A key to the success of Forza Horizon’s open-world driving game is how easy developer Playground Games has made that success look. These games have had rock-solid certainty about their content from day one. They’re all slick to play, easy to pick up, and all offer a kind of casual, easy-going, thumbs-up hedonism: nice cars, lovely places, catchy tunes, guaranteed good times.
Playground maintains the quality of the game and iterates so carefully that it’s hard to pick a favorite or the best. That said, 2018’s Forza Horizon is undoubtedly the most daring step in the series, shifting its focus to the online world and regular game updates. At the time, I was a little hard on what I thought was a careless sprawling campaign and unfocused continuous multiplayer, although I recognized – but still underestimated – that the weekly seasonal changes and festive playlist updates would be critical to the game’s longevity. How transformative. Between the playlists, the game’s natural affinity with its British setting, and the raucous battle royale-style elimination mode added later, Forza Horizon 4 cemented the series’ popularity in new ways.
Forza Horizon 5 is not a trailblazer like its predecessor, although it draws its globetrotting charm from its Mexican setting. The game relies heavily on (many) of the things that Forza Horizon already does well, with some sensible tweaks and a focus on the structural overhaul of the single-player game so that Make the campaign colorful and tell a story. While the game only launched today for VIP players, there are so many — and Playground is such a safe pair of hands — that I feel comfortable looking back directly at it.
Case in point: the most important holiday playlist. While the game’s content update hasn’t officially kicked off for a week, a preview of the playlist is available to try, and it still offers the most challenging, fun, and well-curated way to navigate the game’s rich maps and garages. Here you’ll find exciting co-op demos (the racing equivalent of dungeon raids), themed season championships, and weekly challenges where a different car is the star each week. More casual challenges and an online component have been added to the playlist – I’m happy to note that seasonal PR stunts now come with car limits, which will make it even more fun to perform these jumps, drifts and speed trials each week.
Competitive multiplayer continues to evolve from the map-spanning chaos of earlier games to more purposeful play. Now called Horizon Open (Playground is keen to rename Horizon’s feature), the multiplayer suite is divided into Racing, Drifting, Playground Games and Eliminator; I’ve only tried Racing so far, but other formats Unlikely to surprise or disappoint. Racing is a blast, offering a focused and exciting five-race series; however, arguably the ranked game has been dropped. Creative Director Mike Brown told me he wanted the competitive racing experience to be “more welcoming” and less frustrating than Forza Horizon 4’s intense qualifying. The inclusive, fun-first spirit of Forza Horizon.
Co-op remains a unique focus of this racing series, and most of the campaign can be played with friends. Forza Horizon 4’s Forzathon Live has been renamed Forza Arcade, although I can’t say it’s been revolutionized – it’s still the main reason players flock to Free Roam and is still The same fighting spirit of the rotating co-op skill challenge, but it’s better paced and balanced, with some nice new campaign ideas. A standout addition is Horizon Tour, a co-op racing playlist that’s basically the intimidating Trial, just colder, with less AI difficulty and decent off-road driving between races. Not bound by a weekly schedule, I can see this becoming one of my favorite ways to enjoy the game.
Forza Horizon has amassed an amazing playstyle over its nine-year lifespan.there are so many to do Navigation can be disorienting, but Playground selections lean toward that variety and make them both effective ways to play games. You can explore the map, collect barn finds and find original murals and famous landmarks. You can take photos of every car in the game for Horizon Promo, or create challenges and events in the powerful Super7 and EventLab editing tools, or work on car tuning and paint jobs, or do Rivals time trials. You can collect outfits and emotes for your avatar, phrases for the Forza Link player communication system, and horns for your car. And, of course, you can collect cars.
Forza Horizon was the reigning champion of the car collection marathon at least until Gran Turismo 7 arrived, and like 4, this latest release gives you a steady stream of spins from events and slots as well as DLC, dealers and useful new motors New Motor Auction House. The new sticker book-style car collection view is a welcome way to visualize your progress (it keeps cars you sell or give away). While there are over 500 cars here, the curation showcases impeccable taste and Catholic breadth, cool to exotic and classic as well as more secular car culture. I do wonder if the car list is starting to calcify a little; aside from a few headlines, it doesn’t feel much evolution or surprise, and (except for the blazingly fast Porsche Taycan) it lags the EV revolution, Tesla and others The absence of electric vehicles is notable. These are some of the most desirable cars around; the auto industry is entering perhaps the most dramatic period of change in its history, and it would be a shame for a game like Forza to be left behind.
