Forza Motorsport’s career mode mixes familiarity with weird choices

It’s been six years since the last Forza Motorsport game. Forza Horizon has taken over the circuit racing series’ shop, which was ably managed by the knockabout cousin. This open-world game is so much fun and exuberant that it quickly became the star attraction. Turn 10 Studios is rebuilding their technology to work with the next hardware generation. They are also reorganizing how they structure the racing games.

You shouldn’t expect the game to be completely re-invented, even though it has been given a rebooted, fresh, nonnumbered title. Forza Motorsport. This is still an iterative series — an iterative genre, really — by default. But, based on a hands-on demo of the opening hour or two of the game’s career mode, it does have a few surprises in store.

As has become racing game tradition, there’s a dramatic curtain-raiser to set the scene, show off the game’s visuals, and feature the “hero cars” of key marketing partners. After six years away, it’s lovely to return to the autumnal sweep of Maple Valley in a 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray — not racing, just vibing. Then, to underline the game’s serious motorsport credentials and demonstrate its dynamic time-of-day system, you’re dropped in the driving seat of a 2023 Cadillac endurance racer for the final laps of a 24-hour race at Hakone, an all-new, fictional Japanese circuit.

After clearing these showcases, you can access the Builders’ Cup career mode. In the demo, you could play three moderately-powered modern road car races. As your first set of wheels, you can select from a Ford Mustang (or other fictional car), Honda Civic Type R or Subaru STI. This series will take you to Grand Oak Raceway – another Forza classic – Mugello – the famous Ferrari test track – and Kyalami – a South African real racetrack I had never been to before.

Here’s the twist. Turn 10’s team wants to add a twist. Forza MotorsportThe pre-race session is now a mandatory part of your experience. (I understand that qualifying will play a part in some events too, but at this early stage in the game, it’s not included.) YouIt is not necessary to be able to read.You can get your race ready by completing three laps on the track. There are other cars out on track, but you’re not competing against them, or even against the clock, really — although the game sets an optional “competitive” target time to aim for. If you want to, you can continue racing past the three laps. The time limit is 10 minutes.

I’ve always enjoyed practice laps myself, and I appreciate the chance to learn or relearn Forza’s selection. The practice sessions may seem like a waste to some. This is something that needs to be addressed. Forza Motorsport’s new car-specific progression system, where every lap, every overtake, every track sector, and more earns you Car XP and Car Points. The former levels up your car, unlocking upgrades, and the latter is the currency you’ll need to spend on upgrades. Credits are earned for new car purchases. Practice sessions also feature key sectors — essentially, corners that yield extra rewards if you manage to improve your time through them.

Image: Turn 10 Studios/Xbox Game Studios

Forza MotorsportThe game is not afraid to get technical when it comes to being a racer: learning the tracks, improving cornering technique, and improving times are activities that the user interface (which can be quite busy) puts in the forefront and encourages, right from the start. The focus on practice seems like an attempt to bring in the technical challenge of something like Gran Turismo’s license tests and spread it throughout the career mode. Turn 10 doesn’t play around with track selection either. It was a pleasant surprise to find a circuit like Kyalami early on in the game. This tight technical track has some tricky low-speed turns and elevation changes.

The game’s focus on leveling individual cars is also an interesting choice. The game’s focus on leveling individual cars is also an interesting choice. In this introductory series, three races was enough to advance the cars near enough to the top of Forza’s B class. I like the idea of forming a bond with a vehicle that improves the more you drive it — and the way upgrades are slowly meted out is an effective protection against the buyer’s remorse you feel when rendering something undriveable — but maxing out cars this way does have the potential to be a big grind sink, if the final game ends up going there.

This choice, however, really halted me in my track. Forza MotorsportYou can choose the grid position for each race. This will be overridden by qualifying when implemented. The default is to start in the middle of the game’s busy 24-car grids, but you can choose to start on pole if you like, or all the way down the back. This is pitched as a “risk versus reward” choice, since the further back you start, the bigger your credit bonus for securing a podium finish.

Image: Turn 10 Studios/Xbox Game Studios

This seems to me symptomatic of the Turn 10 team’s obsession with allowing players to customize every single aspect of their experience (as with previous entries, Forza MotorsportThe game comes with many difficulty levels, as well as driving assist and accessibility features. I can’t yet decide if this design ethos takes things too far. In a way, it’s cool that the game now effectively allows you to write the script for your own race. You can adjust the grid and AI level to choose whether you want to race from the rear of the pack to the front or fight to the finish to get to third place. The two scenarios can both be rewarding. But this setup doesn’t seem to leave much room for Turn 10 developers’ authorship in the event design, or for challenges that can test the player while feeling fair.

Forza MotorsportThis is looking to be an exciting return of the series with its familiar strengths and flaws: stunning visuals, wonderful sound effects, engaging vehicle handling (if not a bit overdone), and a driver AI which is both lively but also crash-prone. Browsing the (sadly locked, for now) themed tours that lie beyond the intro series of the Builders Cup, I’m looking forward to racing track specials in the Enthusiast Tour, or retro tuners in the Legacy Tour; the last two Motorsport games excelled at curating interesting journeys through the car catalog, just as the Horizon games do, and hopefully the eighth will continue that tradition. Once again, the Turn 10 team is making some bold structural choices about how to tie all this together, which may or may not pay off — but at least this time, those choices are all about what happens on the track.

Forza Motorsport The game will be available on Game Pass, Xbox Series X and Windows PC on October 10.