I’ve been continually surprised by just how long it’s been since the last mainline Forza game. Dating back to 2005, new entries in the series came out two years after their predecessor, which held true all the way until 2017. But 2019 saw no new game come out. Six years after Forza Motorsport 7, the series is dropping the numbering altogether and starting out as just Forza Motorsport.
Forza Motorsport retains the high quality that the franchise is known for, with a large amount of content and some of the best simcade racing you can find. However, it does have a bit less bang for your buck than the last game did, although we haven’t been able to purchase that for some time, so this is the best you’re going to do on PC, at least.
“Forza Motorsport retains the high quality that the franchise is known for, with a large amount of content and some of the best simcade racing you can find.”
Forza Motorsport 7 had over 700 cars and 32 tracks to choose from, offering a pretty wild amount of content. Conversely, Forza Motorsport has over 500 cars and only 20 tracks. The game is broken into single-player content and multiplayer, as per usual. The solo content focuses on what amounts to five different playlists, each containing four more specific playlists and a special showdown race.
These smaller playlists have between four and six races, and you’ll need to complete one to unlock the next. At the start of each playlist, you need to purchase a car, which you’ll have to stick with for the ensuing set of races. Each race you win gives you points, and your goal will be to finish in first place.
There are some wrinkles in the formula, though. The most major of these is how car progression is handled in Forza Motorsport. Each car you buy starts at level one and needs to be levelled up. Each time you level a car up, you get points that you’ll use to purchase upgrades for the car. But upgrades are locked behind car levels, so you’ll have to max out your car in order to access all of these parts.
A car gains experience while driving, typically by finishing segments or overtaking other cars. Doing this made me more invested in improving my cars, sure, but I can absolutely see how it might rub people the wrong way since it will take literal hours of grinding to max out a single vehicle. Granted, online races don’t utilize car upgrades at all, so this only counts for solo play.
These upgrades are broken up into a bunch of different car parts, such as engines, tires, and the like. Installing them boosts or inhibits a car’s speed, acceleration, handling, and braking. Obviously, the higher these are, the better your car’s performance is. Parts need to be properly balanced if you want a car’s stats a certain way, which adds a layer of agency that I appreciate.
“Visually, Forza Motorsport looks mostly as you’d expect for a realistic racing game. The dynamic weather effects make the tracks themselves feel more alive than in any other racing game I’ve seen.”
You can also tune your car to your liking in Forza Motorsport if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t, then you can safely ignore that option. You’ll also need to mind your car’s fuel, as carrying more reduces performance due to the added weight. If you run low, you’ll have to pit, which will severely damage your chances of victory.
One interesting touch is that each race is broken up into practice runs and the races themselves. The practice runs are meant to give you a feel for each track before competing in it, but they really act like time trials more than anything else. Tracks have multiple segments, and you’ll get bonus XP for clearing a segment faster than your previous attempt.
Each practice run has a bonus condition you fulfill by beating a certain lap time depending on your selected difficulty. While your best lap doesn’t affect the starting order in solo play, it does recommend your position based on it.
Starting each proper race, has you pick any position from third to 24th place. The lower you go, the more credits you’ll obtain once the race is over. Other difficulty options also influence your credit gain, where you’ll pick how fast the AI racers are or choose what sort of ruleset you’re working with. On the strictest ruleset, you’ll be penalized for going off-track or colliding with your fellow racers, plus you can’t rewind time. There’s a middle option that only penalizes you sometimes and an easier one that doesn’t penalize you at all. The tougher you make Forza Motorsport, the more credits you get.
Visually, Forza Motorsport looks mostly as you’d expect for a realistic racing game. Things look fine, but the visual standout here is the dynamic weather. Careening through the courses will see the amount of light reduced due to the position of the clouds, so the tracks themselves feel more alive than in any other racing game I’ve seen.
The game mostly performs well on PC, although I did notice some strange frame drops, especially when completing races. It’s important to note that the game makes use of DirectStorage, so you’re meant to play on an NVMe drive. If you don’t have one of those, you should probably hold off on playing; the game may run, but will not be a great experience.
As for multiplayer, you can join public playlists or play privately. Getting into a race is easy, and the online systems worked very well in the time that I got to partake. One thing that might irk some players is that you’ll need to do a trial run before starting to determine your starting position.
The faster you lap, the higher you’ll start. If you decide to forego this, you’ll start at the back. You’ll only get three laps to place with, so you’ll need to actually try. This will be a bother to anyone who just wants to jump into all online races immediately, as there can be a fairly long wait in the lobby, as Forza Motorsport gives players that hop in later time to place as well.
The real stars of the show, of course, are the cars themselves and the driving physics. There’s a large selection across a variety of eras and disciplines, from lower-tier street cars to supercars. Any vehicle purchased in single-player will become unlocked for online use, and you’ll want to have a decent collection, considering your choice of vehicles is impacted by online playlists.
The driving physics are excellent, and I had a wonderful time driving Forza Motorsports’ cars. They feel weighty and believable but with enough leniency for anyone to enjoy driving them. There are several assists that help with everything from steering to braking to ensure that anyone can have fun.
“…Forza Motorsport is one of the best circuit racers you can buy on PC.”
One odd choice is that online play is locked at 60 fps. According to the developer, this is to keep things fair, but players can freely use assists to gain an advantage anyway so that rings hollow. Racing games feel so much better at high framerates, so this was a very disappointing choice.
Despite this, Forza Motorsport is one of the best circuit racers you can buy on PC (although this is partially because you can’t buy Forza Motorsport 7 anymore.) It’s got enough content to keep people playing for dozens of hours as long as players don’t mind grinding vehicle levels, and the new features make one of the best racing franchises that much better.