However, Forza Horizon may be the only racing series where the cars have to share the top revenue. Another star of the game is its map. It’s an open world game and a party game like it’s a racing game, so location is everything.
Playground surprised many by choosing Mexico over more obvious candidates like Japan. The same thing happened in Australia five years ago, and it turns out the choice was equally inspired. This map is an absolute marvel, powered by a game engine that provides stunning views of the whole thing from the top of the volcano that towers over it.From wet swamps to dry dunes, from deep, verdant canyons to soft stripes BarriosThe Playground team is adept at seeding all of these real estate to skillfully balance the spectacle of fantasy and reality, and is adept at shaping road layouts that often favor fast and sweeping tight and technical. This is another masterpiece. My only complaint is that urban driving is underrepresented – the city of Guanajuato is picturesque, but too small and crowded to present the delicious racing opportunities that Edinburgh offered three years ago.
Accompanied by stunning scenery, Mexican culture radiates with enthusiasm, as optimistic (and almost as sophisticated) as the tourism board advertises. There are a lot of safe, broad, positive stereotypes here—the quarrelsome but loving family, the pinata, the Statue of Liberty—all endorsed by the Mexican Ministry of Culture and Playground’s Mexican collaborators. (One conversation actually had a British festival organizer saying, “I’m not sure about making piñatas in Mexico until Ramiro [a Mexican guide] Ask me where all my piñatas are, “It’s defensive, but fair — some clichés for a reason.) Expecting a deeper understanding of Mexico from a racing game would be wrong if not serious National celebrations are nothing. Playground is even self-aware, including a storyline about an annoying, wealthy British touring racer spoiling everyone else’s fun.
Yes, it’s the latest racing game that’s jittery to deliver a story, and while I don’t think the narrative would fit the genre naturally, Forza Horizon 5’s efforts have a clunky charm – partly because they firmly Keep the stakes low and irrelevant. The Horizon story in Forza Horizon 4 is more fleshed out here, thanks to the decision to give the player character a voice, and expanded thematically to include a bit of light photography and history, as well as an introduction to the Mexican Volkswagen Vocho hymn beetle. They are vulgar but fun. There are also five expeditions, which replace some of the show stunt races in the previous games. In these games, you’ll embark on a cinematic tour of a new holiday outpost, stopping along the way to find a place with exploration almost reminiscent of the Uncharted games.
Expeditions are part of a structural overhaul of progress that breathes new life into the movement, even as it resists the temptation to over-organize it. All activities in the game are rewarded with Honor – an elaborate custom achievement system – and by earning Honor points, you can unlock new adventures, be it expeditions, iconic stories, showcases or epic races. This may sound like overkill – indeed, the Horizon series will one day have to do away with some redundant progression systems. (Skill points only seem to unlock the ability to earn more, and I’m not even sure what XP is.) I’m also disappointed that new events are dumped on the map in abundance again, with little attempt to guide you through them or through the car catalog , which can overwhelm you. But Accolades is cleverly designed and paced to reward many different play styles with steady progression – you can really unlock new adventures by playing online, polishing Drift Zones or taking pictures – and the adventures themselves provide the game with A spine and a nominal finish Forza Horizon 4 are sorely lacking. Playground completes an enviable tightrope walk between structure and player freedom.
For five games and nine years, Forza Horizon has experienced rapid expansion and complexity, but little fundamental change, for probably the best reason: because Playground Games started with this Concept driven out of the park. The studio’s job now is to keep things on track while enforcing some semblance of order in this sprawling celebration of freedom. Despite its shiny cars and postcard-like destinations, it’s not always glamorous work, and that Forza Horizon 5 doesn’t offer 3’s perfection or 4’s bold new emphasis, that shouldn’t make you feel Surprised or even disappointed. The best meaning of the word: Comfortable, personable, made for you, all are welcome. It is a sure joy.
