But I haven't been spending it wildly, either, because the game is so absurdly generous with its cars, doling them out every few minutes from its slot-machine-inspired wheelspins, that I've seldom needed to actually buy new wheels. Now, I have played an awful lot of Forza Horizon 4, and I have not been hoarding cash: I've bought most of the houses and got involved in a bidding war on a vintage Alfa Romeo on the auction house. Some of the treasure chests unlock new cars but every single one contains a million credits. This is much more fun and less frustrating than hunting for Barn Finds in the main game. Then you are rewarded with the rough location of a treasure chest to hunt for with a photo to help you locate it. (The PR made much of the extreme weather conditions and treacherous roads, but these are familiar themes from the bluntly named Horizon 2 and 3 expansions, Storm Island and Blizzard Mountain.) As you race and rank up in Fortune Island's discrete campaign, you are set (not very) cryptic riddles which are usually solved by attempting a specific challenge in a specific vehicle. This is the expansion's most novel hook for seasoned Forza Horizon players. But it's not the amount of stuff here that I want to talk about - rather the way it's dealt out. Seasonal championship enthusiasts like myself will be delighted that the expansion doubles the number of these available in each weekly update.
There's a series of drifting challenges, a pair of long-distance race layouts, a new form of PR stunt called the Trailblazer - a timed point-to-point dash across open terrain with no checkpoints - and a new campaign structure based around treasure hunting. You also get 10 new cars exclusive to the expansion, including the new Lamborghini Urus SUV and a wood-panelled 1950s Morris Minor, and a wealth of new campaign content. It's not the most lush or varied environment Playground's artists have come up with, but personally I appreciate its stark Nordic atmosphere and mildly fantastic stylings - and the driving is exciting. The skies are either riven with lightning storms or pulsing with beautiful aurorae. Its new map consists of a small island in the far reaches of the North Sea, where a tiny fishing village clings to the edge of of a mass of barren moorland and marshland topped by jagged rocky peaks and liberally scattered with ruined viking longboats and druidic stone circles. As a package it is satisfying, but you wouldn't call it lavish. But this is getting ridiculous now.įorza Horizon 4's first expansion, Fortune Island, was released last week. Across several reviews, I've praised Playground Games' wonderful Forza Horizon series of open-world racing games for their free-spirited generosity.