FH2 South Europe Provence lavender fields
FH2 · Provence lavender meets the Italian Riviera (AI illustration)

Map Setting

FH2's map is a "fictional blend" of southern France and the Italian Riviera. Playground Games picked the two countries' most postcard-worthy elements — Provence's purple lavender, the Roman Pont du Gard aqueduct, the Nice promenade, Tuscan cypress hillsides — and placed them on a continuous drivable surface. Ten minutes of driving takes you from the French countryside to an Italian vineyard.

The game launched in 2014 simultaneously on Xbox 360 and Xbox One, making it the series' only cross-generation entry. The Xbox One version was developed by Playground Games while the Xbox 360 version was farmed out to Sumo Digital — gameplay and the map are nearly identical, but visuals differ significantly.

Iconic Regions

  • Castelletto — the main story hub, an Italian-old-town-style Festival outpost.
  • Sisteron — a French cliffside town. The clifftop circuit is one of the series' all-time great tracks.
  • Provence Lavender Fields — purple ocean races. The shot of a red Ferrari cutting through purple bloom became FH2's identity.
  • St. Martin / La Garrigue — French rural vineyards and olive groves.
  • Côte d'Azur Coast — the legendary Mediterranean coastal road.

Dynamic Weather Debut

FH2 introduced dynamic weather to the series for the first time. Thunderstorms made the road slippery, raindrops appeared on the windshield. While there were no full seasonal transitions yet (those came in FH4), the seamless transition from clear sky to thunderstorm was a visual revelation in 2014.

Community Trivia

FH2's thunderstorm effects are considered by some long-time fans to be "better than FH5's." The lightning illuminating the entire landscape, the wiper physics, the layered thunder echoes were exceptionally crafted.

Why Fans Love It

Ask any longtime Forza fan "which Horizon map is most iconic?" and the answer is usually FH2. Three reasons:

  1. Scenery density — virtually every road is wallpaper-ready.
  2. Soundtrack — Bastille, Foster the People, Of Monsters and Men make this widely cited as the series' best radio OST.
  3. Purity — no overbearing story, no over-tutorialized aids, no GaaS season grind. Just a clean party.

Trivia & Lore

  • FH2 also has no PC version. Xbox-exclusive to this day, and servers are offline — no online play possible.
  • The "Storm Island" DLC is widely considered one of the series' best — a permanent stormy island with off-road missions.
  • FH2 is the last series entry without imposed "story missions" — mission structure is much more freeform.