The Best Forza Horizon is: FH2 

This makes me realize Playground has just been making Horizon 2 but slightly less good over and over again

Could be mostly nostalgia but FH2 was my favorite as well. FH2 also had the best car sounds from my memory. Something severely lacking in the new FM.

They absolutely nailed the music in FH2

If they rereleased FH2 as a remaster and upped the frames, and resolution and filled out the map with more trees and stuff, I would pay full price for it again.

IF YOU SAY YOU'RE GONNA LEAVE FOR BRIGHTER DAYS IF YOU SAY YOU THINK THE THINGS WILL NEVER CHANGE

I feel like this has been the best location choice of a horizon game. Also by far the best vibes.

It sucks that FH2, FH1 and eventually FH3 are unavailable for new players (like me, FH3 was my first introduction). It sucks, because the map is genuinely beautiful. I love the idea of the festival being more on road/ road trippy, instead of “hi uhhh we are here now”. If there was 1 remaster for any of the Horizon games… I might allow them to ignore my Australian playground, just this once :) Cant wait to see what you say for FH3, my personal fav!!

I really thinkodern Forza would benefit from studying what made FH2 so engaging and diverse

This game came out at a time when channels like Gumball3000 and Shmee150 started to gain traction, and their supercar videos in Monaco became famous. This game sorta allowed me to live a little bit of that, car meets and everything, and the road trips between northern Italy and southern France were just so nice. If it was up to me, this game would still be receiving updates to this day.

Fh2 is genuinely one of the best horizon games, the map in some regards is unparalleled

No map has come close to this. The driving roads, the backdrops, the canyons, vineyards, villages and cities. Masterpiece

I don't own an Xbox but I grew up watching videos of this game and recently played FH1 on xenia after playing 3/4/5 when they came out. 1 is by far my favourite, but 2 seems like it'd be the perfect mix of that generational leap, a hybrid between open and closed off map design, and an actual festival vibe that wasn't completely diluted yet. If only it'd come to PC!

2 is easily my favorite Horizon game (I'd rank them 2-5-3-1-4) and one thing I especially love about the map is that in this one it really feels like you're driving THROUGH the landscape, while in 3 and especially 4 and 5 it feels like you're driving OVER the landscape, which totally changes your relationship to the space. 2 has a lot of high cliffs next to the roads and the roads themselves are much more tight and winding, which I think leads to a lot of interesting driving, where 3-5 generally have wider, straighter, flatter roads which do let you go faster, but don't quite make you test out your car's limits as much

This was my childhood game I remember me and my family once was at a mall when I was a kid and in one store they had some consoles you could play on. I really liked cars so naturally I went over to a racing game and started playing. That game happened to be Forza Horizon 1 and I remember playing that for hours just driving around in the open world. My dad took note of the game and planned to give it to me for Christmas. So Christmas time came closer and my parents ordered an Xbox 360 and Forza Horizon 2 along with it. The delivery got delayed to Christmas day and when my parents finally got hold on the package and noticed that something was off... The Xbox 360 they ordered was not the console they got in the package, instead they got a brand new Xbox one. So over Christmas night they had to return to the game store and change out the games they ordered to Xbox one one's. And Christmas morning when I unboxed the console was the most hype experience I've ever had and I remember playing that game all day long after that. And I only got to know about that story a couple months ago. 10/10 game, would kill for a PC port

I only took an interest in Horizon during FH4, so i have no nostalgia for this game, but holy shit man how'd we regress so far back with the map? I can't comment on how these roads feel to drive, but looks and vibes wise this blows the shoes off FH5's bland ass map, and beats FH4 as well. The terrain, the elevation, the trees around the roads, the looks of the towns, that fucking highway, they all look amazing. If it wasn't for the increase in render and texture quality i'd think this was a newer game than FH5 looks wise. Example: 2:11 This section made me go "Holy shit that's awesome". The city looks super lively, the road is enclosed in a nice way with lots of barriers and trees and stuff giving you a sense of speed, there's a cliff of shrubbery that looks sick, once the road opens up the trees on the right frame the road really nicely. It's just so good compared to the bland, gradually sloping, dead, wide open world of FH5.

you mentioned it but i'd definitely love to point out that FH2 has the _best_ initial drive imo. First impressions of a game matter, and this one did it perfectly. The live action countdown cinematic literally gives me goosebumps, every time i watch it, and then it fades into Liberate by Eric Prydz??? And you're driving a Huracán along the french riviera???? bliss in videogame form. And what horizon 4 and especially 5 forgot, it had a narrative purpose. Granted that was just "we just landed and we need to get this car to the festival so drive it there please" but hey in horizon 5 you're driving everywhere just because.

