Forza Horizon 2: A Distracting Racing Experience

It’s back! The Horizon festival has taken over southern Europe with hundreds of cars and lots of great electronic music.

Forza Horizon 2 in a sense puts players right back into that same great experience that was witnessed a few years ago with the original title. There are beautiful cars, open roads, speed traps, and barn finds that go along with that same great racing gameplay that we know and love from the Forza series. Most importantly though, there are brand new Horizon Festival events in completely new cities that look absolutely gorgeous on the Xbox One.

It’s not just the cities that look great, but the entire world and its country roads also look amazing. It’s a wide open playground for drivers to explore. Right from the beginning, it’s so hard for players to stay focused on the event as the first thing they’ll want to do is drive through all that Forza Horizon 2 offers. There is so much beauty to be seen and so many different roads to take that players can easily spend many hours driving around to observe it all. Being able to go off-road also provides even more area to cover and explore, and I must say that I had such a wide smile on my face when first roaming through the fields and watching as debris flew around my vehicle. Weee!! Just make sure to watch out for the bigger trees.

Forza Horizon 2 really is a distracting racing experience because of how easy it is to engage with the largely open world and not do any of the events. It’s just so much fun to randomly drive around, discover new sections, race opponents in unique areas, go off-roading, find areas that provide the best air-time, and watch as the sun sets at some of the more scenic locations. It’s so great! This is also what makes road tripping with friends online such a fantastic experience since all of this can be observed together.

Oh yeah, there is also dynamic weather in addition to the day/night rotation that helps establish this as a new and joyous festival. I must say, it’s always nice to experience a little bit of rain. Players can also actually feel the slick conditions during a race or while randomly exploring the world, and it undoubtedly makes it that much more exciting.

But when it comes down to just the events, including the showcase events, Forza Horizon 2 gives players exciting races and photo finish moments that everyone can enjoy. And speaking of a photo finish, like in past Forza titles players can pull out the camera from the pause menu to capture all the grandness the world and cars provide. I thought taking photos in Forza 5 was fun, but this surpasses it with the variety of open terrain and random weather conditions. There is just so much beauty to capture!

Forza Horizon 2 offers players of the original title exactly what they would expect from a sequel. Even though there are noticeable changes, the experience still feels so much like the original game that it seems as if players are continuing from right where they left off. That’s a good thing though. Forza Horizon is an incredible game, and Forza Horizon 2 builds on that.

Prepare to race against jets, trains and more in showcase events, unlock perks for increased experience, find billboards to destroy, enjoy the windshield wipers while it’s raining, and so much more. Get ready for the best Forza experience I’ve seen yet and make sure to grab a friend and hit the road together!

For those who missed it, check out the replay of my one hour live stream Forza Horizon 2 gameplay session on Twitch. Also be on the lookout for more once the game releases on September 30th. The video below features 30 minutes from my one hour session.