Forza Motorsport 7

Why am I telling you this? Because I am the prime example of the successful " Forza experiment " that the series has been selling for 12 years now: Forza Motorsport wants to inspire beginners with racing culture, tickle enthusiasts for weeks with exciting challenges and even simulation drivers with various tuning options and Sim Options provide a slightly more accessible alternative to their hardcore Sims .

The test shows: Forza 7 actually does very, very much right. But there are a few rough edges that you have to talk about. For example the loot boxes .

Revamped career

In career mode, the heart of the single player , a lot has changed compared to earlier. In Forza 6 you basically completed dozen of championships, each consisting of four to six races, and worked your way up from clunky small car classes to rocket-fast prototypes. In the long run, these "Stories of Motorsport" played out rather tough, because you worked your way in extremely small steps over the same routes.

From the main menu, you could loosen up the flow of the game through showcase events, in which you competed against The Stig from "Top Gear" or replayed the legendary Les Mans duel of 1966 between Ferrari and Ford. However, these excursions did not help you in your career.

Instead, Forza 7 packs all of these showcases and championships into a single overarching career mode made up of six major championships. Each championship in turn includes around ten to 15 events. I decide for myself which of them I want to tackle - a certain minimum number is necessary in order to unlock the next championship and to work your way up to the end of the campaign for almost 25 hours (those who are concerned with all events are busy longer)

This is how diversity works

The second championship includes a one-hour endurance race with 23 laps - but I'll shorten the list here and get to the point: At first glance, the career may look more compact than its predecessor, but in truth it plays so much more dynamically , more varied and therefore better.

The fact that you stay motivated at all times is also due to the myriad of unlock carrots that Forza 7 holds in front of your nose.

Loot boxes?

At the beginning of Forza 7, you basically start with nothing but your racing driver avatar - and see 700 cars waiting to be unlocked. The countless spiral of rewards and upgrades have made Forza Motorsport a beginner-friendly alternative to puristic sim racers like Project Cars 2, because every step here is rewarded with some kind of progress. You collect money, move up the level, unlock new vehicle classes and complete your collection.

Forza 7 also expands this with its own driver avatar (the drivatar): Over the course of my career, I can individualize my virtual racing driver with all sorts of stylish outfits. You get new cars and goodies with every level up, which I in turn work on with successful races. You can of course also buy carts in the classic overview - or you can shorten the whole process with loot boxes.

These lucky bags contain vehicles, outfits and mods (small handicaps that can be selected for additional cash before each race) - all items can only be purchased through in-game currency at the time of this test and are quite affordable. However, future real money shops could be hidden behind the menu items »Marketplace« and »Auction House«, which are currently still grayed out. Either way, you can already earn everything in Forza 7 with enough diligence.

How is it driving?

That's a good thing, because real money auctions would only have distracted the focus from the essentials: Forza Motorsport 7 is an excellent racing game. Before each race you can put together your own level of difficulty - Sim fans switch off all driving aids such as ABS, ideal line and rewind function.

Forza is not a simulation, but a very demanding taster lesson in the upscale racer class. Beginners, however, set up the whole thing as witty arcade fun. But no matter what you choose: It's a lot of fun to heat through the curves.

The innumerable vehicle classes all drive themselves differently: A 1969 Dodge Charger roars like a blast furnace, a Subaru BRZ FE drives absolutely calmly on dry roads, but slides out of the curve in puddles at lightning speed.

The age-old Brabham BT24 Formula 1 racer jams its exposed tires dangerously quickly in other cars - and the GT Corvette C7.R rattles down the track at such speeds that you lose all sense of speed in endurance racing at some point.

In addition, each car can be tuned and, for example, parts can be exchanged or the properties of various fine mechanics can be changed - alternatively, as in the predecessor, you can download pre-made tunings from other online players .

And if you still don't have enough to do, you can jump into multiplayer : Forza will be offering 7 Quickmatches in various vehicle classes for the release. During my test races, the connection remained stable on both Xbox One and PC with the exception of a few jerky rivals. After the release, extensive leagues are to be introduced for long-term multiplayer efforts.

Sufficient variety of routes?

The 32 routes (with various variations) also offer enough variety to push the gigantic vehicle fleet to its limits. However, I would have liked more newcomers. 26 courses are already known from their predecessors - and fictitious routes in the Swiss Alps, for example, have been showing since Forza 5 how fun even invented courses can be.

The few new additions to Forza 7 are all extremely successful: Dubai is a shining example here - gladly more of them. Anyone who values a variety of courses is still in better hands this year at Project Cars 2.

Those who are familiar with the predecessors will express this criticism. Those who celebrate their entry into the series with Forza 7 can look forward to many of the most famous slopes in the world. In addition to the successful driving mechanics, the fact that the races remain exciting is due to two factors: the AI and the weather.

