E3 2019 - Hands on with Forza Horizon 4 - Lego Speed Champions
There was a lot of speculation, coming into E3, about whether or not, we would see a Forza game, given the past few years, it would be time for Motorsport to shine again, but as they had previously said they were taking a year of, it made people nervous, but it is ok as everything is awesome, as we got more Horizon 4, in Lego form.
After the success and outright crazy that was the Hot Wheels DLC last time for Forza Horizon 3, the odds of the team at Playground games, being able to do it again for Horizon 4 was slim, if they went the toy route, how many other toys can be considered for it, that would be as iconic as Hot Wheels. Of course, there was nothing to be said that they were going to follow up Fortune Island with something light-hearted again, but they did and the choice of Lego is inspired.
The good thing is that this is pure Forza Horizon 4, just with a new skin, much like Lego Rock Band was RockBand, but with Lego applied, the same is happening here. The demo build starts out with a nice and simple race, in the Speed Champions McLarren Senna, which is the care that they wheeled out during the announcement and I got to sit in it as well. While the car might look like Lego, it handles like the real thing, it has the speed, the precision control and most of all, the fun of driving it.
After driving in that for a bit, the game changed over to a Mini, complete with Lego bumper and all, but rather than taking place on a road, or dirt track, it took place across a stunt park and town. Speak of, the town is completely made of Lego, the roads are the same grey plastic sheets that were around when I was a kid, that you could combine to make a town, it honestly threw me back in time for a moment. The world itself is comprised of Lego and when you bash through everything, bricks go everywhere, it is honestly a treat, as a lot of the other Lego games, don’t offer that level of destruction.
The only real thing I found annoying was the commentating, so every 20-30 seconds one of the guys from the main game, kept making a comment, driving towards the airport, time for an airport joke, driving through trees, forest joke, get in the mini, mini joke. There was not end to them and I can only hope that the full release, eases way back on them and that they were only for the sake of the demo.
As the expansion is out this week, if you own Forza Horizon 4, I can’t suggest getting this enough, the addition of the Lego could have been quite the silly add on, but instead it has made the game even more enjoyable, if that were possible. Some odd commentating concerns aside, I can’t wait to get home and start exploring this new location for myself.
