Forza Motorsport 6 Review

If you were always wondering why Microsoft spent $100 million on the Xbox One controller because you felt it was not a significant upgrade over the Xbox 360 controller, Forza Motorsport 6 will erase those thoughts. Every bump, crash, maneuver feels extremely realistic because the game uses the rumble functions of the controller extremely well.

Racing sims are always meant to played with a racing wheel but I didn’t feel like it was required when playing Forza 6. Of course, having one would’ve been nice, but the Xbox One controller performs extremely well.

Forza Motorsport 6 is the latest instalment in the Forza series, developed by Turn 10 Studios. It is bigger, better and offers a lot more options than the previous game in the series, which was considered a disappointment by many. Forza 5 didn’t showcase the Xbox One pretty well and it felt like a safe iteration. It had a limited amount of cars, the graphics were not that impressive and it wasn’t a major leap over Forza 4. However, this latest game changes all that.

You now have 460 beautifully rendered Forzavista cars at your disposal. Forzavista was a feature introduced with Forza 5 where you could check out the minute details of any supported car closely. It’s a great feature and a good distraction when you just feel like taking a break from all the racing.

The first thing you notice about any Forza game is the striking presentation. It’s no different here in Forza 6 because as soon as you boot the game you feel very welcomed. The UI is intuitive and the menu music dulls your senses and puts you in a driving mood. If you’ve played the previous Forza games, you will get a bunch of rewards for being a loyal fan of the series. That includes credits, bonus cars and other stuff.

It is very difficult to pull of an interesting career mode in any racing game but I kind of feel like Turn 10 has nailed it in Forza 6. The career mode is split into volumes this time, and as you progress through the career mode, you earn better cars, get access to new tracks and a lot more. It’s very similar to the previous Forza games. As you keep advancing through the career, you will get to participate in showcase events which are designed to provide an adrenaline boost to keep you interested.

In my first showcase event, I was put in a ’67 Chevy super car and made to do 7 laps around Indianapolis. Needless to say, it was an extremely thrilling experience. The sense of speed, the roaring sound, and the high speed overtakes, were a nice change of pace considering you begin with slow everyday cars at the start of your career.

The newest additions to the game are night racing and different weather conditions. It’s not implemented in all the tracks though, which is kind of disappointing but it is amazing to race in absolute darkness. If you are racing on a track for the first time at night, get ready to spin out or make some mistakes. It can be very scary at times. However, the weather effects are still not as realistic as the ones found in DriveClub–a PS4 exclusive. Considering that Forza 6 runs at 1080p and 60fps and still manages to look pretty good, I think it’s a great achievement and showcases the power of Forzatech engine.

There are 26 highly detailed tracks from Nurburgring to Bathurst. You get to see each one of them in the career mode and considering the sheer amount of tracks on offer, you never get bored. You keep seeing something new all the time. The game also contains the upcoming Ford GT 2017 which has been lovingly recreated and is a complete joy to drive. All the cockpits are nicely detailed and they should be considering they’re Forzavista enabled.

The career mode will last you for 70+ hours. After each race you get credits depending on the difficulty and the amount of assists. It is entirely up to you and completely customizable. If you want a lower challenge you can select the AI difficulty to inexperienced which will give you a suitable level of challenge in-game. The AI opponents are all Drivatar based which adds more realism to the game. You can also turn off the assists entirely, however, that’s not recommended unless you are very good at these games. TCS and ABS will generally help in stabilising your car.

You can also gamble on a random package after increasing your driver level. I have found that it never gives me an excellent reward but I suppose it is dependent on RNG (Random Number Generator). You can upgrade your car manually or let the game do it for you so that it can enter higher level events or you can just buy a new car. There are also mods in Forza 6 which gives you random abilities like more grip or a one time boost which places you first at the beginning of the race.

Turn 10 have raised the bar yet again when it comes to multiplayer. You can participate in 24 player races and it should run pretty smooth, although I hope it works fine once the game is out. I’m not sure if Forza 6 uses dedicated servers but that’s probably the case considering it’s a first party Microsoft game. You can also share your tunes, liveries and photos online. There’s a wealth of customization options in the game just like any other Forza game.

The only thing I was disappointed with is the choice of music. I had to disable it because it was really affecting my concentration in-game. I still find Forza 4 to have the best soundtrack of any game in the series.

Forza Motorsport 6 is an evolution in many ways. Forza fans will easily adjust to the new gameplay mechanics and the game is very accessible for newcomers as well. It looks nice, runs pretty smoothly and offers a lot of customization options. It is a highly polished game and if you are an Xbox One owner and a fan of racing games, you have no reason not to buy it.

Score

9/10