Cloudy to rainy

The new feature first: Forza 7 introduces dynamic weather and time courses. You can start a race in the dry and have to fight your way through a storm on the last lap. Sounds like a trifle, but it makes for extremely exciting games, even if you've already left your opponents behind.

Sure, here too Project Cars 2 with its seasons, blizzards and multi-weather systems is ahead of the curve, but regardless of that, the Forza courses in Part 7 are more varied than ever.

After all, every raindrop affects the course of the route - sometimes puddles only form after a lap of light rain, which then surprise you at the worst possible moment. The AI never misses such opportunities.

With drivatars against rubber band

But that doesn't mean that they don't challenge you. At the highest levels of hardness you are practically forced to deal with the sim settings and tunings in order to win a few races. Compared to the rubber band AI, the drivatar system has the advantage that good racing skills are really rewarded because you fight for a permanent lead.

However, it also has the disadvantage that, in principle, in the first three corners of the race you can decide whether you will even get a chance of first place. The opponent's AI meticulously adheres to the ideal line - if you drown in the first corner, you no longer reach the top on high levels of difficulty, even with perfect driving. That may be more realistic than with Need for Speed, but also less dramatic .

Prints in the soundtrack

Speaking of advantages and disadvantages: Finally, I want to go into a high and a low light of the presentation. The bad thing first: The menu, soundtrack and all the trappings of the game were much more impressive in the predecessor.

Forza 6 presented itself in its design as a perfectly shaped love letter to motorsport culture , set to music by the »Top Gear« presenters, with an epic soundtrack, impressive cutscenes and an all-round successful style. And a good deal of auto-pathos.

Forza 7 is pulling back on all fronts. In principle, the soundtrack is only noticeable as menu elevator music (although you can theoretically import your own playlist via an additional app or activate the doodling in the races), the cutscenes consist of animated slideshows. But at least: The menu is much more organized and easier to understand .

It's pretty

As soon as the race has loaded, many doubts about the presentation vanish in no time: Forza 7 is really impressive, even on the old Xbox One without HDR. Forza Horizon 3 keeps its nose ahead precisely because of its impressive open world, but Motorsport 7 really doesn't have to put its light under a bushel. If you drive on the PC with a 4K screen and maximum settings , you will experience wonderful highlights in the right lighting mood.

The vehicle models are particularly impressive - but the game has to put up with slight deductions in terms of the surroundings. The level of detail of grandstands and landscapes cannot quite keep up with Project Cars 2 on average. Still: Forza 6 was a feast for the eyes, Forza 7 glazed a layer of sugar on top.

Frugal technology, even in 4K

The strong technology also contributes to this. The full version of Forza 7 is technically even more sophisticated than the recently released demo: The stuttering in the menu has almost disappeared and the frame rate is no longer limited to a maximum of 60 fps.

The performance is already good at the release, so that despite maximum details and eight-fold MSAA anti-aliasing, no high-end graphics card is necessary for 4K and smooth gameplay. We already measure over 60 fps in 2160p with a GTX 1070 or RX Vega 56. A GTX 970 is sufficient for gaming in Full HD, and an RX 580 is required for WQHD. The all-clear is also given for old computers : Thanks to the extensive graphics menu, Forza 7 can be adjusted as desired to increase the frame rate.

Ultimately, Forza Motorsport 7 is one of the best racing games of its kind. Of course, those who want to experience a real simulation will have to switch to titles like Project Cars 2, which is running a strong program this year. And when it comes to extravagance and entertainment, the open-world fun Forza Horizon 3 offers more. But as a link between simulation, amateur driving fun, graphics festival and racing variety, Forza Motorsport 7 is simply a colossus of a racing game. The 700 cars alone are a new reference.

Porsche 911 GT2 RS! The authors from the Turn 10 studio could not have chosen a better car for the cover of the box, and also a showcase of their new, seventh, installment of the Forza Motorsport series. Already on the occasion of the review of the sixth part, I used this comparison, because looking at the next generations of the nine hundred and eleven, we notice only minor differences in its appearance, as if you were afraid to spoil the perfection once achieved. The Forza Motorsport cycle is exactly like this Porsche model - for many editions practically nothing has changed in it, and each part turns out to be identical to the previous one. At first glance, the "Seven" seems to be just Forza 6 , with a differently drawn tachometer during races and pictures on the menu, and the new products introduced are not what we would like to see in this series.

Paradoxically, however, this does not mean that the entire game is weak. It's still a great and content-rich racing game that shines over the competition. Only Xbox veterans can start overeating a bit, but let's not forget that Forza Motorsport 7 is starting on PCs for the first time this year, and this means a group of completely new recipients. For many of them, the "seven" will be an absolute hit, much better than F1 2017 , Need for Speed: Payback , Project CARS 2 and other titles, because such a game has simply not been on the tin for many years. Forza 7 finally fulfills the dreams of everyone who has always wanted the Gran Turismo series or just to see Forza on personal computers.

