Horizon Festival

Lore & Background

The Horizon Festival is a fictitious street racing event that serves as the setting for Forza Horizon. The game focuses specifically on casual street racing, rather than professionally on race tracks, as it takes place on a map of temporarily closed public roads. The open-world map that players can explore is based on the U.S. state of Colorado. Being the main theme of the game, a large focus of the game is on the festival itself and activities surrounding it, rather than just racing. In an interview with Turn 10's creative director Dan Greenawalt, he stated the game was developed in close relation to real music festivals—namely Coachella—and that he envisioned a more relaxed game-play experience than other games in the Forza series, while keeping a more realistic handling style. Playground Games also worked with Bestival founder and DJ Rob da Bank, who curated the featured songs and design of the festival, giving a more authentic experience.

In Their Own Story

The player's aim is to progress via winning races, while also increasing their popularity level by performing stunts and activities. As a player's popularity level increases, new special events called showcases are unlocked, such as races against helicopters and planes. The game features multiple types of races, such as circuit races, off-road rally, and traditional point-to-point races. A skill system is implemented in the game; players earn popularity during races by driving aggressively. Acts such as drifting, jumping over obstacles and getting a car on two wheels all contribute to the player's popularity level. These can be chained together in a combo, which in turn affects the money players are paid at the end of a given race. Speed traps are present in the game, and players can challenge each other for the top speed in a given area. In addition to races, the map is scattered with barn find cars, rare classical vehicles that can be restored and added to the players garage for later use.

Reader's Guide

The game takes place on a map of temporarily closed public roads based on the U.S. state of Colorado. It features several types of landscape including snow-covered mountain roads, plains, foothills, and an area inspired by Colorado's Red Rocks Park; all are featured in a fictitious form alongside the game's Horizon festival location. The roads feature both AI traffic and, when playing online, other player-controlled drivers. Players may challenge the other racers they encounter to a one-on-one race to a given location. The races start at the current location, and finish at a randomly generated way-point, usually more than 500 metres away from the player and their opponent. Other aspects of game-play include an auto-show, in which the player can buy or sell cars; a garage, in which the player can manually or automatically upgrade their cars, and a paint shop, in which players can create custom paints, liveries, and paint presets for their vehicles. When free-roaming, the player may encounter discount signs which, when smashed, give a price reduction on all upgrades from that point forwards.

Did You Know?

• The game was developed in close relation to real music festivals—namely Coachella—according to Turn 10's creative director Dan Greenawalt.
• Playground Games originally pitched a reboot of the 'long-dormant, much-loved' Project Gotham Racing before it was reworked into Forza Horizon.
• The game's soundtrack features four fictional radio stations: Horizon Bass Arena, Horizon Pulse, Horizon Rocks, and Horizon XS.
• The game was rated a 12 by PEGI and T by the ESRB; Forza Horizon 2 also received these ratings.
• The online servers for Forza Horizon were shut down on 22 August 2023, though a workaround using Xbox Live's peer to peer service lets friends explore the map online.