- Spoiler: show
It's kind of hard to tell when to call this game "finished" due to how it's organised, but I think I've reached a point which reasonably constitutes that. I've completed the all the finale races for each of the major racing disciplines, got to at least level 10 in each as well, beaten every showcase, and done every side story mission. I've also got three stars on every drift-related event, but that was more of a personal goal than something that I think matters towards "finishing" the game. The only other things that I think might be considered finishing the game would be getting 100% on everything (no thanks) or maybe reaching driver level 200, as there's an achievement for that. I'll be continuing the play the game either way, and if I come across a more definitive "end" then I'll change the date as necessary. But for now I say this counts well enough.
As for the game though, it's great of course. No surprises there. Looks fantastic, the cars handle really well in that way characteristic of the series. It brings over the subtleties of a simulation physics engine but with a more approachable slant that makes it feel much more carefree and fun and not quite as punishing and demanding. So it lets you interact with all the stuff that makes sim games engaging, but doesn't ask so much from the player as to stop you from just cutting loose and having fun.
The setting this time around is yet again very nice. While it's not as exotic as somewhere like Australia, there's still a lot of fantastic scenery and lighting, and very varied environments. It's nice to see some familiar stuff this time around too. Changing seasons is very impressive. It totally changes the whole feeling of the world, as well as how it feels to drive of course. I think this may be a first too. I can't think of any open world game out there that has four whole distinct versions of its entire world like this. That's pretty impressive just on its own.
The changes to how the "career" works and progression in general, I have mixed feelings on. But in the end I think I came down positive on it. As has been the pattern of this series, this one is the least structured yet. There isn't really a career mode at all, and instead a bunch of distinct goals that have their own little progression ladder connected to them. No overall goal to drive towards or anything like that. The result is that it sometimes feels like everything you do just results in bars and numbers going up, but it doesn't really mean much. But I got over that without too much trouble, as on the other hand it creates a really compelling incentive to keep doing little things, and just get that next little step on the ladder, in whatever you happen to be paying attention to at that moment. It makes the game very more-ish, and makes the time fly by when playing. So I think when it comes to this series' goal of simply having fun in cars and trying to get you to do fun stuff without there being much pressure to prove you're the best or anything like that, this game does an excellent job. But at the same time, it doesn't really do a great job in encouraging you to develop your skills and get better over time. You can start off driving some of the fastest cars in the game without much trouble, and end in the same place. Or you can just stick to slow, easy to drive cars the whole time and never be challenged. I miss that skill curve somewhat, but I can appreciate what it's been replaced by.
And just a few other little things I wanted to mention. The new drift spec suspension upgrade it brilliant. It makes it so you can get a car that feels really good for drifting right out of the gate, without having to spend too much time tweaking settings if you're not in to that. But it also makes cars feel better to drift than ever before, and can pull some insane angles. There were a couple of cars that were set up similarly in FH3, but they were special edition cars that were very few and hard to get. So here it's cool that anything can be that. I also prefer how cars handled on dirt this time around too. I usually don't like racing off-road in pretty much any racing game, and while this hasn't changed my mind on that, it definitely felt better than in previous entries. I suspect that might have more to do with them simply making it easier though. At least on dirt tracks, rather than cross-country, cars feel a bit less slippy and more controllable. Performance on the PC is really good this time around, thankfully. In fact I've been playing this almost exclusively on PC, since it's so much better than the blurry 30fps of the base XB1 version. On my GTX970 it can just about keep 60fps the vast majority of the time. In a couple of high stress areas it can drop up to 5 frames or so, but that is pretty rare. I had to cut down quite a few visual options to get there, but it's to a point where it still looks really good. Nothing I had to cut down was that noticeable. But it's way better than FH3, which really struggled in the more urban areas, where it would tank down to the low 40s no matter what. Oh, and I like the new way they do Forzathon too. Instead of it being just a weekly checklist of simple goals, here you have dailies and weeklies, as well as hourly events. The latter of which takes the form of co-op multiplayer in the open world. And instead of just giving you a straight reward of money or a rare car, this time you get currency to spend in a special shop where you can choose your prize from a rotating stock. Makes it a much more interesting and interactive way to do it. I like it a lot.
EDIT: Changed from 7/10 to 11/10 as it seems that was the point when I found the "real" ending.
