Forza Motorsport 6 Review

This is what we've been racing towards?

You guys might have known this for some time, I'm a big car enthusiast and I'm honestly quite surprised I haven't branched off down that road with this blog or another one for quite some time. Having grown up with racing games, I'm always chomping at the bit to get the latest of my favorite titles, whether it be Gran Turismo or Forza. I know it's been a bit over a month since this game launched but I'm going to give my honest opinion on it so far. Yes it's better than Forza Motorsport 5, thank goodness, but by how much exactly?

My expectations of Forza 6 were pretty simple, many others shared the same view. We expected Forza 6 to be a return to everything that made 2011's Forza Motorsport 4 so enjoyable. You know, like the Storefront, Auction House, and custom public lobbies right? Wrong. Forza 6 has exactly none of that, two releases in a row. Instead what we get is basically Forza 5 but with better driving physics, more cars, a few more tracks, and pre-baked rain and night racing... the sad part is, that's not necessarily a good thing either.

Expect to get sick of this pretty fast.

Forza 6's career mode, Stories of Motorsport quickly became a notable low point for the game. It's better than Forza 5's career mode; it actually shares more in common with Horizon 2's championship formula minus all the driving in between races. It's enjoyable for the first couple of championships and the narration is excellent but eventually it just degrades down to racing the same tracks a million times over and over again, in other words exactly how Forza 5 felt.

A LaFerrari at Level 19, and the challenge just left the room.

First of all, there's very little reward from doing the races. The only reason why you would even bother doing them after a while is to grind XP to get a Prize Spin that can potentially gain you a cool million credits or a nice car you can sell for more than you actually earn in one race. In other words, the challenge and grind of Forza 4 is virtually gone as you can just rake in millions from prize spins with the fact that the cars aren't that expensive anymore either. I won a fucking Bugatti Veyron on my very first wheel spin and had enough money to buy a Ferrari 250 GTO, formerly the most expensive car in the series for $2 Million credits after a few more level ups. After enough Prize Spins, they become so unrewarding that you'll eventually have $20 million sitting around with nothing to use it on. While this may sound appealing to casuals, the older fanbase that's been with Forza for a couple years now is pretty much alienated.

The Showcase Events do a little to spice up the monotonous career mode but they end up becoming the only enjoyable aspect of career after a while. When compared to Forza 4's career mode, it's like pitting James May up against Lewis Hamilton. Seriously, Forza 4's career is absolutely massive, there's so much to do and there isn't any shortcuts. You actually have to race to get somewhere, there's no Prize Spins to allow you to buy an LMP1 right off the bat either. It's challenging, and more importantly it's fun and it keeps you coming back. After I got to the final series in Stories of Motorsport, I never looked back and it doesn't end there.

Don't expect to see any other classes in this lobby.

Multiplayer is an absolute mess. It's typical of Forza multiplayer in that it's very rare that you see a clean race occur, that's expected of the franchise and Forza 6 follows suit with its predecessors but it's multiplayer feels extremely stripped down compared to FM4; it actually feels like FM5's multiplayer just copy and pasted over. There is very little to do, you have your typical class sorted racing, drag and drift lobbies, then the usual tag lobbies. No any class, no cycled production, no multi-class, and most importantly, no custom public lobbies.

It was understandable in FM5 since it was a rushed launch title but the reason for this in Forza 6 is absolutely ridiculous. Turn 10 says that the reason why public lobbies were omitted from FM6 was because of Leagues and that they want to have players grouped together better and not leave so many people out. This is complete bullshit because Leagues are all pre-determined, time limited, and they don't cater to everyone's interests. Most of the time people seem to just rely on the base multiplayer hoppers to play multiplayer because there is no custom tailored alternative like in FM4. Private matches still exist but the setup system, still visually the same as previous titles is totally broken. You can add 24 Drivatars to a lobby and only five will actually show up, not to mention you cannot choose what cars they drive either. Something FM4 did just fine four years ago.

With it's flaws aside it's still an phenomenal racing game. The cars feel fast and grippy, plus the rain and night racing add a whole new challenge to the game although it is a bit disappointing that they aren't dynamic like Gran Turismo. Car customization is still top notch and the amount of sheer quality of the 400 or so four wheeled machines you can choose from to the tracks you can race them on is sublime. It's one of the nicest games graphically I've ever played on console.

But the flaws of Forza 6 outweigh it's pros, and they really start to show the further you get into the game. The career is a dull string of races that just throw over-rewarding Prize Spins at you, completely eliminating any sort of challenge from regular single player. Multiplayer has very little to do in terms of variety and the Leagues are a poor excuse to remedy the absence of custom lobbies. There is absolutely no excuse for Turn 10 to not have implemented any of the absent features from previous titles in this game.

Overall Forza Motorsport 6 is a bit of a strange case. The quality of the content is excellent and the driving feels absolutely wonderful. But as you begin progressing further into the game, it slowly degrades into a repetitive, unrewarding yawn fest that quite notably lacks many of the features it's predecessor that came out four years ago had. Once you get your garage filled up, Forza 6 has very little replay value, much like Forza 5. Turn 10 has been racing backwards.

You'll Love

• The fantastic driving Forza is known for.
• The great amount of quality content.
• Rain & Night Racing

You'll Hate

• Career becomes boring and unrewarding very fast.
• Still lacks features Forza 4 had, such as custom lobbies.
• Multiplayer lacks any major diversity.

Is it better than?

Forza Motorsport 5- Yes, Forza 5 was infamous among the community for being a rushed launch title. The driving in Forza 6 feels better and there is more content. But just like it's predecessor, Forza 6 becomes very dull, very fast due to the lack of inclusion of many features from Forza 4. Forza 6 is an improvement for sure, but not by much.

Forza Motorsport 4- No, Forza 4 is still arguably the best in the series in terms of gameplay. Sure, Forza 6 may look prettier but graphics don't mean a thing when you have nothing left to do. Forza 4 keeps a dedicated fanbase with it's massive, challenging, and highly diverse career mode plus custom multiplayer lobbies that anyone can create and edit to their preference. Still a fantastic game and if you have 360, it's a must have.

Gran Turismo 6- Depends, Forza and Gran Turismo are very similar and very different in many ways. GT6 feels more geared towards the driving side of things rather than graphical power, evidenced by the number of cars ported over from the PS2 still in the game. GT6 has a far superior multiplayer system than Forza 6 as most of it's lobbies are user created and similar in that respect to Forza 4. However customization in GT6 is notably worse than in Forza 6. To each is his own.