One of the best experience you will ever get from a racing game is playing the intro to the game. The vibe, the feeling, is electric and connecting to the player. If people weren’t around during the 2014-2016 era, the car cultures being created, early days of Twitch communities, the drift scenes everyone joined together, the soundtrack is beyond immersive, the environment felt alive. This was the next closet feeling we got to the Forza Motorsport 4 experience.

You could join any random multiplayer lobby and have so much fun drifting with people or drag racing at the airport and just messing around at the docks. That coastal road that goes all the way across the side of the map is unmatched. I used to drive through it all the time to take in the view or tune a new car I got. I have vivid memories of when the miata car pack dropped and I tuned them all using that road. The maps of FH1 and FH2 are just unmatched for me, they felt purpose built as a world to drive in more than just a car sandbox map.

I prefer FH1's focus to this, but this game clearly focuses on being more of a social space to make memories in, which I respect a ton, actually.

Definitely my personal favorite. Met 90% of my Xbox friends list on FH2. Not to mention it’s highway is just under 40% longer than Horizon 1’s highway, which is the 2nd longest in the franchise.

When FH2 came out I first played it at my friends house and legitimately stayed up all night with how entertaining it was, no other forza title has captured my interest as much as this one. The map and car choices were so damn well executed, the vibe was great, and the music was perfect

I love horizon 2. Hands down my favourite horizon. For me it looks better than current horizon down to the colour palette used. Really feels like going on summer holidays as a child. I thought it was nostalgia but I went back to the game recently and enjoyed it way more than fh5

This game still has so much character that any other subsequent entries lack of. From the UI to the end-race screens, to the visual style of the game... The attention to details in this game is simply incredible. Everything about it felt truly unique. Nowadays with FH3, 4, and 5, every piece of UI and post-race screens feel unbelievably generic. While FH2 moved the camera around with UI elements being positioned accroding to what's on the screen (besides a driving car, the credits reward being on the car which is seen from the side...), FH3 had a very simple UI that were just positioned with no regard to composition. FH4 took the player away from the open world and put stuff on a giant screen for... Reasons? Style over substance in my honest opinion. And FH5 takes it further by putting you on a scene and display a simple list on the side of the screen... It's those little details that make FH2 the best entry in the franchise. Or rather, the co-best if you can say that? FH1 is equally as good in my book.

This was my first Xbox One game on the new console I bought myself after graduating college along with MCC and GTA V. This game quickly became my favorite chill late night game after either coming home from something or if I couldn't sleep. It was just a nice, chill open racing game and a great upgrade to FH1. I can still remember all the Friday nights in 2015 and 2016 playing this for hours. Plus I think this is probably the best soundtrack in the Horizon series, with FH3 closely behind.

It's crazy that FH2 is turning 10 this year. I hope FH5 will make this celebration stunning. I love each of them equally. I love the road trips feature, the world, how you do championships and the bucket list challenges. The music... good. I REALLY wanna listen to Satisfy by NERO in FH5. Guess chucking on Spotify will do the job too.

This game released at a time where there were almost no other "good" racing games on the XB1 and when it finally came out I played it to no end. The leap from FH1 to this game was like GTA San Andreas to GTA 4 it blew my mind as a kid. The map, the car list the soundtrack, the cars sounds, the DLCs (especially the F&F free DLC) were amazing. Turn 10 went all out on this game (XB1 Version lol) and I still play it to this day every now and then. My only complaint is that T10 really wanted to show off the new weather because it rains in this game like every 10 minutes.

Casteleto is probably the place where the nostalgia hits me the most I could only play the demo of FH2 on the 360, and i could ONLY play there, its probably the place i remember the most

This game came out after I had moved from France to Vietnam, for work, and it felt so great to drive in these environment and feel like I was back home. It brought many, many improvements to the series, as you pointed out in the video, but the location will always feel special to me.

Dynamic weather looks insane in this game! Best looking lighting i've ever seen in a game next to a driveclub.

