I’ve learned that to be interested in a Horizon, I need to be into the setting. The last one I played was 3, the one set in Australia where I live. I skipped the rest until 6, in no small part because it was set in Japan - a land of awesome car culture and iconic roads. I played through all of the ‘campaign’ of sorts, that is, getting all the wristbands and dropping off once it was clear I was in the endgame. I came away from it kind of surprised at how little had changed from 3 I played a decade ago.
It looks nicer, was in a new cool setting and the line-up of cars includes newer options - but it felt like much the same game underneath it all.
I played The Crew Motorfest for review a few years ago, and by comparison I recall it feeling a lot fresher. Involvement from people in popular car culture, some actual characters that were more than just objective communicators, and somewhat of a story. Forza just kind of felt like a series of events intended to serve as entree to the real game which is the open-world with friends - which I don’t care all that much about.
Standout though was the soundtrack. An incredible choice of track for the title screen that was amazing to listen to every time I started it up, and I actually made some artist discoveries while listening to radio stations that are in regular rotation in my life now. Confidence Man are fantastic.
But yeah, I hoped for a bit more.