Forza Horizon 5 Review: Buckle Up and Enjoy the Ride
Forza Horizon 5 put to the test: buckle up and enjoy the ride
RRP $ 60.00
"Forza Horizon 5 doubles the series' winning formula to bring players another hit racing game with superpowered next-gen technology."
advantages
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Driving is as tight as ever
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Creative story missions
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Excellent creative tools
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Apparently endless content
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Really next-gen look and feel
disadvantage
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Steep learning curve
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Formula could use a refresher
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Slow photo mode is loading
At the beginning of my Forza Horizon 5 adventure, I lose control. As it turns out, my fast sports car is poorly equipped for off-road driving (who would have thought?) And I skid. I spin helplessly as cacti fly in all directions. What do you expect from someone who has never had a driver's license?
I expect the game to warn me or an NPC to speak to me over the radio about my poor skills. Instead, the combo meter goes wild on the screen. Super slides! Perfect 360! Destruction Bonus! Soon I am gaining tens of thousands of experience, which gives me some skill points that I can spend on car perks that further boost my accidental combos. Forza Horizon 5 sees no difference between good and bad driving – it treats the simple act of driving a car as a victory and ensures that drivers are always celebrated for being willing to get behind the wheel.
Forza Horizon 5 doesn't deviate too far from the series formula – and it doesn't have to. Playground Games offers another robust open-world driving experience that shines both in its finely tuned driving mechanics and in a next-generation technical spectacle. It's the definitive racing game of this new console cycle, and it's already hard to imagine any competitor slipping into first place anytime soon.
How I learned to drive
Forza Horizon 5 puts players right in the action – figuratively as well as literally. The game begins with a series of vignettes as various cars exit planes and zoom through the game version of Mexico. It's an exciting opening sequence reminiscent of the Fast & Furious franchise and setting the stage for a more adventurous episode.
It doesn't provide much guidance for newbies. A control chart paints a simple portrait of the game by telling players how to accelerate, steer, and brake, but that is deceptive. Driving the Forza Horizon franchise can actually be quite complicated, causing players to unlearn an “always accelerating” mentality. You have to strategically accelerate, brake in curves and use the emergency brake carefully. It doesn't actually tell players about this, but instead uses a GPS-style line on the screen that indicates when players should slow down. However, it is never directly explained, nor does it provide a glossary of terms for those who have no idea how statistics like torque affect their digital cars.
The learning curve can be steep (the game quickly advised me to descend to the easiest difficulty, and it took about 10 hours to tell me I was ready to pick it up again), but the driving feels ironclad, even in the Fail. With so little actual input required, there is a lot of active work going into controlling a car. In one of the ultimate races in the game – nearly 30 minutes of running the gauntlet on winding dirt roads – I was careful, but kept pressing and releasing the triggers to control my speed and keep my car steady. Driving a car in Forza reminds me of walking in Death Stranding: an otherwise simple video game quest so nuanced here that it deserves my full, undivided attention.
I'm not a car guy, but Forza Horizon 5 makes me feel like one.
The beauty of Forza is that it really doesn't matter if you fail. There is no consequence in finishing last in most races. Players will still gain the necessary experience no matter what they do. The game just wants players to enjoy driving without pressure. You can see this philosophy in action in the game's rewind feature, which allows players to turn back time at any time and reset their position with no consequence. Do you beef it all at once? Just try again as often as necessary so that you know exactly how to solve the problem. It's a low-stakes approach that encourages players to perfect the nuances of driving at their own pace without the face of any penalty.
These smooth driving systems are well used by the game's huge vehicle roster. There are over 500 vehicles to collect here, and each one feels like its own tame beast. Vehicle weight, top speed, and a host of other factors are changing the way cars drive them drastically, pushing me to increase my rotation and lock down a list of options I'm comfortable with. Every time I charge up a street race and know that I have to get my light blue Porsche out of the garage, I get a little burst of joy. I'm not a car guy, but Forza Horizon 5 makes me feel like one.
Adventure through Mexico
For those who have played previous Forza Horizon games, the structure here isn't all that different. A huge map fills with icons that indicate the locations of races, collectibles, and stunts. Everything, even just driving around, grants experience and skill points that can be spent on upgrading each individual car's tiny skill tree. There's an absurdly plethora of content here, more than I could ever hope to cover in a concise way, but much of it is the same as previous episodes, just as Ubisoft open-world games tend to hit the same beats (there are wheelspins who have favourited Unlock New Cars, Buy Houses, Fragile Boards That Cut The Cost of Fast Travel, and more).
What feels different is the game's story campaign, which better puts a line into the freeform driving gameplay. Every time the player levels up, a new Horizon Story is unlocked, which acts as a small story thread. The basic idea is that the players control a superstar who comes to Mexico to build some kind of racing utopia. You start out by building different outposts on the map that bring different styles of racing to the world (off-road, street racing, and more). The following story beats are short, cute little missions that are the most fun with the driving formula.