FH2 is the best horizon, ever made, imo . The lighting, fresh looking ui design, car models, sounds (engine, supercharger & turbo blow offs, backfires..), sense of speed, beautifully crafted OST & map design, the car meet, the career progression.... it is a timeless masterpiece.

the one thing that makes me go back to FH2 is the car sounds. most of my close friends that I met during FM4-FH1 days would continue our tradition of meeting up to do racing; circuit, drag, drift, highway speed, chill at the meet... we even had to ban that Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale from the runway races because it was too OP 😂

I think that 3 was the superior Horizon entry, but 2 will always hold a place in my heart. Playing the Horizon 2 demo in the store is what convinced me to get my first Xbox, and I have fond memories of racing my Alfa Romeo 8C across France.

Interesting story, when my cousin bought Xbox One in 2015 after just getting married she asked me which game to play at first, Need For Speed Rivals or this, I immediately told them to buy it asap and after a month her husband said he can't thank me enough since the game was unexpectedtely great.

Good luck doing this for FH5

The map alone makes this game fun to play. Such a perfect pick by Playground. Car sounds make cruising such a joy--hasn't been replicated since.

I FUCKING LOVE INNOVATIVE LEISURE RADIO. Really sad it never made it out of the 2nd game. It's the main reason why it's my favorite soundtrack of the series

FH2 was really 3 separate versions with the Fast And Furious standalone game

Crazy that this is almost 10 years old already. Definitely the best Horizon game IMO as well. It elevated the gameplay without losing much of the Festival vibe that I feel is completely gone in the newer entries, and the map was gorgeous.

The intro cinematic of fh2 is one of the best intro to a video game , ever

As much as I appreciate the other horizon games and their dlc's (lets be honest they carried some of the the games) Horizon 2 has always felt like a true get-away and always provided the vibes of a festival. To this day it is my go-to comfort game. Not to mention the road-trip system made grinding for races way more interesting and less of a grind. It was truly ahead of its time when it comes to forza games.

It speaks volumes when i say i played horizon 2 for the first time around the time 4 came out, ive played 4 and 5 and yet 2 is still my favorite. So its not just nostalgia speaking on my end.

Also the things that only this game has is all those proper parking lots and secrets passage ways and tunnels to host car meets. They are not shown on the map and probably only way to find them is through bonus board hunting. And also this is the only game that i have over 100% compilation rate standing at 100.3%

Damn, I first played Horizon 2 when I was like 7 or 8 and didn't speak a word of English. I just followed the progression, did some bucket lists, but most of all I spent dozens and dozens of hours just driving aimlessly around the map. I was playing the xbox 360 version which was super watered down compared to the xbox one version, but I didn't know what I was missing out. The game gave you such an amazing environment to just drive around aimlessly in and do some races, even though I did not really know what I was doing lmao. I've played all FH games since, just started playing horizon 5 a few days ago. I loved all of them, but there'sno FH map which was as memorable to me as FH2's. Even though I haven't played it in years and even though I played the much more locked down xbox 360 version, this video still gave me a big wave of nostalgia.

Great video. Love this series. One missed mention for the game was about the FH2 intro video. It was (IMO of course) the best intro video in the entire Forza catalog. It just grabbed you and sucked you into the Forza world with it's music, good dialogue, and great cutscenes. This was a great game and I remember being absolutely blown away at the graphics.

I reinstalled FH2 about 1 month ago. Im just chilling crusing around enjoying the scenery and the map and the cars and sounds. Having a great time. I just got bored of FH5 it can be really dry.The tone of FH2 is just something i just really like. The music is really good as well

FH2 was what got me into the franchise, and the reason I switched from Playstation to Xbox (for a while at least). FH1 is still my favourite entry in the series but FH2 made a deep impression on me. The car selection and layout of the roads and scenery felt like I was immersed in the pages of a glossy car magazine like Evo or Top Gear.

Till this day I still hop on fh2 a few times a month. I’m still amazed how good the graphics were 10 years ago and how atmospheric the world was made. It’s still my favorite map in terms of elevation-changes and layout

When I played FH2 back in the day, I wondered why they didn’t make it possible to make your own routes. The map was incredible. Also, as a side observation, I think the perfect map would be California; they would have the PCH, desert, the mountains, twisty roads and forests. This would be a perfect setting.

