Forza Horizon 4's expansion, Fortune Island, is a most enjoyable return to an open world game that's easy to get lost in. Unlike the main game, which takes place in the U.K. the expansion sees you setting sail for a fictional island far from the coastline you might have grown familiar with in the main game. While Fortune Island isn't filled with the madness and frustration of past add-ons, it features some of the most entertaining roads and events the series has ever seen.
Usually, when people think about expansions (or add-ons) they think about micro-transactions: new skins, new cars, currency, or map markers, but the good folks over at Playground Games have always been good at delivering much more than that. While you certainly have the option to get all of those things, what I've always loved about Forza Horizon's expansions is that they deliver an experience. And with a whopping 15 hours of gameplay to be had from Fortune Island, I would say that it's well worth the price tag.
Aesthetically, Fortune Island is a visual feast. Outside of the dynamic weather system, which can be a hindrance at times, Fortune Island's environments are . . . well, very active. Rain, thunder, wind, dirt roads, crumbling roads, cliffs . . . if Roland Emmerich made racing games, it would probably look a little something like this. On top of all of that, I happened to play it during the the game's winter season, adding on a whole new set of challenges and frustrations. However, I don't think I've ever had that much fun with added content in my entire history of playing video games, and here's why . . .
Since there's not much of a story here, except that the festival is expanding into another season, we can skip that part and get right into the good stuff. Fortune Island features an abundance of new events, both seasonal and progressive, that you can play to earn experience points, rewards, and credits, each one moving you towards the goal of becoming Fortune Island's new champion. Much like the main game, you can unlock new events by completing the ones laid out for you around the map. In addition to the tried and true racing events that have always shaped the Forza Horizon games, they have now introduced treasure hunting. Much like the barn finds of the main game, each time you progress across the game's events, you unlock treasure maps, which aren't really treasure maps, they're more like treasure clues. Unlike the barn finds, it's not as simple as just going to a place and looking for something. First, you have to solve a puzzle. Though, some of them are challenging, they're pretty straight forward. They'll use a car name, year, and model in a riddle that suggests you take it to a certain place on the map and do something specific with it, and once you've done that, then they'll point out where the treasure is on the map, and finally the hunt begins. Each treasure chest you find contains a million dollars, and while that seems like a lot of money, keep in mind that the cars you need to complete the challenges are also a lot of money. So is it really worth your time? I suppose that's up to you.
If racing and treasure hunting aren't exactly you're thing. You're in luck, because Fortune Island offers plenty of other fun and challenging things to do. Along with new cars and new races comes new roads to drive on and new opportunities to test your skills. You can zoom around new drift zones, speed through new speed traps, and hit some pretty sick jumps in the fastest (or slowest) cars in your collection. In the upper left corner of the map is a giant mountain that features a drift zone on the front called the Needle Climb, and dangerous road in the back that chips away and erodes as you go across it. Be careful though, because if you get too close to the edge, you will go over. In addition to that, the drift club has traveled to Fortune Island, and with it, seven brand new challenges that put you in the driver seat of cars that slip and slide all over the place.
As a long time fan of the Forza franchise, there wasn't a lot about the expansion that I didn't like. I have only two complaints, but they're very minor. One, the sound was incredibly glitchy, meaning that whenever your engine reached its peak sound level, it would get stuck and continue to sound that way even if you completely stoped. And as we all know, anytime an Xbox One starts experiencing sound issues, it's only a matter of time until the the whole game freezes and you're kicked out to the start menu. My other complaint is more of a personal preference. It seemed like an easy choice to have a Forzathon on the island, but since the island is a bit smaller than the main game, it's hard to accomplish anything without getting sucked into the Forzathon events. While you can certainly just drive right through, you still get the pop ups on your screen, and it's incredibly annoying. Not to mention that if you have an active game, you're going to get bombarded with party invites. Maybe this is just me being anti-social, but Forza has always been a game I enjoyed playing because I didn't have to play it with anybody else. It would seem that's not really doable anymore.
Forza Horizon 4: Fortune Island is a fun and most welcomed return to Playground Games's open world racing simulator. If you read my previous review of the game, you're probably aware that it was one of my top five favorite games of last year. Fortune Island carries that joy over into a whole new world with all new challenges and roads to explore. Though it does provide another fifteen hours of gameplay, I wish there was more. I suppose we'll have to wait until 2020 to return to the Horizon Festival. For now, the Fortune Island expansion is worth every penny behind its price tag.
Reviewed by: Josh Pederson
Played On: Xbox One
Score: 9/10
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