I think if there was a good way to describe the game, it would be like going to a restaurant where the food is good but the portions are too small. It's an amazing game, but I think there were issues with execution that has affected the game's longevity and staying power. I've said this in another thread, but I've seen way too many Horizon players say something along the lines, "I'm going back to Forza for because of (insert reason)". Examples of problematic feature implementation I feel are:
- A single player career that is too short when relative to some other contemporary racing games (Definitely longer then some NFS titles though for example).
- Multiplayer that is strong but nothing special. In part, I feel they didn't do enough to show off the best part of this game which is the area of Colorado featured. I understand this is probably because of technical limitations, but free roam is rather dull without an option of traffic and capped at only 8 players. IMO, what would have worked better if they had a similar system like what was used in TDU where rather then having free roam as player created roams to treat them like a large MMO server. Free roam also felt like it had more purpose as you could jump into events from there, single or multiplayer plus organize clubs and more.
- A car list and DLC cars that are mostly carry overs from previous Forza games, some of them which date back to Forza 2 (although with more detail and interiors added). I can see how if you have never played a Forza game before this wouldn't be an issue as from that perspective every car would be "new" to you, but seeing as how many who picked up Horizon are Forza veterans it kind of comes off as a bit stale, especially the DLC cars where it feels like money is being paid for cars we are used to. Conversely, previous Forza titles for DLC cars have mostly been ones that are new to the franchise, so there was probably an expectation this would be the same for Horizon.
- Problems with expansion implementation, Rally's career mode is roughly 2 hours long (15 minutes per rally approx. with 7 stages) which is yet another example of things being too short, and how the recent 1000 Club add-on feels more tedious than fun.
In closing, I don't think the issue is that Horizon is a bad game, but it seems for a lot of people there isn't enough to keep people playing for the long term. At this rate, I don't think Horizon will be one of those games that will have a size-able population playing for a few years to come, given the anecdotes I see about people who have either traded in the game or have gone back to Forza 4.
- A single player career that is too short when relative to some other contemporary racing games (Definitely longer then some NFS titles though for example).
- Multiplayer that is strong but nothing special. In part, I feel they didn't do enough to show off the best part of this game which is the area of Colorado featured. I understand this is probably because of technical limitations, but free roam is rather dull without an option of traffic and capped at only 8 players. IMO, what would have worked better if they had a similar system like what was used in TDU where rather then having free roam as player created roams to treat them like a large MMO server. Free roam also felt like it had more purpose as you could jump into events from there, single or multiplayer plus organize clubs and more.
- A car list and DLC cars that are mostly carry overs from previous Forza games, some of them which date back to Forza 2 (although with more detail and interiors added). I can see how if you have never played a Forza game before this wouldn't be an issue as from that perspective every car would be "new" to you, but seeing as how many who picked up Horizon are Forza veterans it kind of comes off as a bit stale, especially the DLC cars where it feels like money is being paid for cars we are used to. Conversely, previous Forza titles for DLC cars have mostly been ones that are new to the franchise, so there was probably an expectation this would be the same for Horizon.
- Problems with expansion implementation, Rally's career mode is roughly 2 hours long (15 minutes per rally approx. with 7 stages) which is yet another example of things being too short, and how the recent 1000 Club add-on feels more tedious than fun.
In closing, I don't think the issue is that Horizon is a bad game, but it seems for a lot of people there isn't enough to keep people playing for the long term. At this rate, I don't think Horizon will be one of those games that will have a size-able population playing for a few years to come, given the anecdotes I see about people who have either traded in the game or have gone back to Forza 4.