At A Glance

Precision: A wide variety of assist modes will help gamers with precision concerns steer and maintain control of their car, even at high speeds. Recommend rating of 5 out of 10.

Deaf Gamers: There are no subtitles because the game does not include voice acting or verbal instructions. All instructions are presented on screen in a high-contrast sans serif font, and are both highly legible and readable. Recommend rating of 10 out of 10.

One-handed: The controller is partially remappable and features six layout schemes, but none of them use the right stick to steer, meaning that gamers with use of one hand will face challenges in either using the triggers to accelerate and brake or using the A, B and X buttons to perform the same function. Recommend rating of 3 out of 10.

Subtitled: There are no subtitles because the game does not include voice acting or verbal instructions. All instructions are presented on screen in a high-contrast sans serif font, and are both highly legible and readable. Recommend rating of 10 out of 10.

Color Blind: The Suggested Line assist uses red to indicate when a player needs to brake and green to indicate when a player needs to accelerate or maintain speed. Car upgrades use red and green to indicate whether a part offers improved or diminished performance, as well as plus and minus symbols. All modes that use color for meaning are optional or offer additional visual cues. Recommend rating of 7 out of 10.

Checkpoint / Save System: Recommend rating of 10 out of 10.
The game saves to disk whenever a player completes a race, buys a car or finishes any other significant activity.


Overall Review:

Forza Motorsport 2 is a racing simulation game which provides players with a rich and detailed environment to play in, including production and concept cars which can be upgraded and modified with a wide range of parts and automotive accessories, and actual competition race tracks. As players win races and complete race series, they earn money to buy new cars and upgrades. Players also receive new cars as prizes, improving their chances of successfully competing in subsequent races.

More importantly, Forza offers an extremely wide range of assistive modes and settings, as well as configuration options, so that players can make the game as accessible or difficult as they want. While gameplay can become repetitive during long gaming sessions due to driving on modified versions of the same track, it’s still an immensely enjoyable experience when played in moderation.



Accessibility Issues / Concerns

Generally speaking, Forza Motorsport 2 offers an extensive range of options to make the game more accessible, including limited controller remapping and a substantial number of difficulty settings and assistive modes which make driving easier. Players can choose whether to use an automatic transmission, eliminating the need to shift gears, or manual. Players can enable or disable anti-lock brakes, stabilizing and traction control systems, suggested lines (in short, an on-screen path which indicates the best course to take as well as when to brake and accelerate) and more. While these modes reduce the potential earnings from a race, they make Forza significantly more accessible to players with precision concerns.

However, the most interesting accessibility feature is the ability to hire a driver immediately before the beginning of a race. If a race is too difficult for a player to complete, they can select from a number of drivers with different skill levels. Generally, on the easier settings, a poor driver in a good car will beat better drivers in cars that may not be as upgraded, but fundamentally, this is a feature that effectively allows a player to skip past any race while still getting credit for completion, albeit with significantly reduced earnings.

In addition, there are often good reasons for hiring a driver – some races at higher levels can take an extended amount of time and can exhaust even able-bodied gamers; the ability to hire a driver allows people to complete these tasks despite their length. However, hiring a driver does not simulate the race and provide the player with an immediate result; the game instead shows the entire race, regardless of how long it is, with no apparent way to bypass the cinematic. Finally, it is important to note that this feature is not available when the game starts, but is unlocked through gameplay, meaning that gamers with precision concerns will need to complete some of the tasks in Forza 2 before gaining access to this ability.

However, even with the assistive modes and the ability to hire a driver, some gamers will likely experience challenges in playing Forza.

Gamers with use of one hand will likely experience a significant number of challenges. Steering is always located on the left controller stick, while the triggers control braking and accelerating. The limited controller remapping allows gamers to steer using the direction pad, but that isn’t a sufficient accommodation. The best controller configuration for gamers with use of one hand is Alt Layout 6, which assigns braking to the X button, accelerating to the A button and the emergency break to B. However, that configuration still uses the left stick and the direction pad to control steering. In other words, gamers with use of one hand may find themselves limited to upgrading and customizing cars, and hiring drivers to complete challenges.

Gamers with a form of color blindness may experience challenges with Forza as well. The Suggested Line feature uses red to indicate when to brake and green to indicate when to accelerate or maintain speed. With that said, it’s important to note that players are not required to use that feature; while Forza uses colors during race to indicate meaning, the player has a choice of whether to use that feature and actually receives greater earnings if Suggested Line is deactivated. Purchasing car upgrades also makes use of green and red to indicate improved and diminished performance, respectively. Car upgrades also use plus and minus symbols to indicate whether a part is a better option than the currently installed component.

Forza should not give gamers with hearing concerns any problems. There are no subtitles in the game and there are no options to enable them, but the game does not use voice-overs. All necessary instructions are presented in sans serif, high-contrast text on screen.

Likewise, the assistive modes and difficulty settings make Forza significantly more accessible for gamers with precision concerns. To reiterate, the hire a driver feature also allows players to effectively bypass any race which is too difficult or presents too many challenges.

Ultimately, Forza Motorsport 2 is a fantastic racing simulation game, but perhaps more importantly, it’s an exceptionally accessible game as well with a wide range of accommodations which lets any player – disabled or not – determine how they want to play.