Forza Motorsport 2 (Xbox 360, 2007)

Already possessing one of the best arcade racing games out there in the Project Gotham Racing franchise, Microsoft in 2005 sought the opposite end with the hardcore racing sim Forza Motorsport. Because it was released just prior to the unceremonious dumping of the original Xbox in lieu of the Xbox 360, only the die-hard Xbox faithful likely played the outstanding title that offered excellent gameplay, tons of features, great tracks, and just enough challenge to give gearheads a headache at times. The 360 sequel Forza Motorsport 2 builds upon that success, perhaps a little too closely, but when the original was so well put together its hard to blame anyone for sticking with what worked. So while Forza 2 might be more of the same, a redesigned physics model and obvious visual enhancements combine with the tried-and-true mechanics of the first game to craft a worthy sequel that should last a good long while spinning in an Xbox 360 drive. Some curious bothers aside this is a near automatic buy for anyone who loves to race...realistically.

Players of the original Forza will feel right at home with the sequel. In general, everything progresses like the original game, especially the Career. Like the first time around, you choose a region to represent (NA, Europe, Asia) which subtly guides you through every class of race in a different way. It's not as blatant as before since unlocking discounts and such is tied to the car you're driving, but it's still there. Every class of races is made up of 10 different series of events to tackle of varying skill level, which unlock as you win lesser events and earn more cash. It's exceptionally well designed, just like the original game, in that you don't have to spend hours and hours doing an event over and over to earn the cash to upgrade your car or buy a new one, as typically you unlock worthy vehicles as prizes in different events. It keeps money in your pocket and gives wiggle room for upgrades and particular cars you want to drive – the car total has been bumped to about 300, 2x the original. The Arcade side is bare with just time trials and exhibition races, but they do unlock some achievements and cars to use in multiplayer (which I didn't really try out since I don't have an XBL Gold account these days), so it's almost required.

Forza 2 sticks to its gameplay roots, resulting in a challenging, but adjustable, racing simulation that punishes bad drivers. Penalties for hitting walls, going off the road, and slamming into competition hurt lap times, and sometimes doing crazy stuff will cause all kinds of damage to your vehicle, internal and external, and winnings are forced into being used for repairs. That is unless you turn the Damage slider to “Cosmetic” which results in no real harm. It might seem unnecessary to some of us, but Forza 2 has a ton of challenge adjustments, from merely AI difficulty, assists, the racing line, and damage. By default the game turns assists on, has a driving line for just braking (a solid idea for newbies learning the tricky corners) and damage is semi-realistic, but everything can be tweaked. It has its benefits and downsides – bumping the difficulty up increases your winnings for a race, but reducing them to better your chances penalizes the cash paid, a viable punishment for perhaps poor driving skills.

Sometimes, however, one might find that Forza 2 is a little too realistic and sensitive. In general, most cars handle well, as well as a car can legitimately handle, meaning most anyone can get behind the wheel and do well. Note that usually this only applies to FWD and 4WD vehicles. Buy any of these and you're guaranteed a smooth ride, without any tweaking or tuning. On the other hand, RWD cars of both front and mid-engine variety can be a real handful. Especially the super high-end cars and muscles, which handle, at best, like you're skating on ice. Even with some adjustments here and there, many of these top-of-the-line cars are very touchy which results in frustrating races. For example, try maneuvering a fully maxed out, S class Chevy Corvette Stingray at high speeds for the first time – it's one of those untamed, uncontrollable beasts you hear about. Clearly it's realistic, but new players or those more used to other racing games with more forgiving physics (really the only racing game series I can remember that has even more touchy RWD cars is Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift and its sequel). In short – newbies should buy a high-end 4WD Lamborghini instead of a RWD Ferrari until they learn the ropes.

Once those ropes are learned, some of Forza's minor, but still bad qualities start to come out. Upon hearing about the “revolutionary” AI promised, I expected a bit more brutality to it. However it's pretty dull and dumb, easily exploited. There's not a lot of life and sure they don't follow the same pattern every race, but clearly they lack the abilities you do. And with the removal of many restrictions on races, it's possible to fully max out a car and crush the field and not break a sweat, something that made the original game stand out – there were few easy victories aside from the beginner races. There's still horsepower and class restricted classes, but it's easy to see the opponents before the race and then outpower them by raising the ranking of your car which usually means easy victory. The only real challenges are the stock events which combine frustrating to drive cars and AI that quite blatantly cheats sometimes, given that we're all using the same car.

