I haven’t really played racing games for years, I used to play them more often, mostly GT. I have enjoyed some arcade open world racers like burnout and need for speed so Forza Horizon is free on plus, gets a ton of great reviews so why not try it. I’m very glad I did because FH is an exceptional racing game with loads and loads of fun content. It’s a game oozing with love for cars and a well designed world that begs to be raced on.
At first I was confused because I thought this was an arcade racer so I’m expecting turbo boosts and car chases but there is none of that here. This is a still a car sim but instead of taking place in standard racing tracks it’s out in the open world in the elements. While we can debate whether this mix is better than just embracing a full arcade game I will say the game grew on me because the racing was so good and the game world so compelling. A fictional area of Mexico is the back drop providing great variety in racing tracks from sand dunes, to jungles, to a volcano and beaches; the Mexico map has every kind of region you can want. There are many different kinds of races that make use of this diverse terrain; the street races are traditional road speed racing, there are plenty of off road racing for rally like competitions, and many that mix and match. I loved jumping from one kind of race to the next, it keeps the game fresh, there is always some variety to the races.
The core of any racer is how do the cars feel and while I am no racing expert I feel this game controls extremely well. There are well over 600 cars in this game to collect and I loved how different the cars felt from one another. The viper has a distinct feel with where the weight is distributed, its drastically different than say a corvette. Rally cars allow for easier drifting and greater grip on dirt roads, a certain Jeep was my off road MVP car. Every car is fully customizable from tuning to cosmetics, the options are extremely impressive and I loved being able to easily look for user made paint jobs for cars. The models themselves are gorgeous with great detail down to every interior. For gear heads this game has the care and attention I expect from a game like GT.
The map quickly starts to look like a Ubisoft map as you unlock races, there is just sooo much to do. Loads of different kinds of races that makes use of every inch of the world. There are ramps to make jumps, speed traps to test how fast you can go on a set road, drift zones where you go for a high score and hidden signs to break which gives bonuses. There are fun online diversions that occur around the map as well, I didn’t dabble too much on the online mode but did one which was like CTF and tag with cars, it was fun. There is this battle royal mode that I felt didn’t work so well, the map is too big and trying find opponents to eliminate is hard to do, I spent many minutes staying in the cone bored waiting for any action… so I guess it’s exactly like other battle royal games. The point is there is so much fun content, I didn’t know how to even approach it.
Horizon does give some direction with the major events and “story” missions which unlock as you gain accolades. The accolade system is like an in game achievement system that has well over a thousand goals to complete, a dream for completionists. After a certain amount of accolades you unlock the “boss” races for each category, these are epic endurance races that use the entire map. I was switching cars, switch race types, finding hidden barns, trying to complete skill based accolades, winning auctions for new cars and so on. This is the ultimate carrot on a stick game as everything you do gives a prize, gives some points to increase rank and so forth, I didn’t want to put it down.
There are some nitpicks I have that more me held this game back from being truly excellent. The main thing is the actual races while they are very good and exciting there is some wonky AI and the tracks themselves aren’t memorable. As this is open world the tracks are just sectioned off parts of the map with checkpoints that have to be hit, because of this there is a rewind feature so if you miss one you can go backwards rather than end the race each time. Every race uses a different part of the map meaning you never really learn the tracks nor are they memorable. Part of racing games is learning tracks after many many runs on them, that aspect is missing here.
The race AI is supposedly based on player AI that is named after people on your friend list. I have seen the AI for no reason start to slow down in races. I’ve seen some races always adjust to how you are performing, I’ve tested some races with how much time it takes me to complete a race and magically the AI always seems to match how I am doing. This common I guess in racing games and to be fair I only had it set to high skilled, there were three more levels above mine but then I bet they are almost robotically good. I also found it frustrating when I clearly didn’t have a car good enough to compete in some races, I get that in a game like this getting a car tuned to its max is part of the meta strategy but it doesn’t have to be so hard to do upgrades and get back into a race.
Forza has a fast travel system that is very poorly implemented. For one you have to pay to travel to a location, to lower the cost you have to find fast travel boards to break around the world. At first you can only fast travel to owned homes and race hubs of which there are only five. Here is where it gets annoying say I try a race and my car is clearly over matched, ok maybe I should buy some upgrades well you can’t do that in the race menu so you have to fast travel to a hub. Once there you can do your upgrades or buy a new car, but can you go back to the race you were at… nope. Now you have to travel all the back to that race. Say you complete a race or quit a race mid race to change something, the game dumps you at the spot of the race you stopped, want to go back to the start, drive there. Something as easy as changing tire types, not allowed in the pre race menu. There is a home you can buy for 2.5 million credits that unlocks full fast travel anywhere in the world but that takes a while to make that much.
I also feel online integration could have been better. Most everything in the game world is set just for single player, trying to do a race with other humans makes you go to a separate screen and enter some random matchmaking service. It doesn’t really feel like it’s part of the games progression system. If you are in a “convoy” which is this games teams you can easily play with others in that team but as a loner trying to find randoms leaves you without many options. There are those few in map multiplayer events but they aren’t that interesting.
Forza Horizon 5 is one beautiful game, as I mentioned before the cars are meticulously detailed but they aren’t the only stunning part as every part of Mexico is picturesque. Dynamic weather enhances the experience, experiencing a monsoon during a jungle trek is a feast for the eyes. There are some radio stations, only about six of them and the selection to me isn’t that great. The stand out is the great Dua Lipa hit Levitating.
I can clearly see why Forza Horizon 5 is getting so much praise, it’s such a well made game with so much content it’s well worth full price but it’s on gamepass so no need to! It has all the car porn a simulation racer has with the fun never ending stream of varied races from an open world racer. A few nagging issues hold this back for me from entering that elite race club but this game sparked a long dormant appreciation I had for racing games.
