LifeisXbox’s Forza Horizon 5 review | It’s finally here and the way it presents itself looks promising. I’m talking about Playground Games’ newest addition to the Forza universe, Forza Horizon 5 of course. In this new title, the festival moves to Mexico where you encounter a lot of new and exciting areas, cars and get an experience like you never encountered before.
If you like racing games even just a little bit, this game will probably grab you and suck you into the Forza universe!
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by PR/publisher, this review is the personal opinion from the writer.
What we liked!
- It looks amazing | Let’s start with a point that everyone will easily agree with: Forza Horizon 5 looks absolutely stunning! Driving around Mexico, exploring all kind of different areas suchs as the jungle, dunes, and even driving through sandstorms. It’s just breathtaking, and the eye for detail is everywhere! For example, if you are standing next to a house and go in photo mode and you zoom in on a window of a house, you will see that they are even decorated from the inside. A nice photoframe, ground tiles, the attention that was paid to detail is amazing. That’s how far the developers went to give us a fantastic experience and absolutely they nailed it. I can guarantuee you that you will feast your eyes on the new Forza Horizon 5 for hours and hours on end.
- Cars | What’s a racing game without its wide variety of cars? Once again Forza Horizon 5 delivered here. There are lots of them old classics from previous Forza Horizon games and new additions of cars that have been made more recently. And although I didn’t mention it in the previous point where I talked about the graphics, the cars are stunning as well. Once again the eye for detail pops out to offer an even better experience. And there are a lot of them, as in Forza Horizon 5 you can race with over 500 different cars. All with their own look, feel, and strengths, I’m sure you’ll pick out one or more favourite cars in just a matter of time. Discovering the feeling all the cars give you, was so much fun and I can’t wait to continue this.
- Sound | What more does a game need to be perferct? Well, a sound that binds everything together can really provide that full experience. And no, I’m not talking about the radio stations you can listen to (that play the newest hits for you) while driving. I’m talking about the sound that the cars make, the voice acting, sound of the weather like thunderstorms etc. Everything sounds so unbelievably good, it’s fantastic. I had a blast and will happily let this game continue to give me an eargasm whenever I put it on.
- Horizon Festival | This time the Horizon festival doesn’t just take place at the main stage. There are 6 stages scatterd across Mexico to include every racefan out there. And every stage brings its own specialty or racestyle with them. Forza Horizon 5 offers you road racing, dirt racing, cross country racing, PR Stunts, and street racing to name a few. At least, thats where the story takes you to, while discovering hidden gems and progressing further and further in the game. But that’s not all. Aside from this you have the classic drag racing, speed traps and a lot of things that need a good smashing. As you can see, you won’t get bored easily with Forza Horizon 5, but that’s what we’re used to from the Forza Horizon series. I’m glad I can promise you hours of varied gameplay in this edition as well.
- Online racing | One feature that Forza Horizon has implemented in their games that I personally love, are the online races. You can play every track online for the rankings or just have some fun with friends. But then we are only talking about simply doing races, aren’t we? You also have The Eliminator, which is basically Forza’s take on battle royales, where you drive until you are the last one standing. If you have never tried this out in previous games, give it a go it is addictive and so much fun! The Forza Horizon servers are once again steady, and even though the majority of players haven’t accessed the game yet, I could always find people to race against online.
- Event Lab | This is Forza Horizon 5’s new tool that lets you create your own track. How cool is that! Basically, the developers have given you the tools that they where using to develop the tracks you are racing to make your own unique and extreme creations to compete on. They’re making you the Forza Horizon God, if you will. Best thing, you can even browse through created events so if you build something good there is a chance that a lot of people all over the globe will compete on your very own designed race! The developers have stated that there are only a few restricions or rules you have to follow while designing so I can’t wait to see a lot of cool creations in the future. And who knows, maybe if a player creates a track that gets so immensly popular, the developers will notice and put it in their next game of the series? One can hope, right? But that would be incredibly cool, as we already know that there are a lot of talented gamers out there!
- More story-driven driving | One thing that has been greatly improved is the human element. These parts are a welcome change of pace and add much to the story of the game. The often funny conversations while driving around introduce a whole other side of Forza Horizon. While avatars have been introduced in a previous Horizon game it is the first time you really feel alive and real. Yeah your avatar will still do silly dances between race victories but they bring much more value to the game now.
Somewhere between
- First-person and animations could be better | Avatars inside the cars stick out a little as they have limited animations with collisions or even turning the wheel. That makes sense as most of the players won’t notice it, but if you are someone like me who drives in first person they really start to bother a little. This is really an area that could be improved, especially for those that want to role-play when gaming. For example having the option to manually start your car or using your signal lights. Maybe something for Forza Horizon 6?
What we disliked
- Perfect | There is absolutely nothing that I disliked about Forza Horizon 5. The game is close to perfection and I absolutely love it.
How long to beat the story | 15-20 hours
How long to achieve 1000G | 100+ hours
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