I love this game so much. I played so much of the terrible Xbox 360 edition before I got an Xbox One and I still loved it. I think it is actually my favourite in terms of an overall package but it's so hard to decide between this and FH1 for me. I really wish I'd gotten the Storm Island DLC and some of the Car Packs too as this game also has such a solid car list, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren last appeared here for Horizon and I just love cruising in it. Lots of fantastic areas too, I really love the ruined Abbey by Sisteron and the large Estate and Manor in the Northern part of the middle of the map. The coastal roads are also absolutely beautiful before you take the dive into the towns or the centre of the map, I still think Nice is one of the best cities in a Horizon game only surpassed by FH3. It's also so weird how they went from having plenty Car Meets then scaling down for FH3 before getting rid of them completely for FH4 and 5. One of the weirdest things I love about FH2 though is the handling model, it's not as refined as later entries but it feels quite heavy which I think adds a nice weight to how the cars feel to drive. I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say about FH3.

FH1 and FH2 had the best soundtracks because Rob da Bank was behind the music selection for these two games, then Playground decided they're "better" at music selection, that's why FH3,4,5 music selection feels soulless unlike the first 2 entries in the series

FH2 was ahead of it's time

I do like the championship system in Horizon 2. I don't like the way you never really fully unlock all the race locations, like in Horizon 3 or later, so you could just roll up to whatever course you want and start a race. But I like that it at least gives you a sense of "here's what we're doing next". To this day, I can just boot up the game, and I know exactly what I'm doing next. It gives a sense of focus. If I boot up 3, or 4, or 5, there's plenty to do, but the game's not really offering any suggestions, or pointing in any particular direction; "here, go do this" like Horizon 2 did. Not any more, anyway. It makes the newer games feel 'played out'. They should bring something like that back. The weekly championships are fine, but it feels like that's just for new content, and once you unlock it all, it's like there's no point, and they just repeat forever until Microsoft eventually decides to shut down back-end support. Road trips were pretty cool too. Just a chill cruse to your next location. No pressure, just try not to crash.

FH3 was is favorite but 2 was my first one, and I loved it, just wish Horizon still felt as fun and vibrant that 2 and 3 were

Driving to and from locations for the road trip was so much fun, it really made it feel like you were part of a real festival with other people cruising with you

FH2 was my first Forza game, and it still holds such a special place in my heart now. I still remember the first time I played the game and seeing the introduction just blew me away. Every radio station has good music and the views throughout the map make me want to play it even though it is almost ten years old. FH2 and FH1 are definitely my favorite out of all of the games.

as an aussie fh3 had to be my favourite. but mostly cause i miss private lobbies. when fh4 came out me and my friends just stopped playing actual race events cause itd always put us back into random seperate lobbies post race and it was such a hassle so we just had to stick to freeroam after that

I played the Xbox 360 edition, while it is commonly said to be quite bad, I loved it. (and still do)

My 1st exp with FH2 was the Fast and Furious DLC tie-in and I went ahead and got the base and completed the race campaign. I may need to go back just to feel the race again. Great video!

This was simply a perfection. Progression actually mattered ( there were no lucky spins and stuff where you get a 2 million car for free ) , open world that is not filled with deserts and functional AI. Nowadays Forza Horizon is made for Fornite generations with silly sounds , clothing and all other crap that shouldnt even exist in a racing game

This is my favourite Forza Horizon, it was the first Forza game that I played and I still play this game till today.

i remember getting all my friends together with all the loudest cars we could find in the tunnel WOT, and we broke the game/lobby. we all had to restart the game lol

I beat the story in the starter car, did the goliath event, and was immensely disappointed. Sure, there's 28 championships for the 6 locations, but it's A. The same 28 championships across 6 locations, and each location only has a handful of events so you're constantly replaying the same few races over and over.

Great videos so far, can’t wait for the third one!

Totally agree with this video. Got my love of drifting from this game and so many great memories. I still have it installed and play for the vibes

FH2 was an absolute blast! Great video. 🙏🏽 It was definitely a massive leap forward! 💯

this game for sure have something i love to see back in fh6 fh2 for sure is one of my favorite racing games and my first forza horizon game

I adore this game, all the memories I have on the slightly broken and inferior xbox 360 version are unmatched, I used to play it pretty much every day

I absolutely loved this game when I played it on my Xbox 360 it’s so fun bro

The road trip segment between races etc was a nice touch. And that you got to pick the next destination. Nothing like it was done since either. But it made sense when you had 2 nations to explore.

