia. The outback is only a small portion of the entire map but it’s the portion that feels most Australian in my opinion. Everything about the outback is amazing and the team made sure they included the most typical Australian elements. There’s something magical about racing next to the famous Pink Lakes while driving across the dry red dessert filled with huge rocks minutes later. It’s clear, Australia is a unique location and it fits perfectly with an open-air car festival.
But, as said before, the outback isn’t the only location. Australia is a land of differences and so is this map. Besides the rough and dry outback, you’ll be racing in a green rainforest; across some of the prettiest shorelines you’ve ever seen and even in modern cities. The map of Horizon 3 is amazing and offers a huge amount of variation to keep you going, time after time. If you’re into street races, you’ll find it here. If you’re more into races on a sunny beach, you’ll find it. Like to race in a wide-open environment, you’ll find it. The map is the ultimate fan service and perhaps the best-looking map the developers every created.
In order to give you that realistic feeling, the team actually went to Australia to take tons of pictures and videos of everything that looked impressive. Back over at the studio, those elements were put together to create this map, which isn’t a replica of Australia but rather an homage to everything that makes Australia great. A great bonus here are the clouds, those are actually real pictures of the real clouds that were implemented in the game. This results in the best clouds we’ve ever seen, the weather conditions are extremely realistic and yes, it can certainly rain in Australia!
You are the boss
The biggest difference between this Horizon game and the previous ones, is that you’re in full control this time. Where you were a driver first, you’re the boss now. As boss, you’re responsible for creating the most memorable Horizon festival the world has ever seen. You can do so by creating several festival locations or by creating own events. These events are called blueprint events and can be created on every route you want.
The perfect racing experience
In a blueprint event you set up the rules, ranging from types of cars to amount of laps and weather conditions. You can even name your event to get some more attention from the other gamers. That’s right, every event you create, gets shared with the community. This also means you can play an incredible amount of races on the same route. Where you could only play the Horizon races in the past, you’ll be able to compete in a lot of different races, created by the community. This is by far the best part of being the boss of the festival, aside from creating your own events, being a boss feels a lot like being a regular driver to be honest.
In order to be the best boss of a festival, you’ll need fans and to get those, you’ll need to compete in a lot of racers. Your personal assistant leads you to interesting races or so-called PR-stunts. The races look familiar to the ones we saw in Horizon 2, meaning there’s a lot of variety and a lot of different car types to mess around with. The PR stunts on the other hands, feature speed traps, danger signs, dangerous jumps or bucket list challenges with exclusive cars. It’s great to compete in these kinds of things but collecting fans feel like rather shallow excuses to compete in those as the boss. In our opinions, being the boss should have lead to more opportunities. There are some fun gimmicks like convoys (honk at random cars to ride in a convoy and race them while you’re heading to your location) but all in all, it doesn’t feel that different from being a regular driver in the festival.
Don’t get me wrong, the gameplay itself is incredible and the amount of things to do is just insane but it just doesn’t feel that different from Horizon 2, which is a shame since we’re definitely competing for the festival from a different perspective.
A lot to see
As said before, there are tons of things to do in Horizon 3. You have regular races, illegal street races, drift races, to keep a long story short, everything you want to do is possible in Horizon 3. The best part about it, is that you can do it with an incredible list of cars. To discuss every car would take us ages; so instead, you should take a look at the list of cars here. No, we’re not joking, that’s the legit amount of cars that are all playable in the game, which is truly amazing if you ask us! It’s great to see that the team included some funnier cars as well and even manages to include the iconic Halo Warthog, which feels right at home in the rough outback.
Besides the car, Australia offers a lot of interesting roads and views to discover. If you like to explore, you’ll sometimes bump into a barn, including an old but legendary vehicle. This is the developer’ way of encouraging you to go off-road and explore the environment. The number of cars is insane but so is the amount of distance you’re able to drive in Horizon 3.
An entirely new vehicle class
It’s been a while since Forza introduced an entirely new vehicle class. That’s not really a surprise if you see the car list, featuring muscle cars, all-terrain cars, sports cars, import cars and a lot more. Forza Horizon 3 has to honor to introduce the buggy to that list and it’s a perfect addition to the already impressive roster. The buggy is the perfect vehicle to race in the rainforest or outback locations. Sure, you can use it in the city as well but that’s not why this vehicle is included.
Fans of the Forza games will relate to this, but the difference between the road and the off-road sections is enormous. If you’re driving a streetcar off-road, you’ll slip and fail to gain control over and over again. That’s where the buggy comes in handy. Since the suspension is created separately for the front and back tires, the vehicle will rarely lose its grip on rougher grounds. The buggies are a sight for sore eyes thanks to this realistic suspension and they quickly became my all-time favorite off-road vehicle for sure. It’s great to finally have them available in Forza!
Social interaction
Just like other Forza games, the social interaction plays a very important role in the game. The Drivatars return for example, these are digital ghosts of your friends that pop up in the game. A Drivatar is based on your own skills, so the better your friend, the better his Drivatar. These play a crucial role in your game since you can hire up to four different Drivatars to compete in your races. If you include popular Drivatars, more people will come to your festival and you’ll be able to expand even faster. The only downside about it is that you can only recruit up to four. Want to replace one? Well, you’ll need to fire one of your friends, which could result in awkward situations.
Besides the return of the Drivatars, the online options are great. You can go head to head in online racers or you can complete the campaign in co-op for the first time. This is an amazing experience and I can truly recommend playing the entire game with your friends. You can help each other out or try to beat high scores together. Everything you do in co-op is transferred to the solo adventure and vice versa, so you’ll never lose any point.
To make things even more fun, the developers will keep the online community busy with a lot of special events. These events or championships will let you compete in several races, if you end up first at the end, you’ll win some amazing cars. These competitions feature fan-demanded cars so we’re sure a lot of gamers will compete in these races. Also take note that you can race in a lot of fan-created events and you just know this game got you covered for months to come.
Unlock new skills
The last thing worth mentioning are the skills. Just like the other Forza games, you can gain skill points by performing special things like drifts, landscaping, jumping and more. These points can be traded in for skills. Most skills are similar to the other Forza games. There are skills that will increase your points for example and there are skills that will grant you instant rewards. The most innovative ones are the boss skills. These offer you new tools to mess around with as boss of the festival. There are silly ones like different horns but the most impressive one is without a doubt the drone mode.
It only costs you one skill point but the drone mode will give you a lot in return. By activating the drone mode, you’ll park your car next to the road and you’ll be able to fly over the environment and scout the route before you start the race. You can also use the drone mode while playing with friends and this is perhaps the perfect tool to create the most professional looking fan-made videos ever. Prepare for a Forza Horizon 3 YouTube invasion soon!
Conclusion:
Forza Horizon 3 is a dream coming true for the car fanatics. With tons of playable cars and tons of great places to discover, this might be the best Forza Horizon to date. Australia forms the perfect playground thanks to the huge difference in landscape. Besides that, the game has tons of events and tools to mess around with as boss of the festival. Also, note that the online interaction offers a lot of fan-created content and you know you’ll have fun playing this game until the next one releases. Don’t hesitate when you see this one in stores, it’s worth every penny!
