I’ll just start out by saying what everyone already seems to know; Forza Horizon 3 is a freaking MASTERPIECE. In short, they took every great aspect of past Forza games, both Horizon and Motorsport, and improved on them and added even more amazing stuff that really doesn’t seem to need much improvement. For anyone unfamiliar with this iteration in the series, Horizon 3 puts you at the head of the Horizon Festival. Unlike in Horizon 2, where you were the new racer that quickly rose to fame throughout the event, you’re the boss and after a brief introductory time, you design your own competitions, from single races and championships to bucket list challenges. Appearing again from the original Horizon are the “illegal” street races and all of the events you loved in Horizon 2 are here too. Also, this one takes place in Australia and it’s probably the most amazing looking place in the video game world (save for those sunsets in The Witcher 3. Nothing can beat those.)
You’ve got around 400 cars to get your hands on and race and design and destroy, and as you well know if you’ve read my past reviews, I have a thing for photo modes and the photo mode in this game is spectacular.
The cars range from the ones everyone would want to race in, to the thing pictured above, which is some odd three-wheeled oddity that is terrible to drive but lots of fun to crash around in.
Now, in my last review, I was thoroughly disappointed in the inattention to adequate captioning in Horizon 2. Has Playground Games learned from what they did wrong in that game? YES! It’s not just the cutscenes that are fully captioned anymore. Almost every bit of speech of captioned and fairly easy to read.
ANNA is captioned… Kind of
Yes, kind of. When she has something to say to you that’s event related or you summon her with the D-pad, she’s fully captioned. My ONE gripe with Horizon 3 is that ANNA’s navigation guidance isn’t captioned, which if you play with the driving line, isn’t a huge deal, but if you like turning it off, it would come in handy to have those directions on the screen.
As was the case in Horizon 2, instructions, checkpoints and destinations are very easy to see, and the minimap is just as good as it’s always been. Forza Horizon 3 is almost perfect. Now let’s hope that for Horizon 4, ANNA is fully captioned.
Bottom Line
I can’t think of a reason not to buy this game, honestly. It’s fun, it’s gorgeous, it’s one of the best racing games you’ll find. And this time, you won’t be a disappointed deaf player.