Subscribed because of your indepth honest review.👍😎 Thanks✌🤙

I played so many hours of FH2 due to the 2Fast DLC. That skyline sounded so beautiful

You just described why I love this game and I used to spend hours playing this game and in car meets back in the day and the map is still is beautiful even in 2024

as a french guy, i was really pleased to see a game take place in locations i've actually been to, rather than the classic overused US cities

Hand down the best horizon, The map and cars were iconic. the Tokyo drift 350z completely stock was my favorite car to drift. My biggest hope is the make a Forza Horizon 2 remastered with update FFB for steering wheels. I have always wanted to return to the map with better wheel physics.

I think what was big for me was playing through this game on 360 then playing it again on the Xbox One! It’s the same game but completely different.

This is definitely my favourite horizon, one of my favourite racing games. I played the 360 & xbox one version so much

My first Horizon game. Bought my Xbox One before going to college fall 2014 and picked this up the day it came out. I knew nothing about FH1 and went into this game basically blind. Fell in love with it right away. Probably not a coincidence that I got a 2.3 GPA that semester this game came out...

Playing the first Horizon on the 360 back then made be buy a One with Motorsport 5 on launch, thereafter it was obvious to get FH2 on launch and I still got it physical somewhere, tho I think it was Standard Version. Been playing all FH's ever since they came out. I remember switching with my crew from FH3 to FH4 and later they got to try out FH2, they never did before too and it had the same impact on them "omg wow how did things looked and felt so good back then already".

I love FH2 and FH4 locations!

this was my first forza for the xbox one, i loved fh2 i’ve only owned fm4, fh2, fm7, fh4, and fh5

I just started FH2 yesterday after having played FH 4 and 5. I'm loving the map in FH2 and the 30 fps rate doesn't bother me, the quality overshadows that.

I missed some of the major elevation change in FH1 when playing FH2 but enjoyed the game a lot. It got me into more competitive racing that wasn't freeroam.

You said it best early on. The leap was huge. Alot of us came from F4, skipping over F5, so the graphics and drive was amazing. It wasn't too hard like F5, but felt slightly easier than F4.

Such good memories 😢

this game is perfect. 5 stars. 10/10

I remember seeing they literally had the ability to do the hydraulic spoiler on the McLaren p1 in the old gen h2 but it’s constantly in race mode on “new” gen

6:58 this same track layout is used in FH4 aswell. its like almost exact copy.

Loved the Online Road Trips on this game and i played them non stop and found out if you win the championship 3 times in a row it kicks you and tells you it was a connection error 😆 happened multiple time exactly on 3 wins in a row heck the Road Trips was how i found out about Don Joewon Song used to love trying to beat him and his friends streaming on twitch. do wish i could relive those memories

Forza Horizon 2 will always have a special place in my heart alongside to many classic racing games. The vibe, aspect, features, scenery, social aspect, and the story all come together so nicely. Shout out to the free Fast and Furious DLC too. wish the dev in Turn 10 could see the magic we crave again.

I couldn’t drift back then so I followed people that could around and sent them the videos and pictures of their work.

I remember being 13 at the time, and bugging my dad to buy it because he gifted me horizon 1 and i loved it so much, bough it for the 360 tho. Still a great experience tho i dont come back to it as much as Horizon 1 or, my favourite, Horizon 3. I kinda liked the whole theme a lot more through and fell in love with australia because of the way it presented the country. Also played Multiplayer with friends for 2 years straight

I remember being so excited when I bought my Xbox One (my first xbox) and absolutely played the sh*t out of this game with a wheel. Was so much fun! My favourite car the Huracan and the Ferrart 1988 GTO.

This game reminds me of time when I could play all day and not worry about much.

This was my first Horizon game and man this game and Horizon 3 would be really hard to pick a favorite

Wow this looks just perfect. I only played FH5 and watched a lot of FH4, but this just looks so much better than Mexico. Even feels more "professional" than just flying through Mexico's jungles.

I love how there are actually shifting up and down and pulling the e-break animations in fh2 however in in fh5 your character only puts his hands down for a sec and they didn’t even bother adding a e-break animation

or at least the best sounding one! , great video !

This is my personal favorite.

This is my favorite. There's no other game with scenery that looks like this.

games back then is just way better than some of today"s game