This is very much another Forza Horizon game, so I will leave out most talk about how good Forza Horizon always has been and cut to specifics about this game. I think this is one of the best executions yet of that formula and an amazing entrypoint for even people who don't usually play driving games.
This game does a better job than ever at quickly giving you a taste of much of what it has to offer, and then guiding you toward new stuff at just the right rate to keep my attention. This is the most I've gotten into one of these since the original Horizon in 2012. Its region is pretty similar to that original game, and I love the variety in it. I think some of that guided content feels a bit pointless with some of its little bonus objectives, but luckily that stuff is skippable.
I think the visual upgrade on current-gen Xbox is really amazing at times, with some incredible draw distances, smoothness, and detail that add so much to the immersion and viscerality of zooming and occasionally literally flying through these areas. Anything taking place at nighttime looks incredible, and weather effects feel slightly more amazing than in Motorsport 7. Sometimes I'll just drive through water for a couple minutes cause it looks cool.
The series has long been great at making a welcoming experience for different types of driving game fans through its customizable difficulty, freedom in event types, and extras like the rewind feature. That inclusivity has been expanded even more with a bunch of new accessibility options as well as diverse character customizations such as prosthetic limbs, pronoun choice, and no restrictions on gendered hair/clothing/voice. I do find it a bit odd that with all that, there is not much customization of body type and only 2 voice options are available.
The player character with that voice takes a bigger role than usual in this game, with many unskippable dialogue scenes. With characters always yelling in excitement, quipping at each other, and inserting random Spanish words into their sentences every 2 seconds to remind you you're in Mexico, the writing felt a bit try-hard to me. Forza Horizon's tourism/festival conceit has really worn off on me, and I would honestly rather they come up with something new and let me play as one of these Mexican people than a random British guy setting up a party at some ancient monument or whatever.
I'm sorry to harp on this topic, but I have to also point out that the voice acting is plagued by awkward delivery where actors seem to have been reading straight off a script with no direction. Lines can sometimes just be read incorrectly. My assumption is that the normal process was interrupted by COVID and they just did not have someone overseeing it.
One more small negative. This game seems to have more problems than usual with getting stuck in the world geometry. I have confirmed this with at least one other person that far more than usual we are having to use the "reset position" option after getting stuck somewhere. Weird, but at least you can easily get out of it.
I am definitely happy with this game and have been loving just listening to music and driving around or methodically clearing out an area's events. If you have Game Pass, just download it and try it out. If nothing else, you'll experience the game's opening which is a ton of fun, and you just might get hooked.
