Playground Games goes into the experiences of expeditions and explains changes to the multiplayer and Forzathon Live in Forza Horizon 5.
Even by the standards of the series, Forza Horizon 5 from Playground Games is pretty massive. The developer has set himself the goal of making it the largest Horizon title to date while introducing more gameplay variety than before. While varying weather conditions on the map and massive storms to drive into are cool, the core game is undergoing some big changes. In conversation with Eurogamer spoke to Principal Game Designer Mike Brown about the new modes and the old modes that are being revised.
As for the new content, there are expeditions. Brown describes each of these as “a kind – I’d call it a campaign highlight. So it’s like one of those events that you work towards and then you get the chance to take part in an expedition where you go out and explore a new area of the world that you probably haven’t seen before. They are led by a character we saw on the demo yesterday – his name is Ramiro, or Rami. And he’s Mexican, he loves Mexico, he acts like a tour guide while we’re there. His character is really excited that the Horizon Festival has arrived in Mexico and he will show us all the amazing things there is to see. “
These essentially serve as curated experiences and include scenarios involving a tropical storm, climbing a volcano (while it’s active), and more.
“They give us the opportunity to showcase a lot of the really exciting things the game has to offer in one curated, story-driven experience. A lot of these things can and will naturally happen in free play while exploring, but this is a more curated way of doing it. At the end of each expedition, you unlock a new Horizon fairground, and with it a lot of new races. “
The multiplayer is also getting a facelift. The Horizon Open name is about “having less pressure to be more inclusive and accessible” than Forza Horizon 4’s ranked adventure.
“The Horizon 4 ranked adventure made winning super important. It made people really, really want to win a lot and get very angry when they couldn’t. So we’re trying to find that balance. Of course, winning is still the goal and what you want to do, but it shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all of the game. We’re trying to create an experience that is more welcoming, fun, and engaging without, hopefully, some of the frustrations people have found in Forza Horizon 4. ”
Forzathon Live is also out and is being replaced by Horizon Arcade. You will no longer compete in one game mode every hour – instead there will be public events comprising 12 modes that are always available in the open world.
“Really low-friction, you can drive into the area to participate, there are no loading screens, no menus or anything. Instead of the one game mode that we had in Forzathon Live, there are now 12 different game modes, all of which are designed as small, fun mini-games and are also all collaborative. “
“So none of these is a case of how, we’re going to find out who the best rider is – they’re all things that you can work on as a group to get through the goal. And as soon as one is over, because that happens all the time, the group is simply led to the next. You can just drive away and not join in if you want to, but the natural flow is that you stay together and go to another one, you just kind of hop around the map and take part in these different mini-games. “
Forza Horizon 5 will be available on November 9th for Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One and PC and will be included in the Xbox Game Pass subscription.
