Racing Online

The Story Mode for Forza: Horizon is distinctly separate from the Online Mode of the game, a practice that has grown popular over the course of the past few generations of the racing franchise largely we suspect because of the growing community of racers who feel that the story mode should be an optional element at best.

As odd as that may sound it seems that for a majority of the gamers who play in the world of Forza the games are more about racing online, pitting your skills against other human drivers, than they are so much about the story mode in the games.

This is easy to understand with respect to the main series of the Forza games, particularly as they have a very abbreviated "story" to them that largely depends upon the combination of player imagination and the willing participation in what might otherwise be viewed as an exercise in endurance...

Still it is worth noting that this pattern of going almost directly to the online side of the game is present in Horizon in much the same proportions as it is in the main series. To test the hypothesis that more gamers are interested in the online side than in the single-player story-mode of the game, when we participated in online play we made a point of examining the Achievements records for the players we encountered there.

To suggest that the results we found for this unofficial survey were shocking would be a demonstration of gross understatement -- in fact it appeared that the vast majority of the online players for Forza Horizon would not be bothered with the story mode at all!

A casual examination of the Achievements unlocked on the typical player we faced in the online mode revealed an average of only half-a-dozen Achievements from story-mode unlocked, with the vast majority having only the Yellow Wristband unlocked.

With all that being so, what is the attraction?

Other than the pleasure of pitting your racing skills against other human racers -- which we have to admit is almost always more of a challenge than racing against the AI in the game -- the particular draw or attraction in the game appears to center around the path one takes towards unlocking the various Achievements that have been built into the process.

From the Online Racer's PoV then, the following is the typical path that one takes, utilizing the two basic game modes for Online Play:

The Online Racing PvP mode appears to follow a predictable path, as completed by the typical player, that more or less follows the Achievement System for the Online side of the game, so that the player will basically unlock the following Achievements and in this order as they pursue that side of the game...

As you begin to race in social races the average field consists of a group of human racers, most of whom will be there for the same reason that you are -- to race -- though one can expect that every few races you will encounter a player who is more interested in either crashing into you, or causing you to crash into the wall than they are in racing, strictly speaking.

After you complete and place in a number of races, you will unlock the Achievement "Ding!" (5G) You got to Level 5 online.

In the process of racing you will level up, and when you level up there is a random reward spinner that will result in either the award of cash (more common) or a car (less common), but the first time that the spinner lands on a car in place of the usual cash reward, you will unlock the Achievement "OMG" (5G) You won your first car online.

As you persist in racing online and proving that there is a streak of the masochist in you, you will eventually unlock the following Achievement just by participating: "Still a Noob..." (10G) 10 online races complete... Not bad!

At some point between your 10th Online Race and your 25th Online Race you will, statistically proven, unlock the following two Achievements: "ZOMG!" (10G) You've won 3 cars online. This will be followed relatively quickly by the Achievement "OMGWT*BBQ!?" (20G) You got seriously lucky and won 5 cars online.

Shortly after unlocking the above you will race in your 25th race, at the conclusion of which you will unlock the Achievement "Noob No More" (20G) 25 online races complete... awesome!

For the vast majority of players this marks the end of their casual online racing play, since they were doing it mostly to obtain the Achievements, and so at this point they will move away from strictly racing to playing the Online Racing Mini-Games which make up the second half of the Online side, or Mode B.

This part of Online play consists of three basic mini-games that are played using cars on a variety of tracks and environments.

The games consist of games called "King," "Infected," and "Cat & Mouse." The important thing to understand is that you are only required to complete these games, and not win them or even place. Just get through them from start to finish a total of three times each game.

If you do that you will unlock the following Achievements:

"Playground Games" (5G) You completed each of the Playground game types. How fun was that?

"Swings and Roundabouts" (20G) You've completed 3 of each Playground game types.

In the process of unlocking all of the Online Racing Achievements listed above in total, you will have built the necessary XP to unlock the Achievement "Just Me and the XP" (10G) You've reached level 25 online. Did you win a car yet?

At this point there is only one Achievement left for you to unlock Online, and that is covered under the third and most minor of the Online Modes, though naturally enough it requires the most effort on your part!

As mentioned this final minor mode requires an incredible amount of dedication not just on your part but on the part of one (or more -- likely "or more") of your mates as it will find you playing private Online Racing Matches with your mates who are either helping you with this or, more likely, also wanting to get this unlocked...

Using the list of cooperative challenges (this is the only bit for Online Play that is actually wholly cooperative mind you) that is made up of a series of point-to-point races that must be undertaken either from sun-up to sun-down, or sun-down to sun-up, you will find yourself racing your mates from one point on the map to another -- with some of these races being difficult to complete within the conditions specified.

Eventually you will get it done though, which is good since the alternative is a bunch of collection-type objectives such as 100 passes and the like, which are mostly like pulling teeth without anesthetic so you will want to do the racing bit instead!

Either way once you do you will unlock the Achievement "Cruise Club" (20G) Complete 10 Online Free Roam Challenges.

Aren't you happy this is over with?

Adding the limited scope Online Racing and the narrow variety of different modes and activities that they did was mostly a required element for the game, so not a lot of thought went into it. The reason for that has more to do with the fact that this part of the game was created for gamers who have a specific mindset and, as a result, are often to be found racing one-another online.

In the plainest of terms there is a significantly large community of fans within the Forza Community who are genuinely interested in the online side of racing, and as a result this part of the game was really created for them.

Considering that they would be almost as happy if the game contained nothing but online racing, well, there you have it.