More and more I find myself wanting a good racing game that breaks free of the car collecting grind and super rare unicorns that Gran Turismo unleashed on the racing game genre. I find myself spending nearly all my gaming time in Forza grinding out weekly events and jumping through hoops to get the new cars such that I don't actually get a chance to really enjoy the new content.
Taking that in mind, I think that Forza Horizon 5 would really benefit from a renewed focus on making the game about driving and enjoying cars, not grinding and jumping through hoops to collect them. At the same time, I do enjoy progression which doesn't work if all the cars are just unlocked from the start.
The solution I've come to on this involves a couple of major changes to the game structure:
1. Split the game into story mode and sandbox mode. Loosely this would be a split along SP/MP lines, but not completely. Story mode could be played coop with friends and other players could be randomly encountered in the game world. Story mode would be designed to be repeatable and could have multiple save slots so you could start over and work your way up again without having to nuke your whole game save. Sandbox mode would be closer to what Forza is now, and could also take some notes from TDU1 where you start the game with a large pile of cash and can go out and start unlocking nice cars right away if you want. Sandbox would be persistent and keep track of cars you've unlocked, with cars being able to be unlocked through any game mode (story, sandbox events, online MP, etc) so you always have access to these vehicles without having to deal with artificial scarcity. Remember, the focus on this game should be enjoying cars, not grinding to collect them. All the vehicles should be unlockable within 40-60 hours (standard AAA game length), and new content should be available to all players without time gates.
End-game content could consist of rivals-like challenges and multiplayer. No need to use time gates and exclusive vehicles as carrots to try to drag players back in week after week, focus on making the gameplay enjoyable instead so players come back on their own accord without being coerced. It's fine (and healthy) if a player wants to move onto something else.
In terms of other gameplay features, I've got tons of ideas. In a nutshell, look at what TDU1/TDU2 did with making the world and vehicles more interactive. That's what I want to see in Forza Horizon. Add the ability to organize cars into collections which can be displayed and other players can view them, and interactive car dealers in the world, with the ability for players to get out their cars and walk around.
For cars specifically, would like to see a lot more customization and tuning options (especially on the high end with stupidly powerful drag vehicles). Working vehicle systems like convertible tops, blinkers, headlights and start/stop engine for example. More realistic damage modeling with damage to vehicle systems, and better modeling when vehicles are offroad (especially with wet grass, sand, mud and water) so road vehicles really will need to stick to roads. Also, the PI system needs a total overhaul and more classes.
In terms of world design, I would love Japan, but at the same time unless the devs are planning to finally add RHD models for all the cars that have RHD variants I would almost rather see Forza head back to a LHD country (especially since the last 2 games have been in RHD locales). I'm honestly not too picky on the actual location, I just want it to be something that has a wide variety of terrain. Preferably an island so we can have realistic world boundaries and road routes. Doesn't even have to be a real place, something like the islands from the Just Cause games would be perfectly fine. Also, the world needs to be a LOT bigger. Again, look to TDU for inspiration.
TL;DR Make Forza Horizon 5 more about driving and enjoying cars, not grinding out credits/logging in at the right time to unlock them.
2007 Toyota Blade Master G
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