For these reasons, it is difficult to look at Forza Motorsport 7 only from one side, because it is a different game for a computer novice and another for someone who waits every year to play one of the best Microsoft exclusives on the Xbox . I would not be very honest if I did not include both points of view in this review, which means that now is the time for the opinion of a PC-tame racing player. Some say that to operate his smartphone - with Windows of course - he always uses a mouse and keyboard, and he has connected as many as four graphics cards to the computer to be able to say without a shadow of a doubt that he plays in 4K. All we really know about him is that they call him Stig's PC cousin!

A car paradise

Car fans are spoiled for choice this year with a large number of titles, but Forza 7 has the chance to convince the largest group of fans. In Dirt 4 and WRC 7 you must love rallies, in Project CARS 2 and F1 2017 races of specific groups of vehicles with all their surroundings and strict sports regulations, and Need for Speed: Payback will attract action fans straight from sensational films, but in Forzy Motorsport 7 just… love cars! Short and simplified in terms of rules, the competition is just an addition here, to somehow get more vehicles to your collection, personalize them and finally admire in the detailed presentation mode of Forzavista .

The career of a lonely player is designed so that every now and then we end up behind the wheel of a completely different type of car, while having some freedom of choice. We can start with an ordinary Honda Civic, then race in American muscle cars, and then in hot hatch cars from the 80s and NASCAR cars. The routine of spinning in circles is diversified by small side jumps, like a Ford duel with Ken Block, driving through goals or playing bowling in a huge Cadillac limousine. The cars are the main characters of the Forza series, and only here, among 700 (!) Vehicles, we can find models such as "regular" Renault Clio, luxurious Rolls Royce Wraith, Alfa Romeo car from the 1930s and Plymouth Fury 1958, i.e. the famous Christine from Stephen's novel King.

highway to Heaven

The long enough career mode is just the beginning. While browsing through the menu, you'll find a creator of your own races, of course, plus drift competitions, 1/4 mile drag races (which are finally also available outside of multiplayer mode), online leagues, car auction house, and - note - the ability to play on a split screen , but unfortunately only in the console version. All this is provided with excellent graphics and good optimization on PCs (in the full version I did not experience the jams that often occurred in the demo), which means that with such content and diversity of the discussed game, other titles this year are a bit poor and a bit more boring. They are great in their narrow range of playing specific sports disciplines, but Forza Motorsport 7 is more interesting for the "ordinary" player and for every car fan.

Everyone - provided that he has not played the previous versions of Forzy , which leads us to slightly different observations of a player familiar with the console version. Some say he always wears green (not just on St. Patrick's Day), and Dark Souls 3 has made it through only using Kinect. All we really know about him is that they call him Stig's Xbox cousin!

Road to hell

Forza Motorsport 7 on the Xbox One has all the advantages mentioned above, but as a veteran of the series I felt a bit too much "material fatigue". It's really the same game , the same routes in the Bernese Alps and Prague, the same special events for many years. It's still a similar set of cars to earn and the exact same career mode, just under a different name. Every two years, the authors only seem to change the appearance of the main menu and HUD during the race. They randomly throw away a route, a few brands of vehicles, adding a little different from the previous parts to ignore it, and a traditionally new, fictional track, based on a country, and that's it - another Forza Motorsport is ready! The pace of changes is definitely too slow, and those actually introduced in this installment are not good. Examples?

Fast track sharing

In addition to this contrasting juxtaposition of the main advantages and disadvantages, there are of course other issues, regardless of the platform on which we play. It is worth mentioning here that Forza 7 simply looks phenomenal on both the Xbox and the PC , and I think I like it even a bit more than the CARS 2 Project I praised recently. The effect of fog and reduced visibility in the rain looks much better, the objects on the track have much more details, and thanks to the presence of Forzavista, the cockpits are refined in every detail. Project CARS 2 definitely wins in terms of sound. The engines in the Forzy 7 sound good, but not as detailed and differentiated as the competitor.

A few online races can quickly discourage us from competing with random players, because there are a lot of collisions and entries "from behind" here, so the so-called artificial intelligence plays an even more important role. drivatars. Driving with computer opponents brings a generally positive impression, but you also have to be prepared for numerous "nudges" when other vehicles try to stick to their line at all costs or attack us. Races in Forza 7 are more contact than in the "six", although you can also see a familiar, not very natural script, when the cars always turn off the road in the same way.

Such mistakes often happen to us, because although driving physics belongs to the simcade category, i.e. simulations with arcade elements, this combination has been mastered to perfection in Forzy Motorsport . Driving after turning off all the assist is still possible and does not mean a constant fight with the car, while even with ABS and traction control stronger cars can get out of control if we make a mistake. In old Formula 1 cars without aerodynamics, you can feel this light "swimming" on the track, so characteristic of old hardcore simulators, and in Alfa from the 1930s, where we sit at the very end of a long "cigar", you can clearly see the delay with which they turn wheels well ahead!