4 Reasons Forza Horizon 1 was better than the 2nd

Now, before you start a war in the comments section, this is based on opinion. I have put several hundred hours into both games and both have their own pros and cons but here are the reasons the first was the better game to play:

The Map

There is quite possibly more of an elevation change in that picture than in all of Horizon 2. And if you’re a drifter, that means a lot. The place I spent most of my time in Horizon 1 was undoubtedly drifting the hills of Red Rock, Colorado. Huge corners, tight bends and serious elevation changes made this the best drifting area in the map. The route from bottom to top took about four minutes in an S class drift car, and was a few miles long. I have some of my greatest memories in all of my history in videogames sliding up and down these hills. But it wasn’t just this location. The whole map had more variety, and felt cooler and more fun. There was a place for everyone. Dirt tracks for the rally drivers (and Horizon 1 also featured its very own Rally Expansion, that was longer and felt more fun than a lot of rally games at the time), long, wide highways for the speed demons, quarter-mile straights for the drag freaks, city spaces for the urban street racers and, obviously, the huge hills for drifting about.

An Actual Story

Horizon 1 was so fresh and felt so welcome when it dropped, it introduced so many new things. One of those was a good story. It wasn’t some over the top action-packed story about revenge or anything like that (e.g. Need for Speed, The Crew, etc.). It was very simple and made a lot of sense and all fitted together. You are, quite simply, just some bloke living in Colorado who knows how to drive. There’s a festival going on, and you managed to grab a spot in it. You build your ranks up in popularity and prove yourself against previous champions and racers, ultimately aiming to be number 1 by defeating the winner of the Horizon Festival three times in a row, Darius Flynt. Racing against the opponents reaped some serious awards, including popularity, money, and even a car. It was just such a nice, simple yet great story and made so much of an impact in racing games to date.

Events

As I said earlier, the events include many types. From standard events we know such as circuit and sprint races, to star showdown events (as I mentioned previously), to showcase events. No event felt boring or the same. The showdown events had your adrenaline pumping as you tried to defeat your rival, the showcases feeling spectacular and outstandingly fun. One of my favorites was racing an F40 against a fighter jet. Then there were the street races. Yes, street races, specifically non affiliated in any way with the Horizon festival (or so we’re told) with this bloke; Ali Howard. Some street king that loves anything import. How typical. But seriously, all the events felt so fun and great, not boring and doing it to grind for money.

Car List

Now I have to be careful with my choice of words here. Forza Horizon 2 had a bigger car list, and it featured the more popular cars that people had wanted (e.g. the 1969 Camaro soft top vs. the 1969 Camaro hard top) and felt more fitting. But, and it is a very big but, I absolutely adore the car list in Horizon 1. The variety was so, so amazing. Pictured above is a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera and a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera Spyder Performante (I know, big Italian words). And you know which one I drove more? The convertible. There was not much more fun that cruising down winding valley roads with the huge sky above you, a V10 exhaust note blaring in your ears and, key part, no roof. And this was on Corvette’s, Ferrari’s, Alfa Romeo’s, all sorts of amazing cars. Then there was bonkers stupid cars that felt ridiculously cool, like the Gumpert Apollo Enraged, the Shelby 1000, countless track Ferrari’s like the FXX, 599XX, 599XX Evoluzione, F40 Competitzione, F50C R, all sorts of wonderous machines. Even the barn finds seemed cooler, and even though they were cars that were already in the Second, the barn finds in the second game felt so unfitting and unnecessary. Horizon 1’s barn finds were cars like a Plymouth Hemi Cuda, or a Jaguar D Type, or a Mercedes Benz 300SL.

So, there’s some of the reasons I am much happier playing Horizon 1 until the third is out, and if I had to choose one over the other, I’d definitely choose the first. If anyone at all is down to play some Horizon 1, leave your GT below and I’ll be sure to have a play. Adios!