For veterans of the original, the burning question eventually will be...where did all the tracks go?. There's a few new tracks like Sebring and Mugello, but by my count there's about 7 tracks from the original game missing, including all the point-to-point courses. Where did they go? In this particular genre, it's always about more courses, not less. Yet here we are, with a ton of tracks MIA. There's a likely answer – either they couldn't get all the HD textures onto a DVD and thus had to make some cuts (in which case this would be a point scored for Sony and Blu-Ray), or they wanted to rope us into yet another happy microtransaction for Track Packs for a lovely 800 points, or $10 for those unsure what 800 points equals. It's probably both. Many of these cut tracks were some of Forza's best too, making it even more frustrating. After a while, when progressing through career, you'll notice the small track selection – 3 different versions of Sebring and Suzuka doesn't really cut it. Bring back at least Rio,Japan, Pacific Shipyards, Blue Mountain and Alpine STAT! And do it for free or at the worst, really cheap!

The kinda sad thing about all this is that Forza 2 is still a damn fine game and worth every penny, despite the shortcomings and the deja vu. It's fun and addictive, and it's easy to waste an entire day screwing around. Those who prefer the more exciting Burnout or Project Gotham games probably will be bored, but those into the racing simulations should be very happy. Though the track selection is small, the amount of races and variety of those races offers dozens of hours of play. And with the whole leveling up system, it's one of those “one more race” mentalities, hoping to get just enough cash to reach the new level and see what you unlock, be it a new car or added choices at the dealerships. So in many ways, Microsoft and Turn 10 have succeeded in making a great game even though it in many ways pales in comparison to the original...even though one could consider Forza 2 to be Forza 1 with a fresh coat of paint and twice the framerate. But for many that should be enough.

Forza's Xbox Live implementation offers something for almost everyone. Of course there's online races and tournaments to win online-only credits, but for those who don't get into multiplayer (like someone with a simple Silver account), there's still the Auction House. It's exactly that too – take cars you win and put them up for sale to earn some extra cash for a car you actually want. Not only that, but with the ridiculously deep car decal/painting, it's possible to create something totally unique that some might be willing to pay millions to acquire it. It's a little too Need for Speed Underground for a racing sim if you ask me, but some spend hours creating some amazing art to show off.

It's already been mentioned, but Forza 2 runs at double the framerate from the original game, one of the few visual enhancements from its predecessor. The original Forza wasn't really a looker – it was serviceable for Xbox but it was clear that gameplay, not graphics, was the focus. Forza 2 again is serviceable, but not tremendous. It runs fast thanks to the 60 FPS engine, but some tracks are simply unimpressive and dull. Yet at the same time, others are gorgeous – Nurburgring comes to mind. In other places there's some last-gen jaggies and iffy texture work. Note that the only time I got to see this was when hitting a wall, which means ultimately things like iffy textures are irrelevant at 200 MPH. The car models are awesome, but admittedly great car models have been done for years now...it's not super impressive anymore. On the other end, sound effects accompanying the cars are nice, though some of them sound like Chewbacca on double speed.

Closing Argment
Forza Motorsport 2 is definitely the best racing simulation on Xbox 360...but it would be regardless since this is the only one. When the thing that disappoints the most is the deletion of about half the tracks from the original game (for whatever reasons, be it space restrictions or more devious purposes), you're onto something pretty good. Once again this isn't the sort of game that will draw in haters of the genre, unless they want to pay $60 to design cars like Velocity Girl, but fans of these sorts of games shouldn't hesitate, because this is likely about as good as it will get in 2007. There's sure to be a little deja vu for those who played the original game, but it wasn't broken, so no reason to fix it, really. For Forza 3, however, the formula will need a mixing up lest it become yet another great series that flamed out because of its inability to evolve.

Recommend this product? Yes