1st place finish.
Forza Horizon has been a series for Microsoft that is rarely part of the discourse when it comes to talking up exclusives and whether or not Microsoft has a first-party title in the fight when it comes to competing against the stacked offerings put forward by Sony. While Gears and Halo have been flagship titles for the publisher for much of its lifespan, Forza Horizon is one that I honestly feel should be placed alongside them, even despite the argument that it’s “just a racing game”. While Microsoft hasn’t had their fair share of first-party titles to really sell their previous two consoles, Forza Horizon is without a doubt one of their finest, and with it being available on Xbox, PC, and X-Cloud, you can literally take the fun anywhere.
While I am by no means a car aficionado or anyone that can tell you what half the stuff within each car does, I am still consistently impressed by the performance and feel of a good ride. Personally, I drive a 2016 Hyundai Veloster and was more than excited to find the 2019 model included in the hundreds of cars packed into this year’s model. And honestly, “This year’s model” is exactly how I would describe what Forza Horizon 5 is when compared to the absolutely fantastic 4th entry released just three years ago. Diving into the 2019 model of my Veloster, I noticed a lot of enhancements such as more striking brake lights, a more streamlined interior, to visual alterations that give the 2019 model a clear leg up over the version I currently have parked in my driveway. But, at the end of the day, it still very much looks like a Veloster, drives like a Veloster, likely smells like a Veloster, and that is exactly what Horizon 5 is when compared to what has come before. Forza Horizon 5 is still very much Forza Horizon.
Where Forza Horizon 4 took us to the open fields and historic landmarks of Great Britain, Forza Horizon 5 revs things up with a gorgeous trip to Mexico, complete with tropical beaches, long-forgotten ruins, thick jungles, and one mighty large volcano. Despite the change in scenery, that “this year’s model” example comes with it a lot of past similarities, offering yet another new festival and a lot of the same ways you’ll progress through it and the dozens of missions and side activities that populate a damn impressive map size. Speaking of progress, Forza Horizon 5 brings with it the accolades system, a massive spread of 1800+ objectives that you’ll constantly be working towards. From pulling off a set skill chain target, upgrading your ride, to simply pushing through one of many races you’ll find all over Mexico, these accolades work towards setting up new festival events for you as well as unlocking new cars and other customization items. It’s a very attractive carrot to keep you constantly working towards completing everything the game has on offer.
Forza Horizon 5 also does something that I feel is rather smart, it places your driver as “the” driver from Forza Horizon 4, allowing all those bragging rights of being the champ across the pond to transfer over to this year’s festivities. It’s an interesting through-line narrative that allows you to have a sense that these games are connected from one to the other. It’s certainly not a mind-blowing feature or one that elevates the game to new highs, but one that feels very suited to what Playground Games is trying to do here. Honestly, if the next game is called Forza Horizon World, I wouldn’t be surprised. And, if it was the equivalent to Microsoft Flight Simulator, but on the ground, I’d be even more impressed.
Where Great Britain allowed Forza Horizon to push through a series of different seasons, from winter causing the lakes to freeze over, to the beautiful colors that come with a fresh autumn landscape, Forza Horizon 5’s shift to Mexico brings with it tropical storms, scorching heat, and massive dust storms that eliminate almost any visibility you have while driving through them. It’s certainly not as impressive as the entire map shifting to a new season, but I have to admit, the dust clouds and massive rainstorms certainly have their appeal. The added weather really works to the game’s advantage when played on new hardware as the water that splashes and collects on the cars looks downright gorgeous, as do the puddles and water that can wash out most roads. Even with the boosted upgrade we got to Forza Horizon 4 for these new consoles, this newest entry leaves it in its autumn-tinted dust.
Even without Raytracing implemented into its racing elements, Forza Horizon 5 is simply stunning, showcasing that Playground Games certainly knows the hardware as while I rarely play racing games in third-person, or would that be third-car? I simply had to as much as I could, taking in the gorgeous car models, the lighting and reflections that come with such a view, and everything that is presented here as every square inch of this game is visually impressive to no end. This detail and fluid gameplay comes at you with both a Quality and Performance mode, and honestly, I expect some future patches to almost merge these, given any extra time the team has to make some quality of life improvements, such as what happened with Insomniac and the Miles Morales game on PS5.
