Forza Horizon 6 is designed in nearly every way to feel like a party, but my coworker sought to make it my funeral.
Okay, not my actual coworker, but his Drivatar.
If you’re unfamiliar, Forza Drivatars are CPU-controlled embodiments of you, making it so that even if you’re playing the game solo, you’ll get the thrill and the feel of racing real people. It gives CPU racers the names, custom license plates, and even the cars of those on your friends list, as well as others who have played the game, and it’s trained on their driving habits to perform the way they do in races.
And that’s what has me so concerned: If GameSpot video producer Tom Caswell’s Drivatar is trained on his driving habits, then his hobbies seem to include vehicular homicide. Evidently, he would prefer me dead in a ditch, based on how his Drivatar would ram into me whenever I got close to his car or truck during my Forza Horizon 6 review sessions. I caught on to this early and had to adapt quickly. As each race would count down to the word “go,” I’d first scout the starting grid for my colleague/would-be murderer so I could plan how to best avoid being the paparazzi to his Jennifer Lopez’s driver.
I’ve seen enough horror movies in my time to know the familiar trappings. I wasn’t going to die in the cold open, at the very least. The ideal was to be the sole survivor; the Final Girl of a different sort, and maybe I’d make it to the sequel. I wouldn’t try to fight him head-on, nor could I always easily outpace him, for Tom was a cold, ruthless killing machine whose front end was apparently magnetically attracted to performing PIT maneuvers.
My best bet was to do what I learned in asymmetrical horror multiplayer games like Friday The 13th and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: I didn’t need to be faster than Tom, I just needed to put other victims between him and me. Hopefully, by the time he was done leaving CPU Brian Shea of Game Informer in a fiery ditch back in the first half-mile, I’d have pulled away to safety–and victory.
It didn’t always end up that way, but thankfully, the game’s rewind function let me quickly undo any damage to my car left by Tom’s Mad Max-ian rage, giving me a new chance at a life that the deceptively cheerful face of GameSpot’s Instagram tried to snuff out like a scene from Duel, only with a smaller truck, or Maximum Overdrive, but with less cocaine.
Eventually, as I got deeper into the game, it felt like Tom had begun to relent. After some hours, I was no longer always playing the victim in the Twisted Metal cutscene that was apparently Tom’s life. He seemed to mellow out, like when Jason Voorhees hears his mother’s voice and reverts to a childlike state. What happened to steer Tom back toward the light? Was the darkness inside of him vanquished in a dramatic third act I wasn’t privy to, his demons exorcised once and for all? Or was his Drivatar more accurately capturing his habits after perhaps leaning too heavily on an early, sloppier race he may have had? I couldn’t make sense of it, but neither can I say I’ve really let my guard down since, even as I want to believe I’m safe now.
So when you’re driving this week in Forza Horizon 6, remember to use your mirrors, always check the backseat before you enter the vehicle, and travel via multiplayer convoy whenever possible. And just know, at the Horizon Festival, you may feel welcome to the party, but somewhere out there, Tom is watching … waiting … flooring it in search of his next victim.