If you look critically at arcade racers, you often see that the developers choose a specific niche. Dirt focuses on rally and gymkana, FlatOut and Wreckfest string collisions together, and Need for Speed focuses (often) on street racing and ramping up import cars. Almost every ambitious attempt to get past this will fail with these well-defined titles. For example, the newest members of The Crew and Grid didn’t make much of an impression.
Developer Playground Games jumps into that hole and tries to connect the different aspects of car culture with Forza Horizon. Miraculously, it succeeds time and again.
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The versatility of available cars is, just like in previous parts in the series, incredibly impressive. Almost all significant car brands are full of glory in the game, from the American Dodge to Ferrari, Volkswagen and Honda. The attention to detail is astonishing and approaching the level of Gran Turismo: games of this caliber are as much a reference book on the history of car culture as they are games. You notice in everything that Playground takes care of the different facets of this rich culture.
The great thing is that the characteristics of all available cars have been used to the full. In fact, you can view every car inside and out, and then put in such a nice hissing 1.6 liter engine in no time at all or just throw a new lick of paint on your rims. Of course this is an arcade racer, but certainly with a steering wheel and a good set of pedals you immediately feel it when you pop a wider tire under your Honda Civic.
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Forza Horizon 5 is also almost completely customizable in terms of racing experience. If you want to hit the 300 kph between nose and lips, you basically only have to jump into a Lamborghini and hold the accelerator. If you want to feel the nuances of a family car, you turn off all the tools and you suddenly have to deal with a surprisingly in-depth representation. Perhaps this is also why a YouTube channel like Xpertgamingtech makes so many videos about Forza Horizon: to enjoy the distinctive handling, sounds and looks of all available cars.
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So the big question is: what about the races and the environment? In Horizon 4 Great Britain took center stage, in part five we travel to Mexico – filled with impressive ecosystems, archaeological gems and attractive driving routes.
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The versatility of available cars is, just like in previous parts in the series, incredibly impressive
Where Horizon 4 was mainly about small, exciting paths through beautiful cities and equally impressive natural areas, Horizon 5 is mainly about the variety of Mexican flora and fauna. Whether you tear along or over the beach, climb an active volcano or explore a densely forested region: there is no shortage of ecological diversity. In addition, Playground Games has teamed up with an anthropological institute to do justice to several archaeological finds. You can visit Ek’ Balam, but also the City of the Gods Teotihuacán.
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While the ruins have received all the attention they deserve, that is not the case for non-material culture. This results in stereotypes, generalizations and uncomfortable statements about ‘Mexican culture’. Cutscenes and dialogues are almost all about the importance of family, as if that defines an entire culture.
That is a shame, precisely because Playground does try to adopt a critical attitude. This is expressed not only in the collaboration with an anthropological institute, but also in, for example, the option of choosing gender-neutral pronouns.
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Overall, Forza Horzon 5’s gameplay is excellent. The fictional representation of Mexico lends itself to countless different races, from drag and drifting to touring and rallying. Often these are fairly short races that you can complete in about three minutes. But once in a while a larger event comes along, which can easily take you fifteen minutes or sometimes half an hour. These events guide you through the entire game world and are often exciting and spectacular.
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The downside of this approach is that it somewhat feels as if the game world is made up of different levels, instead of forming a dynamic whole. The transition between rainforest and desert is rigid, at the expense of the illusion of a living world. In addition, you sometimes get the feeling that you have to go through all kinds of short, sometimes less interesting races to unlock a bigger, more beautiful and more fun event.
Fortunately, this hardly detracts from the otherwise amazing racing experience. Forza Horizon 5 is once again beautiful, layered, versatile and unique.
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Forza Horizon 5 will be available on November 9 for PC, Xbox Series X and S, and Xbox One. The Premium edition of the game will be available on November 5. For this review, the game was tested on Xbox Series X.
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