Quality mode brings with it some more detail at 4K, but does drop the framerate down to 30fps, whereas Performance plucks some of the more distanced detail away, as well a few other visual tweaks, in favor of hitting a damn flawless 60fps, also in 4K. Most of my time was in Performance mode as the silky smooth 60fps was worth the small changes to its visuals, which in no way disappoint at all ever, so it’s a solid trade I’d make any day of the week. Running the game on the Series S; however, does drop both modes down to 1080p, which still allows the game to look decent, but you can tell that the Series X is really where the game is meant to be seen.
The massive map size of Mexico is considerably bigger than any Forza Horizon map to date, giving you far more territory to conquer as you carve your own place amongst the festival’s best. The open road you’ll traverse is split among 11 different biomes, each offering a distinct place among Playground Games’ take on Mexico. There are lush jungles, rocky cliffs, wide-open plains, sandy deserts, as well as the colorful city of Guanajuato, which looks absolutely amazing at night. Last but not least is the La Gran Caldera volcano, which is the highest point geographically in the series to date. And while you may be able to cruise from one side of the map to the other in a span of ten or so minutes, there are a few courses that take full advantage of the entire map and can run nearly half an hour long, making some of these gauntlets really showcase how massive this map can truly feel when used properly.
As is the case with Forza Horizon, you’ll have a lion’s share of races to take part in. Everything from standard road races, both lap and distance-based, to those that take you cross-country and through the wet jungles and ancient ruins. You’ll also have speed traps and skill-chain races, to events that have you racing against trains, planes, and monster trucks, and even one where you’ll try to outpace a trio of jetskis. So many of these events are truly engaging to take part in and you’ll find a series of user-created races as well, some of which can aid in exploiting certain tricks fans have discovered to earn some fast cash.
However, Forza Horizon 5 does suffer from one major issue that I had with Forza Horizon 4, and frankly, it’s worse here. When you start your racing career, the map is simply overwhelmed in activities, and the way that you unlock and progress simply adds to the problem. Had there been a natural roll-out of races or more events springing up as you completed festival milestones, then I think I would have enjoyed that far more. While much of this is to give you the freedom to tackle events in whatever order you want, it’s not well implemented and stands out as the game’s only major issue, at least in my eyes. While there is an excitement of knowing you have things to keep you busy, I feel the roll-out of new races and activities could have been done so much better.
While there are filters to aid in keeping the map manageable, they only work to a limited degree. You can toggle off certain types of races and activities, but at a certain point in the game, you get flooded with a ton of new activities to take part in, which don’t adhere to some of the same filters. While you can eliminate all NEW races to prevent some from showing up, there is no filter within NEW to separate some from the others. I think if the map had been split up more based on the festival events, it would have made it far easier to manage, even without the filters, which again, do work to a limited degree.
While the festival events will keep you occupied for much of your time, there are several story missions that have you aiding in some research around Mexico or doubling up as a stunt racer for an actor or actress that looks mysteriously just like you. These events are actually pretty fun and while some do tend to borrow some of the same ideas from mission to mission, the fun narrative that plays out with your very vocal character is engaging enough to make these events remain consistently enjoyable as you try to hit that perfect 3-star finish. You’ll also engage in expeditions, which occasionally happen during some missions, causing you to roam around a set area looking for objectives like tracking down a place for some research equipment, or an old racers suit, to a long-forgotten cache of money.
Apart from the festival events, and all the activities you’ll find as you drive around, you’ll also have the seasonal playlists that come with a ton of objectives to complete and some solid rewards as well. Some of these objectives range from owning certain cars, hitting a select amount of stars in a speed trap, to a wealth of events to take part in that contribute toward a point total. These rotate out weekly, so you’ll always have something to tackle once you’ve burned through the entire festival and all its offerings. Combine that with a multiplayer suite of playing games like infection, playing co-op for the majority of all events, to a massive battle royal mode where you’ll need to reach targeted zones before other players, and you have a lot to tackle here, should you be up for it.
