Forza Presents Fast & Furious Review
By UNDED
By UNDED
With the release of Fast 7 this weekend, you might be wanting to get behind the wheel of some good ol’ American muscle, or maybe a hot little import. Xbox thought so too, so they partnered with Universal to bring you a solid racing game loosely based around the Fast and Furious franchise. Most movie franchise tie-in games are blatant cash grabs, but having been developed by Forza Horizon 2 developers Playground Games and set within that universe; this makes Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious a great standalone game worth jumping into.
Starting off in the middle of race, you’re quickly introduced to Ludacris’ character Tej from Fast & Furious. He will be your ‘voice of reason’ throughout the game; giving you missions and telling you when you need to change cars before you start a race. His presence is appreciated, but wears out after a few hours. He doesn’t become so annoying with his repeated lines that you’ll want to turn off the game, but I did mute my tv from time to time when I knew I was coming up to a race. You begin with Dom’s iconic black Charger from the first Fast and Furious movie, and are set up with a race to determine your skills. You are tasked with collecting 11 cars from F&F series, including Brian’s tuner. Everything you do in the game nets you style points. Smashing into objects, drafting behind other drivers, and even driving ‘clean’ (that is, you don’t hit anything) will all grant you style points. Usually, these don’t mean much other than a way to rank you on the leaderboard, but there are times when you’ll enter a challenge to earn ‘x’ amount of points within a certain time limit.
The music in the game is adequate, only a few times ever really amping up the tension in a race. There’s some hip hop, some techno. Very bass and beat heavy music to try and match the action. More than anything else, the house beats are fun to cruise too. To help myself concentrate during an important though, I usually turned the radio off with a quick press on the right of the d-pad. There were a few times when the background orchestral music couldn’t be turned off. These races were meant to be intentionally tense moments. I often referred to them as ‘scripted action’. That’s not to say they weren’t fun, but before long you can tell when the game is demanding your attention for a given moment, and after a few times I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the music.
The races themselves are the best part. Thank goodness too. I can forgive Ludacris talking in my ear all the time, and the overzealous music, but if this game wasn’t fun to play I would have had a terrible weekend. The cars are genuinely fun to drive, and the wide open spaces lend themselves well to creative endeavors. I spent hours one time trying to drift between two shipping crates on a loading dock not because I had to, but because I knew I could do it if I just timed it right. There are many varieties of events. Some races, some style point challenges, other involve you drifting around an area to break through boards. The diversity of game types and vehicles gives this standalone incredible amounts of replayability.
With its long roads, large open fields, and several unique areas, the world of Forza Horizons feels like a character all its own. Like Forza Horizon 2, this is set in France and I often caught myself staring into the distance at the hillsides nearby, or even the sunsets. It is a beautiful game. The world is littered with Speed Traps you can use to compete with, the fastest speed of which you or your friends had recorded at that particular one plastered at the top of the board. F&F records everything you do, and gives you many things to hold over your friends. You can explore the entire world and get 100% completion on the map, you can find all the hidden boards that need to be broken through, or you can finish everything on your ‘bucket list’; a set of challenges that even when completed, you can keep repeating until you think your friends can’t match you for time. I wasn’t able to test out the multiplayer for myself but it does include multiplayer, and you can race your friends by letting them join your game. Along with the 10 cars you need to unlock for the ‘story’ you can also unlock a few more by completing challenges for Forza Hub; their online client you can access through the console. When I was finished with the game I ended up with 12 cars overall.
Summary
If you’ve wanted to jump into the Forza Horizon series but gave a second thought to the almost never lowered $60 price tag, I highly recommend giving the Fast & Furious standalone game a chance. Released on March 27th, F&F is available for free until April 10th, after which it will only set you back $10. You don’t need the base Horizon 2 game, and you don’t need Xbox Live Gold. The world is big, the racing is fun, and you can enjoy it with your friends. For the past week this game has had me coming back just for the single player alone. Highly recommended, this is well worth your money.
New Challenger Gaming 