First Steps in The Story Mode Forza Horizon 3 Guide

The beginning of the game is a type of tutorial - you'll receive some cars temporarily, and you need to finish first three races to be able to choose the first vehicle that you'll utilize.

Choose one of the available cars - there are no bad choices, as the cars are quite different from each other.

You can choose one, free car from four available vehicles:

• BMW M4 Coupe (choose it if you are focusing on city racing, it is useless in a mixed terrain),
• Nissan Silvia Spec-R (easy handling, quite dynamic and handles turns well, you'll come back from a skid easily. It can survive a little off-road, but its performance there suffers greatly),
• Ford Shelby GT350R (it's a S1 class vehicle - not recommended for newbies, hard to handle, has trouble turning while speeding, and it is skid-inducing, but you can go off-road with it),
• HSV Limited Edition Gen-F GTS Maloo (the parameters of this car are quite averaged (speed/handling), but it handles off-road pretty well).

Once you choose the car, you are (partly) left to fend for yourself - the map shows new events - races and other activities - that you can attempt in any combination.

Earnings in Forza are shown in a form of credits - you can see the reward after each race.

You can now acquire new cars - Forza Horizon 3 doesn't use money as currency, employing a system of points (credits) that are rewarded for successful completion of an activity. You can increase your revenue by taking top positions, or by making clean runs. However, the biggest earnings come from increasing the difficulty level - that doesn't necessary mean the enemy AI, but also through disabling ABS systems or driving and braking lines.

The enemies appearing in the game are drivatars, which are a type of AI which controls the opponents' cars based on the real Forza players' performance. Maybe some other driver is currently racing with a Drivatar that was created based on your driving model. You receive extra credits for this.

Once you finish two races using your first car, you'll begin another stage of expansion. Each of these stages results in placement of new races and events in the further, northern part of the map. At the same time, it's an indicator of your progress in the game. The second stage allows you to choose another free vehicle, this time an SUV. It has to be noted that you shouldn't give this choice a lot of thought, as each of these cars handles quite stiffly. If you plan to complete the game in 100% and unlock all the cars, you should choose Lamborghini Urus or BMW X6, as they have the highest value (you don't want to overpay later) and similar handling on asphalt roads and outside of them (such roads will await you in the coming races).

In the further part of the game, you can choose the location of the new festival: the city or the desert.

Once you finish some further races, you'll unlock another new module - abilities, rewards, and attributes that are unlocked for experience points acquired for progressing in the game and for every activity. Additionally, you can widen your expansion with an additional event in the city or in the desert - there are no consequences for this choice - the second option will also be available, albeit a bit later, once you develop the current festivals. During this stage you can also unlock Honda NSX-R.

The rest of the game has a similar pattern - you unlock new activities, and with progress you'll receive one car from the chosen category - remember that they are not free (free cars are rewarded only after unlocking a new festival), but offered with a certain discount. The objective of the game is the constant development of the festivals, and winning further races and challenges. When you develop your festivals considerably, you'll unlock additional, bonus actions and the ability to participate in Championships.