The ease with which developer Playground Games has made the Forza Horizon open-world racing games popular has been a contributing factor to their popularity. These games have maintained a steadfast sense of purpose from the beginning. All of them have been simple to play and polished, providing a carefree, carefree, positive kind of hedonism complete with gorgeous vehicles, breathtaking scenery, upbeat music, and assured good times.
Playground has meticulously refined and preserved the quality of the games, making it difficult to choose a favorite or a standout. Still, Forza Horizon 4, which debuted in 2018 and shifted the focus to an online universe and frequent in-game updates, was unquestionably the series’ most daring move. At the time, I was a touch harsh on the campaign and the aimless persistent multiplayer, but I also realized—though I still didn’t realize it—how important the weekly season changes and Festival Playlist upgrades would be to the game’s life. Forza Horizon 4 solidified the series’ success in novel ways, thanks to the Playlist, the game’s inherent affection for its British backdrop, and the subsequent inclusion of a buzzy battle-royale-style Eliminator mode.
Even with its global grandeur evoked by its Mexican locale, Forza Horizon 5 is not as groundbreaking as its predecessor. This game makes some wise adjustments, but it mostly relies on the (many) things that Forza Horizon already does well. The single-player campaign gains a colorful, narrative sweep thanks to a structural redesign that receives most of the game’s attention. Even though the game is exclusive to VIP users as of today, Playground is such a reliable source that I feel at ease giving it a review right immediately.
Take the crucial Festival Playlist, for example. The most difficult, catchy, and well-selected method to explore the treasures of the game’s map and garage is still via the Playlist, even if the official content updates don’t begin for another week. Here’s where you can discover the weekly Forzathon challenge, where a new vehicle is the star every week, the themed seasonal championships, and the awesome cooperative Trial, which is the racing game equivalent of a raid dungeon. More easy tasks and online elements have been added to the Playlist. I was happy to see that seasonal PR stunts now have vehicle constraints, which will make it somewhat more exciting to execute these leaps, drifts, and speed trials every week.
The map-spanning mayhem of the previous games gives way to a more deliberate format in competitive multiplayer. The multiplayer suite, now dubbed Horizon Open (Playground has an obsession with rebranding Horizon’s features), is broken down into four sections: Racing, Drifting, Playground Games, and the Eliminator. While I haven’t played the other modes yet, I doubt they will disappoint or surprise me. Racing is great since it offers intense five-race series. Rank play has been dropped, which is contentious. According to creative director Mike Brown, he aimed to make the competitive racing experience “more welcoming” and less taxing than the intense ranked play in Forza Horizon 4, which may not be well-received by all members of the community, but is definitely true to the inclusive, enjoyment-first nature of Forza Horizon.
This racing series’ distinctive selling point is still co-op, since much of the campaign can be played with pals. The Forza Horizon 4 game’s Forzathon Live has been renamed as Forza Arcade. While I can’t say it has been completely transformed, it has improved in pace and balance and has some great new event ideas. Free roam is still the primary reason for players to congregate, and there are still the same grind-it-out cooperative skill challenges. Horizon Tour is a fantastic new addition to the racing playlist. It’s a co-op racing experience that’s similar to the terrifying Trial but with a more relaxed AI and enjoyable cross-country drives in between races. I can see this turning into one of my favorite ways to play the game when I’m not constrained by the weekly timetable.
In its nine years, Forza Horizon has amassed an incredible variety of play styles. It might be confusing to navigate since there is so much to do, but Playground has opted to embrace this multiplicity and make them all viable ways to play the game. You may look about the map, gathering barn treasures, discovering unique murals, and locating well-known locations. You may use the robust Super7 and EventLab editing tools to create challenges and events, snap pictures of every vehicle in the game for Horizon Promo, work on car tune-ups and paint jobs, or participate in Rivals time trials. You may gather words for the player-to-player chat feature in Forza Link, automobile horns, and avatar attire and emotes. Of course, you may also collect automobiles.
Forza Horizon is the current champion of car collectathons, at least until Gran Turismo 7 releases. Similar to version 4, this most recent edition provides you with a constant supply of new vehicles via events and slot machine plays in addition to DLC, dealerships, and the helpful auction house. To visualize your accomplishments, a new sticker-book type Car Collection view is a wonderful addition (it keeps cars you donate or sell). Despite the fact that there are more than 500 cars here, the curation exhibits flawless taste and a wide range of styles, with a keen eye for both antiques and exotics as well as more commonplace but stylish aspects of automobile culture. With the exception of the incredibly quick Porsche Taycan, the car list doesn’t seem to be evolving or surprising much, and it lags behind the EV revolution—Teslas and other electric icons are conspicuously absent. I do wonder if the list is beginning to become a little bit calcified. It would be unfortunate for games like Forza to fall behind as the automobile industry enters what may be the most significant era of change in its history. These are some of the most coveted vehicles available.
