Getting started with Forza Customs - A guide for new players
If you hopped into Hutch’s latest game, Forza Customs expecting a lot of working with cars then you won’t be disappointed. But you may also find an initially confusing mix of customisation simulation and puzzle gameplay that can be a little bit off-putting.
But don’t let that turn you away from a well-designed game. That’s why we’ve put together this beginners guide, introducing you to how you play, and succeed in Forza Customs.
The gameplay of Forza Customs actually has an interesting wrinkle to what you would usually find in other car games. You play as one of 50 in-universe teams, with challenges set out to take stock cars - and occasional rustbuckets - before customising and souping them up into a particular spec. These can be anything from HOTROD to DRIFT, with a particular focus on that car’s core characteristic.
Forza Customs is framed as a reality show, with the player meeting a variety of characters such as presenter Kim and chief mechanic Aaron who will guide the player through the mechanics of the game and how things work. They'll also serve as your guides in the tutorial and further - explain some key aspects of the cars you'll be working on.
So without further ado let’s get into how it works.
1
Your first time playing
When you’re introduced to the game you’ll get your first car to customise, in our case a 2018 Ford Mustang. You’ll also spin for the kind of car you have to turn it into, in this case, a DRIFT car. From there you’ll be taken to the workshop, where you’ll meet your team of engineers and figure out exactly how the game works.
Forza Customs focuses on accruing points in order to complete set tasks which offer decisions that let you customise the car you’re working on. As you complete tasks you'll need to complete puzzles to gain more points in order to level up. Early on these are quite easy, but you'll slowly see more challenges such as limitations in your moves and a more varied number of tiles you need to collect in each level. These tasks progress along a bar until you reach the end and finish your creation!
2
How to play
Forza Customs is split between two game modes - one where you customise cars in your workshop, and another where you complete simple puzzles. To do the former you need to accrue points, which can be used to complete tasks that let you further customise a car to the specifications needed, as we just mentioned. You also acquire Gold, which can be used to purchase power-ups and boosters, which increase your performance during the puzzle levels. Relax, it's not pay-to-play when it comes to selecting the cars!
The puzzles themselves are also deceptively simple. If you’ve ever played a match-three game then you’re all set. Simply swap pieces to form rows of three matching icons, if you match more than three to make four you get a special piece that you can tap which then eliminates all pieces in a row. Collect enough pieces of a certain kind to complete the puzzle, and gain the points needed to continue!
As you go along and complete the tasks, you’ll be given options to - naturally - customise the car to your preferred look. This lets you create quite unique designs, don’t worry about the choices as, at least initially they don’t have any effect on the actual performance of your car.
3
Tile types
Like with many match-three games there are different tile types. They’re all relatively easy to understand however; gears and toolboxes cannot be paired or moved, and you need to pair blocks next to them in order to collect them. Wheels meanwhile have to be shifted down the columns until they hit the arrows at the bottom in order for them to be collected. The best way isn’t to go slow and steady, but to concentrate on getting four tiles close to each other in order to get the bonus power-ups these drop. Not only that but some modes see the direction of the arrows you need to collect tiles like wheels in change, sending your tiles up instead of down.
4
Building your Cars
Once you pass the tutorial you’ll get given the same process again. Each car is different, but functionally speaking there’s no way you can go wrong. Each cosmetic upgrade you apply is technically the right choice, and doesn’t affect stats in any way. Especially as you don’t end up actually driving any of these cars. However, each completed car does offer rewards such as extensions to power-ups and the ability to see some vanity shots and take pictures of your completed creation.
5
Power-ups
There are also a number of power-ups in Forza Customs, these include the Hammer and the Saw. The Hammer simply knocks out a single tile of your choosing without spending a move while the Saw will knock out an entire row. Naturally, both of these require the currency Gold to acquire. But you should only ever need to use them in exceptional circumstances, most of the time they’re not necessary.
6
Final Thoughts
There's no secret trick to succeeding in Forza Customs, but it's a very straightforward match-three puzzle game with plenty of flashy power-ups and boosters to give you a sense of excitement. And even if you're not that fussed about the puzzle aspect, there's a surprising amount of cars on offer for you to tinker with and customise. Everything from modern super-cars and muscle cars to beaten-up old "barn finds" that you can see brought back to working order.
