Driving games can often be categorized into two classes. There is the Sim Style Racing that is inhabited with the utmost of hardcore driving fans, and there is the Arcade Style Racing which is a populated with the more casual racing fans. Very rare is it that you find a game that can satisfy both of the genres. However, Forza Motorsport 2 does just that. This is the Forza series’ first appearance on the next generation gaming platform, and they have made it a memorable one. The first thing any gamer looks at when he (or even she in some cases) sits down to play a racing game is, what kind of cars am I able to drive or smash in pieces. Well, Forza 2 does not disappoint on its cars list. With a little more than over 300 cars to pick from, gamers will be driving with cars starting at the Volkswagen Beatle all the way up to the Ferraris and McLarens. Every single car in the game is replicated with a great amount of detail. But what will you be driving these magnificent cars on? Well there are 12 racing environments, each of which has slight variations to create close to 30 or so different tracks to race on. Most of the tracks presented are taken from real world places which is a nice change from the previous Forza game which was all fictional. This change is sure to please any hardcore racing fan, but to most it will not change the game play that much.
Without great game play all the aforementioned would be completely useless. Good thing Forza 2 presents great game play that is sure to please the hardcore to the casual. In Forza 2, even before you get into a game, you will set up how you are going to play the game with the many difficulty levels it has. Of course there is the standard easy, medium, hard, but there is so much more than that. You can pick between standard and automatic transmission, anti lock brakes, stability control and the guide line. The guide line is what sets the Forza series apart. It is a green line that will show you the best path to take and when to accelerate or brake. This line can also be customized, whether or not you want it to tell you when to brake or just the best approach to the corner, it’s all customizable. There is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to find a difficulty level that suites your style of racing. Once you have selected all your pre-race options, it’s time to race. Each car has its own feel while driving. You will be able to tell the difference between two cars just from the way they drive. The cars will always behave as though they would in real life, taking damage if you choose, or even the wear on the tires. Which means even with all the driving assists turned on, driving carefully in Forza 2 is a must at all times. If you try and race down the track at two hundred miles per hour then try to make a turn with a drift, well the result can only be bad. All the environments you are driving in look spectacular and very life like, with lots of lush colors. The A.I in Forza 2 will, for the most part, play very conservatively. Opponents will respect you while taking corners, not cutting you off to try and pass you. That is until you start to smash them. If you start banging other cars around, they will return the favour right back to you and try to run you off the road if they get the chance. The adaptive AI really gives the game a flavour of realism that is missing from other sim type racers. Throughout your gaming experience you will almost never see a drop in frame rate or any instance of slowdown, even on multiplayer. At any point in the game you can pause the action and go into a sort of flying camera and take different pictures of your car and upload them to the Forza website. This adds a bit of the casual experience to the game, which enable some really cool pictures. Also at any point in the game you can bring up a variety of menus that is sure to enthral the hardcore fans. These various menus can tell you a multitude of things such as, tire pressure engine wear and assessment of your car’s damage. These menus add to the game but are not there for everyone to use, only the pro gamers will be interested.
The graphics in Forza 2 are all top notch. Each car is modeled down to every detail. Lighting effects are handled extremely well. The cars will reflect dependant on where the sun is and what kind of environment you are driving in. The only minor gripe about the graphics is the environments. When you are speeding past them at 100mph nothing seems wrong and they look great. But if you stop and look at them closely, you can see some of the textures are smeared and flat. The environments were intended to be part of the background and not a main feature in the game, but if you are going slow enough to see the smearing then you are probably doing something wrong to begin with. The audio in the game is also great. Each car has a distinct and unique engine sound to it. When you take corners tires will squeal appropriately and so on. The audio just really adds to the games overall shine.
The customization in Forza 2 is incredibly complex in two fields, automotive and design. When you are tuning your car to get just the kind of performance you want, you will be faced with thousands of options, from tires and brakes to cooling systems and fuel type. It would be impossible with this many options to not be able to find what you are looking to put into your car to give it that little extra something. Not only is the customization in the performance of the cars but there is also customization in the appearance of your automotive. Besides regular body paints and cool looking decals, the game enables you to put any shape onto your car. At first this may not seem like such a great thing, but if you spend some time with it, you can actually come up with some pretty intricate designs from anything like a picture of your favourite cartoon character to more complex things like pictures of entire landscape settings. It is rare that you see both sides of customization in one game and with such detail in each. It really helps make Forza into a really deep and rich game.
There are three different types of modes in which to experience this game. You can do quick play exhibition style races against the computer or a friend, take your skills online or play career. Career is where the bulk of the game is and where you will find yourself the majority of the time. Career will start you off with very low end cars and only a few racing events opened. As in any racing game, as you progress more challenges will open and more cars unlocked. Most of the cars you receive throughout the career will be the ones you win in events. Unless you save up your pennies it will be difficult to buy any car that is top of the line. Throughout your career unlike most games you cannot just put time and effort into customizing one car. All the events in the career have specifications you must meet before entering; some may be max horsepower or front wheel drive. This variety keeps the career mode fresh and appealing even if you are racing on the same tracks. The career mode will be compelling for most gamers up until the half way point. At this time races are starting to get exceedingly long and tedious, some even ranging to the 10 lap point and as you progress it only gets worse. Unless you are a hardcore racing fan you will probably drop out of the career at this point and explore your online options. It is too bad that the races start to get exceedingly long because the driving experience is so great it’s hard to justify while the development team would want to be loosing players just for the sake of having longer races.
When you jump into the online experience you get what you would expect. You can race against friends or strangers on any track with any cars. Your two options boil down to ranked and unranked. The ranked matches are called online career matches. In these matches you can use cars that you have unlocked or bought during your offline career mode sessions. Or you can play in the unranked matches, which is usually when you and a friend just want to smash heads at really high speeds. This formula has really been the standard for racing games online, but Forza 2 introduces the concept of the auction house. This is where gamers can come together and buy or sell their cars they have created. The auction house is where you really get to see what customization people put into the design of their cars. You will see things such as your basketball team’s logo on the car, to Master Chief and the Arbiter, to, yes they are out there unfortunately, pornographic images. If you have no artistic ability of your own but want a really cool looking car, the auction house is the place to go. If you are feeling like a generous person you can also give one of your cars to a friend as a gift.
What does Forza 2 do to stand out from the rest of the crowd in the racing genre? The mix of casual gaming and hardcore. On the hardcore side you have the thousands of engine adjustments, the in game menus and the great AI. For the casual there are the difficulty settings, the fun online play with friends and the auction house to buy all the great designs. When a game is able to merge both the hardcore and the casual it becomes a must have for any gamer who would even consider the racing genre.
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OVERALL: 9.1/10
Game Play: 9.1/10
Graphics: 9.3/10
Audio: 8.7/10
Presentation: 8.5/10
Value: 8.6/10
Written by GatheringofGamers.com Member: The Antagonist
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