Developer: Turn 10 Studios
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Platform/Price: Xbox One and Windows 10 – $59.99. Xbox Play Anywhere Title.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Microsoft and Turn 10 Studios have now launched their third Forza Motorsport title this generation in Forza 7 and everything about it is better than its predecessors. When jumping into the game for the first time you are granted with a Porsche 911 GT2 RS and you are ultimately experiencing your first race in Dubai and one of the great new features in this Motorsport title is that there are more sites to see whilst racing such as city skyscrapers, Ferris wheels, and more.
It might sound a bit cliche, but when we say this is the best Forza Motorsport title there is to get we aren’t kidding. With 700 cars to choose from and 30 circuit tracks to race on and a whole lot more. One of my favorite features in Forza 7 is the truck races because it’s something we’ve never seen in the history of Forza. When it comes to games like this variety matters when it comes to cars, tracks, and of course the type of races to you are never getting tired of doing the same thing and truck racing is entertaining while it might be hard to steer and pass an opponent, it’s still a great time.
Dynamic Weather
The weather is dynamic in Forza 7. Its predecessor introduced water for the first time, but now the weather changes throughout the course of a race. You can start on a dry track, encounter torrential rain, and end with clear skies and puddles on the racing line. Equally, night time slowly turns to dawn, and while the passage of time isn’t entirely accurate, the atmosphere very much is. Mist will drift across the tarmac and sand will fluster in the breeze. From my memory racing at night in Forza 7 compared to 6 is more difficult, but it isn’t impossible.
Driver Suits
In Forza Motorsport you were always the driver and now there’s more of a human element to Forza 7. You are no longer a generic driver just like everyone else you’d race against online, now you are a real person with real racing gear that can be customized as you progress, unlocking new threads. Of course you now have the option to either be a female or male in the game just like any other game.
There are different ways to unlock more suits for your driver such as opening the prize crates or when you level up you have an option to pick up more credits, a new car, or a new suit. The suits also open an opportunity to collaborate with other studios like 343 Industries and The Coalition so they can put in maybe a Warthog and a Master chief and Locke suit or from Gears of War 4 add a Marcus suit. There’s a lot more things they can do now when it comes to DLC for Forza 7.
Visuals
It’s no question that Forza Horizon 3 was one of the best looking games out of most titles that launched in 2016 and Forza Motorsport 7 might be one of the top best looking games there is this year and maybe this generation yet. The ForzaTech engine that powers both this and the Horizon series is one of the triumphs of developing for the Xbox One, built from the ground up to be optimized for the hardware on offer.
On Xbox One and on the Slim the game plays at 1080p resolution and a rock solid 60 frames per second. During the time I’ve played this game during events like E3, during the demo, and of course the full version there hasn’t been any issues with the frame rate and not much hiccups. Xbox One S owners also get HDR support, as does Windows 10.
This November 7th the Xbox One X launches and it’s considered to be a monster and the most powerful console this generation. Forza 7 will be patched to push the visuals to 4K resolution while still maintaining 60 FPS as well as a host of other visual details. As we patiently wait for the release of the X we will for sure give impressions.
Controls & Drivatars
As always there are newcomers to every game and there will for sure be players who might have never touched a game like Forza and at the same time might have never played a racing game with the Xbox One controller. One of Forza Motorsport’s major strengths is being attractive to racing fans of all levels. The handling is fairly realistic, but without being as daunting to newcomers and more casual players.
Another great feature about all Forza games is that there’s a wide variety of assists that are designed to help ease beginners into the game, and a particularly good one is the friction assist. This will make wet tracks and off-road excursions less rage worthy.
One of the greats things about all these Motorsport and Horizon titles on Xbox One is the drivatar feature. If you don’t know much about drivatars, think of it as a your personal AI because sometimes your drivatar will be in your friends races and it will come close to the way you drive regularly and it might frustrate your friends when you don’t even know what’s going on. Also, the choice of how aggressive you want them to be is welcome.
Single Player
First off as you notice compared to previous titles, the layout of the single player series like Seeker, Breakout, etc is a little different. In Forza 5 & 6 it wasn’t as fancy as this. Not only did they make it look fancy but this has to be the best solo mode in any Forza Motorsport title. You’re no longer just grinding through series, unlocking a new part of the ‘story.’ The Forza Drivers Cup is an actual championship and your progress through it is entirely dependent on your performances in each and every race.
The Drivers Cup is made up of six individual championships which in turn are made up of a combination of race series and showcase events. In each of the races and showcase events rewards you with series points and it’s all based on how well you’ve finished. Of course you will need a certain amount of series points to advance to the next championship which means this game will keep you busy for a while because there will be obstacles along the way since nothing ever gets easier.
Multiplayer
The biggest part of Forza’s life is the multiplayer because it’s something many players go back to whether it’s for playing with their favorite streamer, starting a private match to randomly race with their friends, or just for the sake of playing online against real drivers. Multiplayer in Forza 7 goes up to 24 players and sometimes it can get intense depending on which track you pick and vehicles.
There was an issue with private lobbies at first, but the team at Turn 10 have fixed those stability- related issues for Xbox One and Windows 10.
Prize Crates
In this day and age loot crates are becoming more common in games like Overwatch and like how Halo 5 has the REQ system. You buy these prize crates with in-game credits, and if you don’t have enough, you simply get a polite message telling you so. No coercion to go to the Microsoft Store and spend real money.
Crates gives you another reason to grind for more credits to unlock new cars to raise your collection level or to expand your gear catalog or to get more mods for your vehicles. I honestly like the crates in Forza Motorsport 7 it doesn’t hurt the game in any way, it makes it better.
One of the new features in Forza 7 that makes you want to play more is your car collection tier. Even if you save up a ridiculous store of credits early on, unlike other Motorsport titles you won’t be able to go and buy the most expensive, exotic cars in the game straight away. Buying cars gives you a separate XP for your collector level, and the cars are split between five of them.
Each car has a different XP value, and only when you reach a new level can you buy cars on it. So make sure to keep grinding away to get all the cars you want!
There’s not much bad to say about Forza Motorsport 7 besides the loading times which can get annoying after a while. Other than that the game is gorgeous and the visuals will look even better on the Xbox One X, there is over 700 cars to choose from, the dynamic weather makes racing more exciting and intense at times, and all I can say is to just buy it because you will not regret it.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][review_summary positives=”Stunning
Dynamic Weather makes the racing experience to another level
Newcomers can catch on easily
Worth the money” negatives=”Loading Times”][/review_summary][/vc_column][/vc_row]
