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So when FH4 was announced at E3, my hype jumped through the roof. “FINALLY another racing game where I can choose my own path!!” This really was looking to be the TDU successor of the decade!

So I started the demo, ok this Summer is lasting longer than usual. Turned it off, preordered cause it looked awesome. Went back and read my daily digest of Forza discussions today and my heart sank.

I was told there is a 6-8 hour campaign before everything that was advertised pre-release. I feel betrayed. I literally am forced to play through a long campaign to get to the goodies. I am not happy, nor I am I here to protest and bash this game. I just feel like it was pretty disgusting advertising everything in the endgame, hiding the fact there is a long campaign before it.

You must be new to video games to call a 6 hour campaign "long".

I’ve been playing for 20 years. Lately, I’ve been getting annoyed playing campaigns before a vastly superior endgame. I preordered Horizon 4 thinking we were only going to be handheld for an hour or less like GTA Online and Skyrim for example, where we are let loose into a massive world with no restrictions. Turns out it’s no less restricted than games like NFS Payback.

I want to progress on my own, I realised that creating my own story is where gaming shines for me.

6 to 8 hours is short lol, particularly for a racing game.

It's the same pretty much as H1, H2 and H3. Not sure what you are expecting. No one lied to you. I enjoy the campaign to unlock stuff, otherwise what is the point? You play the campaign earn money, get some nice reward cars. I wouldn't bother with the campaign if they just gave you everything right away. They want you to play their game, how dare they. lol

Edited by user Saturday, September 22, 2018 7:32:35 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

The funny thing is, there's another thread around here with a few pages where people are complaining about the game being all about instant gratification.

Thanks for the good laugh, so sorry the game has BETRAYED you, looooool

I wasn’t saying to give us everything! I was moreso meaning to give us the ability to express ourselves without being bossed about being told what to do. The prerelease info was all going on about “oh it’s completely up to you!” Yet that is 7 hours in after completing the campaign. Which there was NO info about.

I've known about the 6-8 hour intro for quite some time, but I frequent this forum, and since the pre order of FH4 was announced, have kept up on the whys and wheres of this game per the various WIR's, and other promos from T10/PG.


Who is to say exactly how long it will take to get through the intro, might take half that time.

I must be the only person who wishes the campaign story was longer. Am I misreading this. The actual story line only last 6 hours?

I suspect that's what could be considered the "tutorial" section of the campaign, where it introduces you to various game mechanics and concepts before it sets you loose to complete things how you like. I also suspect that veterans can tear through it a bit quicker.

I reckon most will do it in 2 or 3 hours max , just the tutorial part until almost everything is open...maybe 6-8 to fully complete the single player portion, I'm hoping it is longer too and not gonna rush through it

It doesn't take 6-8 hours to play how you want. More like 1 hour. I think you're misunderstanding what's being put out there. You don't have to finish a 6-8 hour campaign to unlock choosing your path - you're doing that from the first hour onward. The game gradually introduces you to the Shared World, giving you time to play how you want, letting you spend time in each season before you are in a fully synchronized world where everyone is in the same season.

The first 10 minutes is a lot like the e3 demo, then you arrive at the Festival and start your first summer. A quick tour of all four seasons.

Then you enter the "Horizon Life Prologue" where you get to spend time in a full Horizon year doing what you want, progressing based on what kinds of things you like to do. Sure there's some hand-holding here, but it opens up very quickly.

At about 1 hour, once you finish your first prologue Autumn event, the Drivatars in your freeroam world are replaced with real players and you have online modes available. Or you can play Solo if that's your thing. The players you see in the world with you are at the same point in their Horizon Life as you, same season. But you can do whatever you want.

At around 4-5 hours, depending on how you play, you qualify for the Horizon Roster, your second summer, and earn your first Wristband. You enter a fully synchronized world where each season lasts a week. How fast you get there depends on how much "influence" you earn (think of it like XP). You get Influence for racing, stunting, creating and sharing content, streaming - whatever. You're doing all that from hour 1 onward.

Ok that made me a little more happier. :D thanks for the response. Better than I thought.

This isn't a big deal honestly, its only six hours. I'd rather have a game that is a bit slow then have one that tries rushing you through everything.

Really appreciate you making this post as the demo did give me mixed messages. You spend the demo getting all the influence to get to Autumn and you're just left there... okay? So we have to wait a week to continue the game? That's the impression I was left with.

But I'm very glad to see the initial run of seasons is independent from the weekly timer and we won't be left waiting to proceed to autumn and so on.

Whilst i appreciate where you may have got that impression from, surely you realised that it was just the end of the demo? There was an on screen message rewarding you with a T-shirt for your avatar in the full release for "completeing the demo".

The demo doesnt continue on..nothing carries over..except the t-shirt(s)
You start the game from the start again

Obviously that's the end of the demo, but it isn't clear whether the progression to Autumn is something baked into the career progression or if, as Rebecca says, you have to literally wait it out.

My only complaint,

Is emotes being in the wheel spins. Well. Emotes being a thing at all really... but do we really need emotes taking up space in the wheel spins?

Yeah I hate when games give me content, it's the worst

Also 6-8 hours is long? I'm sure FH3 took considerably longer than that

hmmm lets see

Having content in games sucks. We just want to finish it in one hour *laughs*. Thats what its all about! I have no problem playing 6-8 hours of gameplay and season changes to unlock online. It just shows you have to put forth effort to progress.

I believe so. *crys*

From what I've seen, the following are included in wheelspins that were not in previous games:
-Clothing Items, LOTS OF CLOTHING ITEMS
-Horns (USELESS, Except for Windows XP ;) )
-Emotes (*dies*)

So yeah, the answer is yes. Very stupid if you ask me. I liked it when it was simple, just cars and credits.

I wouldn't complain if wheelspins were removed entirely. For me, they're just another cheap gambling-inspired mechanic that adds nothing of value to game (same idea as randomized loot drops in RPGs that exist primarily to pad game time).

That would of course upset the whole HE car market, but again I would prefer HE cars be something that was earned (maybe by maxing out the skill tree on a car to turn it into a HE edition, which would allow any car to be a HE car) rather than completely separate versions of some cars.

Anyways, back to the original topic of this thread, I actually prefer having some progression to gradually open up the game world. However, I do understand some players simply want to hoon around with friends ASAP so maybe what this game needs are separate singleplayer career and multiplayer sandbox modes instead of the relatively poor compromise we have now.