Since the inception of the spin-off series, Forza Horizon’s accessible and exciting racing action has attracted a wide audience. Forza Horizon 5 continues that tradition of delivering great driving mechanics in a beautiful location, and this time it takes players to Mexico for one of the best, most immersive racing games I’ve ever played.
Driving around Mexico in Forza Horizon 5 is a real pleasure thanks to the superb, dynamic driving mechanics that take into account the terrain, weather and handling of the 500+ vehicles you drive. Forza Horizon 5 aptly demonstrates this with an incredible opening sequence, in which different cars fall from planes and land in different biomes with sandstorms, meandering rivers and wide open straights, everything underlined. However, Horizon brings both the differences in handling and the outstanding mechanics to the point the longer you travel around the world.
Forza Horizon 5’s sense of speed is incredible. Whether you’re tactfully navigating an off-road course in the lush rainforests or speeding down a desert highway, the difference between staying on the road and turning into the bushes is paper-thin. Forza Horizon 5 excels at delivering a variety of courses that give you unique challenges, from traditional races to courses with goals. The Drivatar system – which recreates your friends’ tendencies using AI racers – is now a backbone of the series, but I loved developing rivalries with certain friends even though I didn’t race against them in real time.
Playground Games’ lovingly crafted interpretation of Mexico and its 11 different biomes provides some of the most breathtaking images I’ve ever seen in a video game. This open world is home to a venerable cornucopia of activities available to players, which is amazing – if not overwhelming. Given the number of activity icons on the map, it can sometimes be difficult to find some of the events you want. Fortunately, you can apply map filters or ask your car’s AI to adjust your navigation for events near your choice. However, that didn’t stop me from getting distracted by the many events along my route.
When you’re tired of participating in normal racing activities, why not take part in Barn Finds, where you’ll find and rescue rotting classic cars in rural barns. In the meantime, you help the characters in driving-based missions. I loved hunting and completing these types of missions, but the open world also offers tons of quick, fun activities, such as gliding through marked drift zones. These are fun ways to gain experience and awards to improve your driver and vehicles with new benefits, but my favorite part of these random world activities is how they compare to your friends right away. Several times than I could count, I noticed my friend was getting a higher top speed, causing me to turn around and try the challenge again.
You can also come across online events while exploring Mexico. These public activities allow you to seamlessly team up with other players to achieve a common goal, such as: You can even take part in a battle royale style eliminator mode where you challenge other players in the session, knock them out of the competition, take their cars and try to be the last player left. These are fun distractions, but my favorite online activities include creating a convoy of players, driving around the world, and attending events with one another.
All of these activities culminate in expeditions, unique set-driven campaign sequences that feature some of the most memorable events in the game. From the drive up a rocky volcano while rough music is booming over the stereo, to the storm through an off-road course against a pair of monster trucks, the expeditions and the subsequent story missions are the moments that have stayed with me the longest.
When Forza’s many developer-created events aren’t enough, EventLab also lets players create and share activities. This tool makes it as easy as driving the route you want to create, placing checkpoints at the touch of a button, and designing a name, description, and rule set. I loved sharing these creations because they appear in other players’ games alongside developer created activities and give them a chance to test their skills in your designs.
Forza Horizon 5 impresses every step of the way in ways few games have. From the first mile I was on the edge of my seat. With so much to do in such a mercilessly beautiful world, I suspect it won’t be long before I get the itch to jump back into the driver’s seat of my favorite car. Even in the midst of a competitive racing field, Forza Horizon 5 is a finely tuned supercar.
