Forza Horizon 5 is probably the best open world or arcade car game out there today. Of course. This is even more true if you try it out on an Xbox series console or a high-powered PC (I’ll get to that below). More so if you personally don’t start to get fed up with spending so many hours on the show. And here is the key to enjoyment, at the heart of this whole analysis.
Because FH5 is fantastic, amazing, sometimes exciting, one of the most beautiful games in recent years and without a doubt the most spectacular of the next generation. But at the same time, as I feared, and as much as you try to vary the experience and try some refreshing things, it is inevitable to notice that it is an incremental series to feel like, “I’ve already lived this “. / played “regularly and think that it has reached its peak, that it can no longer be groundbreaking or in any way reinvent itself.
What a hypocrisy of mine, because that’s exactly what I thought in the last two episodes. To be honest, it is quite an accomplishment that he climbed one or more rungs in various ways. For example it is a much clearer experience, better organized, easy to understand, less confusing in the end. It was imperative as its plethora of online and offline activity cluttered both the open world map and menus. Now everything is better at hand, it is understood the first time and you can navigate with pleasure. The work they have done to improve the game when you are not behind the wheel is exemplary.
On the other hand, the generation leap also makes everything more accessible and faster. It seems silly, but now I remember how long it took to load the game onto Xbox One, how fun it was to go back to the world after a closed event, take a quick drive, change a car . Of all the moments when technology cut you off, pleasure held you back. Charging is incredibly fast on the Xbox Series X.so much so that there is no time to feed the mania of looking at the cell phone. Pim, pam, you’re in the car one more time. And the wonder of Quick Resume that it doesn’t get mad if it fails sometimes because it’s still very quick to open the game from scratch. All of this happens despite the enormous additional graphics and processing load, which makes comparisons with previous releases and platforms clearer. In fact, we also put the game on a more than decent gaming PC, and since you don’t have any free space on the SSD drive, the initial load can take several minutes. I had spoiled XSX.
By the way, no matter how puristic you are in terms of image smoothness and reaction speed, I invite you to play in quality mode Graphics with great attention to detail in 4K and with HDR, but with 30 fps instead of 60 fps in performance mode. Just try it out because you can see how far the visual work goes … Maybe you stay because it will never require the reflections of a simulator and you will hallucinate even more with the landscape. With this work of photogrammetry, realistic lighting, texturing and artistic retouching that almost offends.
But how ugly it is to talk so much about technical and cold subjects in a game that feels so organic, so alive and so permeated by nature. As hot as jalapeno pepper. The idea of integrating the stations the climate and the impressive meteorological phenomena in a more dynamic and changing way (and not as rigid as in FH4 which now appears like a proof-of-concept) it does a lot to change the game from time to time. And anyone who has been to a tropical country knows that the sudden changes in weather that happen here are absolutely believable. No longer do you have to wait for a specific time of year to get a downpour or travel to a specific area that is always cloudy. Okay so the map respects the local climate and the seasons change in the middle of the loading screen (you won’t even notice it), but they’re not the jack, horse and king from the past so they seem like something completely new.
The first arrival at the ruins of Ek Balam on the expedition to Tulum is an experience, a drunkenness for the senses that includes a few moments of pure magic. The rising storm in the sky lets you feel the atmospheric pressure, the way into the jungle seems to have taken Indiana Jones and the way into the clear sky to the “Benidorm of the Mayas” leaves an indelible smile.
This from Expeditions It’s a very good idea because it increases the feeling of adventure. It’s not the typical route from A to B, but offers different activities along the way. Driving with or without restrictions, exploring the area in search of objects, photos, destruction, tricks behind the wheel … all in stages as the best way to advance in the campaign.
And this better organized campaign, no matter how often you re-unlock festival tents and their respective races and the challenges that come with them, invites a lot more to play than the previous ones, to spend a bit telling a story and get more into the biomes and Places to Focus Yourself, yeah Well the characters’ comments (including your driver) add to the “lore” of all of this, with several well-chosen references to Mexican culture.
But come on, we’re talking about a car game, right? I have to say that Driving in Forza Horizon 5 doesn’t change much compared to its predecessors. You can see that the series has settled into that sweet spot that, on the other hand, expects to find its users at the controls. It’s not as simple as the arcade classics, but doesn’t demand a lot on the simulation level, although you have to be very sensitive with the analog triggers and think a little about the laws of physics. So some cars feel better than others, some classes still seem too “peppy” for what they are in real life and others seem too stubborn for the levers. But again, it’s the style, it’s what happens in GTA: In Forza Horizon, that’s how you drive, and it’s almost necessary when you go off the tarmac into the terrain and then take a jump and fall into a river.
There is more than enough control and more than decent feel to the controls, but it also shows that it is no longer a game, but a complete series that was designed to be controlled with a traditional controller and has received tweaks and nuances there. Regrettably, the steering wheel model is still incredibly out of date and abandoned, obsessed with oversteer and unable to find a taste for gear and power shifts at any given speed. The next Forza Motorsport will arrive like water in May, they promise to correct the one so neglected since FM4, and hopefully it will serve Horizon to import a decent steering wheel and pedal model again (maybe even this part can be updated.)? ). Because not being able to enjoy many cars and situations for users with good peripherals is sadder than the end of Coco.
Back to the activities, there is also a feeling that it is a less interrupted game and less corsetted about what can happen, which gives more room to the so fashionable gameplay emerging. There are fewer scripts (Scripting
Finally I have to mention the sound work, even more this year full of joy with works like Returnal or Metroid Dread. I don’t know if it’s that Ray tracing and the sound jumps or simply by better implementation of the Positional surround sound and Dolby Atmos standard (PS5, it’s time) but again, Forza Horizon 5 is a few steps above its predecessor and many others above the competition. Anyone who enjoys a well-calibrated home theater system will have a movie experience, with planes sneaking into the room to tousle your hair, and believable resonances in tunnels and artificial or natural arches without sacrificing your own car and the rest forgetting elements. . And by the way, the radio is also more cautious, not only because the selection always depends on taste, but because the events and the characters relate to the songs and seem even more integrated into the experience overall.
In short, I could be accused of being biased because I have personally been to several of the most beautiful places in this game and therefore feel identified or enjoy more of how well they are recreated. The same could be said to many Spanish players about the Mediterranean Forza Horizon 2, but what happened here is that this was a turning point and that is its maximum expression, and that can be said objectively as a banner. If, like me, you’ve driven countless hours in the previous generation, you may have moments of distance and even boredom or monotony, mostly because Racing AI is still very similar. However, if you’ve done that, it’s because you love this series and what it offers you, and in the end you’ll find yourself lost on the map again, appreciating all the effort that goes into varying it , to organize, to inspire and almost surprise. Either alone to achieve goals, drive around or take part in multiplayer and its thousand ways to connect and share. Forza Horizon 5 is on a different level in the genre and is in the running for contestants for the game of the year 2021 on the grid.
