Forza Horizon 3 (2016)

Lore & Background

In the world of the Horizon Festival, the traveling carnival of racing, music, and automotive culture has a long history of picking its next destination to showcase a region's character. When the organizers chose Australis, they were drawn by the sheer variety of terrain: outback scrubland giving way to lush rainforest, coastal highways threading past coral-colored cliffs, and alpine passes where the air thins and the grip disappears. The festival's arrival transforms quiet towns into neon-lit hubs of competition, with stages, garages, and pit lanes popping up along the road network.

What sets this installment apart in the broader Horizon mythology is the sense that the land itself is a participant. The storm system—sandstorms that blind the windshield, monsoon downpours that turn dirt tracks into rivers, and sweeping heat-shimmer over the desert—was introduced as a narrative and mechanical force. In the story mode, these storms are not merely cosmetic; they become obstacles the player must navigate, and they shape the pacing of the campaign, forcing detours, changing grip, and heightening the drama of each leg of the journey.

The player's role is that of a fresh-faced driver who has just arrived at the festival grounds, eager to prove themselves against the local legends. The narrative weaves in supporting characters who each carry their own relationship to the land and to racing, and the player's progress through the story is tied to earning their trust, completing challenges, and ultimately helping the festival reach its grand finale. The tone is warm, sun-drenched, and celebratory—a road trip that happens to be the biggest racing event on the continent.

Reader's Guide

Forza Horizon 3 runs in the Xbox One / PC build of the 2016 title. The Horizon Story mode unlocks automatically when you first create your driver and step onto the festival grounds in Australis; there is no time-limited window, so you can take your time.

You begin by arriving in the outback and meeting the local crew who are trying to get the festival off the ground. Early milestones are straightforward: complete a handful of short races and stunt challenges in the scrubland and coastal zones to earn trust and unlock the next biomes. As you progress, the map opens up into rainforest, highland, and alpine regions, each with its own set of races and a new supporting character who gives you a personal quest.

The storm system becomes the central tension. Mid-campaign, a major sandstorm rolls through the outback, and you must race through reduced visibility and shifting terrain to deliver supplies or rescue a stranded crew member. Later, a monsoon turns the rainforest into a waterlogged gauntlet where grip is everything.

The emotional peak arrives in the final act: a multi-stage race that threads from the desert, through the highlands, and down to the coast, culminating in the festival's grand finale. You race alongside (and against) the characters you've befriended, and the finish line is met with the full festival crowd, music, and a fireworks display over the ocean. The story closes with your driver being recognized as a true part of the Australis racing community, and the festival's legacy in the region is secured.

After the story, the open world remains fully available for free-roam, online challenges, and Horizon Life social play.

Did You Know?

• Australis is a deliberately fictionalized Australia rather than a 1:1 replica; the map compresses and rearranges real biomes—outback, rainforest, alpine, coast—into a single drivable region.
• The dynamic storm system (sandstorms, rainstorms, heat shimmer) was a first for the Horizon series and was designed to alter both the visual atmosphere and the handling model in real time.
• Unlike Forza Horizon 2, which followed a fixed protagonist, FH3 lets the player build their own driver from scratch, making the story a personal road-trip narrative rather than a character-driven one.
• Horizon Life, the social and lifestyle layer introduced in this title, lets players hang out in festival hubs, customize their driver's look, and share screenshots with friends without the pressure of a race timer.