Score: 8.6
At first I was confused because I thought this was an arcade racer so I’m expecting turbo boosts and car chases but there is none of that here. This is a still a car sim but instead of taking place in standard racing tracks it’s out in the open world in the elements. While we can debate whether this mix is better than just embracing a full arcade game I will say the game grew on me because the racing was so good and the game world so compelling. A fictional area of Mexico is the back drop providing great variety in racing tracks from sand dunes, to jungles, to a volcano and beaches; the Mexico map has every kind of region you can want. There are many different kinds of races that make use of this diverse terrain; the street races are traditional road speed racing, there are plenty of off road racing for rally like competitions, and many that mix and match. I loved jumping from one kind of race to the next, it keeps the game fresh, there is always some variety to the races.
The core of any racer is how do the cars feel and while I am no racing expert I feel this game controls extremely well. There are well over 600 cars in this game to collect and I loved how different the cars felt from one another. The viper has a distinct feel with where the weight is distributed, its drastically different than say a corvette. Rally cars allow for easier drifting and greater grip on dirt roads, a certain Jeep was my off road MVP car. Every car is fully customizable from tuning to cosmetics, the options are extremely impressive and I loved being able to easily look for user made paint jobs for cars. The models themselves are gorgeous with great detail down to every interior. For gear heads this game has the care and attention I expect from a game like GT.
The map quickly starts to look like a Ubisoft map as you unlock races, there is just sooo much to do. Loads of different kinds of races that makes use of every inch of the world. There are ramps to make jumps, speed traps to test how fast you can go on a set road, drift zones where you go for a high score and hidden signs to break which gives bonuses. There are fun online diversions that occur around the map as well, I didn’t dabble too much on the online mode but did one which was like CTF and tag with cars, it was fun. There is this battle royal mode that I felt didn’t work so well, the map is too big and trying find opponents to eliminate is hard to do, I spent many minutes staying in the cone bored waiting for any action… so I guess it’s exactly like other battle royal games. The point is there is so much fun content, I didn’t know how to even approach it.
Horizon does give some direction with the major events and “story” missions which unlock as you gain accolades. The accolade system is like an in game achievement system that has well over a thousand goals to complete, a dream for completionists. After a certain amount of accolades you unlock the “boss” races for each category, these are epic endurance races that use the entire map. I was switching cars, switch race types, finding hidden barns, trying to complete skill based accolades, winning auctions for new cars and so on. This is the ultimate carrot on a stick game as everything you do gives a prize, gives some points to increase rank and so forth, I didn’t want to put it down.
There are some nitpicks I have that more me held this game back from being truly excellent. The main thing is the actual races while they are very good and exciting there is some wonky AI and the tracks themselves aren’t memorable. As this is open world the tracks are just sectioned off parts of the map with checkpoints that have to be hit, because of this there is a rewind feature so if you miss one you can go backwards rather than end the race each time. Every race uses a different part of the map meaning you never really learn the tracks nor are they memorable. Part of racing games is learning tracks after many many runs on them, that aspect is missing here.
The race AI is supposedly based on player AI that is named after people on your friend list. I have seen the AI for no reason start to slow down in races. I’ve seen some races always adjust to how you are performing, I’ve tested some races with how much time it takes me to complete a race and magically the AI always seems to match how I am doing. This common I guess in racing games and to be fair I only had it set to high skilled, there were three more levels above mine but then I bet they are almost robotically good. I also found it frustrating when I clearly didn’t have a car good enough to compete in some races, I get that in a game like this getting a car tuned to its max is part of the meta strategy but it doesn’t have to be so hard to do upgrades and get back into a race.
Forza has a fast travel system that is very poorly implemented. For one you have to pay to travel to a location, to lower the cost you have to find fast travel boards to break around the world. At first you can only fast travel to owned homes and race hubs of which there are only five. Here is where it gets annoying say I try a race and my car is clearly over matched, ok maybe I should buy some upgrades well you can’t do that in the race menu so you have to fast travel to a hub. Once there you can do your upgrades or buy a new car, but can you go back to the race you were at… nope. Now you have to travel all the back to that race. Say you complete a race or quit a race mid race to change something, the game dumps you at the spot of the race you stopped, want to go back to the start, drive there. Something as easy as changing tire types, not allowed in the pre race menu. There is a home you can buy for 2.5 million credits that unlocks full fast travel anywhere in the world but that takes a while to make that much.
I also feel online integration could have been better. Most everything in the game world is set just for single player, trying to do a race with other humans makes you go to a separate screen and enter some random matchmaking service. It doesn’t really feel like it’s part of the games progression system. If you are in a “convoy” which is this games teams you can easily play with others in that team but as a loner trying to find randoms leaves you without many options. There are those few in map multiplayer events but they aren’t that interesting.
Forza Horizon 5 is one beautiful game, as I mentioned before the cars are meticulously detailed but they aren’t the only stunning part as every part of Mexico is picturesque. Dynamic weather enhances the experience, experiencing a monsoon during a jungle trek is a feast for the eyes. There are some radio stations, only about six of them and the selection to me isn’t that great. The stand out is the great Dua Lipa hit Levitating.
I can clearly see why Forza Horizon 5 is getting so much praise, it’s such a well made game with so much content it’s well worth full price but it’s on gamepass so no need to! It has all the car porn a simulation racer has with the fun never ending stream of varied races from an open world racer. A few nagging issues hold this back for me from entering that elite race club but this game sparked a long dormant appreciation I had for racing games.
Score: 8.6