But Forza Horizon may be the only racing series where the vehicles are required to share front-and-center honors. The geography in the game is another highlight. Since this is as much an open-world and social game as it is a racing game, location is crucial.
Playground shocked a lot of people by selecting Mexico over more apparent options like Japan; the same thing occurred with Australia five years before, and the decision turns out to be as impactful. With the support of a gaming engine that can provide breathtaking views of the whole area from the top of the towering volcano above it, the map is really amazing. The landscapes, which range from deep, lush gorges to pastel-striped barrios, are rich and vibrant, full of color and emotion. The Playground crew is skilled at creating road layouts that often favor the fast and sweeping over the tight and technical, as well as strategically placing spectacle amongst all this real estate to balance fantasy and reality. It’s one more outstanding work of art. The only issue I have is that there isn’t enough emphasis on urban driving; Guanajuato is a really attractive city, but it’s too tiny and crowded to provide the same exciting racing chances as Edinburgh offered three years ago.
A wholehearted celebration of Mexican culture that is as consistently positive (and about as sophisticated) as a travel brochure coexists with the breathtaking scenery. A lot of safe, broad, positive stereotyping (loving but fighting families, piñatas, lucha libre) is present here, endorsed by Playground’s Mexican colleagues as well as the Mexican Ministry of Culture. A British festival organizer is heard saying, “I wasn’t sure about doing piñatas in Mexico, until Ramiro [a Mexican guide] asked me where all the piñatas were,” in a conversation segment. While this statement may seem defensive, it’s fair—some clichés are clichés for a reason.) Forza Horizon 5’s superficial celebration of Mexico is nothing if not genuine, yet it would be incorrect to expect more from the racing game than from a package vacation. Even the plot of Playground, which is about obnoxious, wealthy English tourists ruining everyone else’s enjoyment, is self-aware.
Indeed, Forza Horizon 5 is the most recent racing game to attempt to tell a story. Although I don’t believe narrative will ever work well in this genre, the game’s attempts nonetheless have a tacky appeal, in part because the stakes are kept purposefully low and unimportant. The choice to give the player character a voice and broaden the subject to include some historical information, light photography, and a hymn to the Mexican VW Beetle known as the Vocho has made the Horizon Stories from Forza Horizon 4 a bit more developed here. Though tacky, they’re entertaining. In addition, there are five Expeditions that replace some of the Showcase daredevil races from earlier games. In them, you travel with a cinematic flourish to open up new festival outposts, stopping along the route for a brief period of confined exploration that is very similar to an Uncharted game.
As part of a structural redesign of advancement, expeditions provide the campaign additional vitality while avoiding an overly regimented approach. Accolades, a kind of granular, custom accomplishment system, are awarded for all actions in the game. You may unlock additional Adventures, such as Expeditions, Showcases, epic races, and unique Stories, by accumulating Accolade Points. Although it may seem a little overdone, it is true that the Horizon series will eventually need to eliminate some of its unnecessary advancement methods. (I’m not even sure what XP is for anymore; it seems like Skill Points merely unlock the potential to earn additional Skill Points.) The fact that new events are once again thrown onto the map in large quantities with little effort made to navigate them or the automobile catalog, which may be intimidating, also disappointed me. Although you can actually unlock new Adventures just by playing online, grinding Drift Zones, or taking pictures, the Accolades are cleverly paced and designed to reward a wide variety of play styles with steady progress. Meanwhile, the Adventures themselves provide the game with a narrative and a hypothetical conclusion that Forza Horizon 4 sadly lacked. Here, Playground has skillfully balanced player freedom and structure in an admirable tightrope walk.
Forza Horizon has seen tremendous growth and complexity in five games and nine years, but not much basic change. This is all to the good, since Playground Games hit the mark with the first attempt at the idea. It is now the studio’s responsibility to maintain order and balance amid this expansive celebration of liberty. Despite the flashy vehicles and postcard-perfect locations, it’s not always glamorous job, so it shouldn’t come as a shock—or a letdown—when Forza Horizon 5 falls short of offering the refinement of 3 or the daring new focus of 4. It is familiar in all the best ways—it is reassuring, individualized, accommodating, and open to everyone. It’s a consistent delight.