Forza Motorsport 2 Review - Xbox 360

9

Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8
Audio: 9
Multiplayer: 7
Innovation: 7

Introduction

The original Xbox was really in need of a 'proper' racing game to compete with the Playstation 2 at the time, and of course the Gran Turismo series was doing so well, selling many consoles. The closest the Xbox at the time had was probably Project Gotham Racing, which to most serious racers was more an arcade simulator, rather than the true 'driving simulator' such as Grand Turismo. Enter Forza Motorsports from fairly unknown developers Turn 10 Studios. While the Xbox did struggle throughout existence, Forza did what many thought was impossible, offer a surprising similar experience to Gran Turismo 4, and even many improvements in there as well.

To many (this writer included), one of the largest drawcards to the release of the Xbox 360 itself, was actually the coming of a sequel in Forza Motorsports 2.

Gameplay

Forza 2 does take pretty much the same formula as the first game and improves on it in the major areas of car upgrades, physics, multiplayer and damage modeling. Turn 10 has listened fairly carefully to the criticisms of the first game and tried to act on them, while throwing in a few great new ideas as well.

The main modes offered are multiplayer racing, arcade racing, free run, time trials, and career mode. Arcade mode is where most of the simulation effects are turned off, and you have instant access to most of the exciting cars. On it's own, arcade would make some other racing games jealous with it's wealth of cars and tracks, and sharp visuals, however nothing too different here.

Of course the main mode of the game is the ubiquitous career mode, where you choose a home region, a basic car to start with and a few credits to get you started on your racing career.

Career mode offers a number of ever increasing races of about 3 tracks each, and forces you to work with cars outside your comfort zone, such as horsepower restrictions, front wheel drive only, stock cars only, specific manfacturers only, rival faceoffs (WRX Sti vs EVO, etc) and endurance (25 lap) races. The good mix of these means you can't plow through the game simply with one car, and it requires trying a bit of everything. Things this time are less focused around "Class A", "Class B" type restrictions in the previous game, although there are few still in there to keep it varied.

Time trial replaces the single point to point racing of the last game, by having you trying to achieve the best lap time with a specific car on the standard tracks. The major improvement here is that you can compare your best lap time with the rest of the world, or those on your friends list, and you can be ranked worldwide. Otherwise, it's a bit of an omission on a great mode from the first game.

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