On a mission, I take a huge parade wagon for a jaunt. In another, I pay my respects to Lucha Libre, who wrestles with a series of Demolition Derby-style challenges. These little vignettes bring life to the Mexican environment and mix up the established structure. I'm more likely to be forced to take part in random races because I want to climb up and see where my journey takes me next.
There is still room for the series to undermine expectations in future installments. A mission begins with the dramatic reveal of a jet ski race. For a second, I think it's going to throw me in a head-to-head race against a Ferrari on a watercraft. Instead, it's a standard race where I can see some jet skiers zooming around the side of the road. It's still an exciting race, but one that makes me wonder what Forza Horizon would look like if it got out of its comfort zone more often. I've tried to get it out of my mind, but I can't help but think of Riders Republic. It's a racing game that almost shamelessly borrows the formula from Forza, but finds several imaginative ways for players to explore its world. Forza built a gold standard framework, and now it wouldn't hurt its developers to watch what others build on it and get inspiration for the next ride.
I'm more likely to be forced to take part in random races because I want to climb up and see where my journey takes me next.
The real innovation will come from the dedicated community of the series. Forza Horizon 5 has a robust creation tool called EventLab that anyone can use to run their own races. It's an intuitive tool that players can use to turn any corner of the world into a racetrack by simply driving around and dropping control points. In 10 minutes, I was able to create a three-lap circular route that takes players down a freeway, through the desert, and down some ramps – all during a tropical storm. If I could do something with minimal tinkering that I was proud of, I can't even imagine what others will do with it over the multi-year lifespan of the game.
In addition, there is a huge variety of multiplayer modes, live service events and the promise of inevitable content. The game feels bottomless in ways that many games aim for but rarely achieve. If this were the only Forza Horizon game released on the Xbox Series X, I don't think fans would be disappointed. You will have your hands full.
Technical spectacle
Forza is both a tech showcase and a racing game. Given that this is the first game in the series to grace the Xbox Series X, expectations have been high – and it doesn't disappoint. Forza Horizon 5 takes full advantage of next-generation technology to make cars look photorealistic. Had this hit the market with the Xbox Series X, I'm convinced that the current discussion about which new console is the more indispensable commodity would tend in Microsoft's favor.
The spectacle comes to the fore in the game's Mexican landscapes, which are a joy to simply drive through with no destination. What is really amazing is that you never come across a loading zone while driving around. In one race, I zoomed the entire outer perimeter of the map – a 20-minute drive – with no millisecond of downtime. Even fast travel across the map is done in a jiffy, which seems mind-blowing given the scale of the world and the level of detail.
It's a big, beautiful game that never feels like it might collapse under its reach.
The only point the game slows down is in Photo mode. Taking a picture is an oddly long process. Loading in and out of Photo mode can take a few seconds, but the real pain point comes after you've actually taken a picture. Photo processing times are up to 30 seconds, which feels unusually long at the moment. I wanted to take tons of pictures considering how beautiful the world and my car looked, but even the fastest snapshot takes a good minute.
That being said, I can't help but marvel at almost every aspect of Forza Horizon 5. It's a big, beautiful game that never feels like it could collapse under its frame. It never crashed while playing, I hardly had any bugs, and my short time with the online modes was stable. With a game this smooth, the gap between what is displayed on the screen and the technology that powers it becomes negligible. I get lost in the world and really feel like I'm behind the wheel of a car. I even catch my body tilting while turning, like a kid playing Mario Kart.
That's an apt comparison because I really feel like a kid again when I drive through Mexico. I am transported back to a time when every game felt like a magic trick. It is harder to spot sleight of hand when you are simply delighted with the act itself. Forza Horizon 5 is the most eye-catching and spectacular Las Vegas act you can imagine. I can see through the illusion if I break down the formula long enough, but sometimes it's more fun to shut up and enjoy the ride.
Our opinion
The Forza Horizon series has always been a gold standard for the racing genre, and Forza Horizon 5 holds it critically first. The racing gameplay is as fine-tuned as ever, creative story missions give it a firmer backbone, and it brings out the best in next-gen technology. There's not everything there to welcoming new racers, and veterans may think his formula could use a few more twists, but it's clear that Playground Games is making this series a science. Unless someone can radically reinvent what a racing game can be, expect this game to be miles ahead of the competition by the time it continues.
Is there a better alternative?
Riders Republic borrows the same structure, but gets a little more creative with gameplay. But if you want a full-fledged racing simulator, Forza Horizon 5 feels unbeatable.
How long it will take?
The central story can take 15 to 20 hours to complete, but there is a lot more game after that. With over 500 cars, tons of multiplayer modes, and a top-notch creation tool, a dedicated gamer can nag on it for years.
Should you buy it?
Yes sir. Forza Horizon 5 is the Xbox Series X's killer app, right next to Microsoft Flight Simulator. If you don't normally love racing games, this might be selling you under the premise.
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