To make it easier to match up with similar players, you’ll be able to use a new feature called Forza Link, a D-Pad-driven multiplayer assistant that tracks your progress and allows you to communicate through a series of phrases to potential new friends, and then match up with them for some co-op or competitive play. You’ll also have Horizon Arcade, which differs from the Forzathon Live from Forza Horizon 4 and sees you and other players joining forces to complete a series of challenges that continue to escalate as you push through them. While I do prefer Forzathon Live to this change, it’s still enjoyable providing you have enough players playing to actually achieve victory.
Across all events, both solo or alongside friends, you’re going to want to collect as many cars as you can, ensuring you always have the right one for the job. While some events are tailored towards a given car for the moment, you’ll usually have the freedom to take your own personal ride out for the majority of events. As I mentioned before, I tended to bring my Veloster alongside me for the entire festival. Now, as the races persisted, I tended to lag behind, but you can upgrade and enhance your vehicles, even testing some aspects out as you tinker with them, or even just bypass a lot of that technical side and download presets made by other players. I took my 642 scored Veloster and equipped a traction and handling build made by another player and raised it all the way to around 820, making me considerably faster, and sticking to the asphalt a lot better than before. Sure, the extra speed took a while to get under control, but the car was simply better in every capacity. While you’ll have a few ways to track down new rides, such as the Car Pass, Barn Finds, or simply through the auto-shop that uses all that hard-earned Forza bucks, I wish there was a faster way to buy cars instead of the several menu hoops you’ll have to hop through for each and every purchase.
Each and every car has a progression system called Car Mastery and is different between each car even if you own multiples of the same vehicle. As you drift, jump, or tackle a variety of different actions, you’ll level up and earn skill tokens that are used to unlock panels on your skill board. These unlocks range from earning more experience, earning additional wheel spins to unlock more cars, outfits items for your driver, or a hefty payday of some serious funds. Apart from cosmetic items, cash, or new cars, you’ll unlock a series of different perks such as more credits earned from head-to-head races, more experience from skills, or being able to take a crash and still keep your skill chain going. You can also unlock new car horns, so if your dream was to blast the Windows XP shut down sound or the birthday applause sound from Halo, well, I have good news for you.
Lastly, Forza Horizon 5 has two methods of customization to take in as you can not only deck your car out in a variety of user creator skins, but you can also dress your custom-created character as well. While I don’t feel that the people side of Forza Horizon 5 is anywhere near as impressive as the car aspect visually, I still do enjoy customizing my character, choosing their clothes for the race, and seeing them on stage during every victory. That said, I do miss seeing them on stage during the wheel spins, whereas here in Forza Horizon 5, these are simply just a generic menu now. I will admit; however, that the choices for creating your character are not the best or as varied as they could be, giving you pretty few options in both their looks and their wardrobe, at least off the bat. You’ll unlock more outfits as you go on, so it won’t take you that long to really pin down a look you’ll be at least somewhat happy with.
The decals and vinyl’s that you can equip to your car are often impressive, I just wish that the way of creating these designs on the Xbox was made a bit more user friendly, especially when it comes to uploading images instead of the layer system that works for basic things, but just doesn’t cut it for more complex images or having, for example, a face or character on the side of your car. Thankfully, my dream of having that perfect anime car is made easy enough as I almost always found one for the variety of cars I would have in my collection.
With over 500 cars to unlock, and hundreds of events and activities to take on, even if their rollout is something I still am not that taken with, Forza Horizon 5 is a truly incredible experience that shows that Playground Games has refined this series to near perfection. This is a team that fully has a grasp on the hardware needed to make their vision a reality, and is not just likely the best racing game ever made, but one of the best games released this year. While it may look to some as “more of the same” when it comes to what we had in Forza Horizon 4, I’ll welcome more of that “same” if it’s this damn good. And with this game being on Xbox Game Pass, and featuring cross-play and cross-save across all its platforms, and available on Xbox Cloud streaming, you can take this adventure really anywhere you want, and that, like this game, is damn impressive.
Developer - Playground Games. Publisher - Xbox Game Studios. Released - November 5th, 2021. Available On - Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Windows. Rated - (E) No Descriptors.
Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X/S. Review Access - Forza Horizon 5 was downloaded off of Game Pass by the reviewer.