Review
Played on: Xbox Series XReleased: 2021
Strange to think that Forza Horizon was once a spin-off from the Forza Motorsport series, especially considering it’s currently the bigger franchise. But times have changed since 2012, large open world racers can be done just as incredible looking as any closed-circuit ones This year will mark the ten-year anniversary of the Horizon series, I’m hoping it will be celebrated through a cool FH5 DLC. But here, now, we have the 2021 released Forza Horizon 5 to focus on.
Location, Mexico. We’ve moved from the typical European season of spring, summer, autumn and winter, to hot, wet, storm and dry in the weekly seasonal turn around on the Forza servers.
While FH4 did get a, new generation, Xbox X/S patch at the launch of the new consoles, FH5 is built from the ground up with new hardware in mind. Clearly, from the get-go, it shows. The amount of small detail and finesse to textures, environment detail and foliage on nature elements are massively improved. Reflections, time of day, lighting and shadows have been taken to a modern and more advanced level than 2018’s FH4.
While FH4 did get a, new generation, Xbox X/S patch at the launch of the new consoles, FH5 is built from the ground up with new hardware in mind. Clearly, from the get-go, it shows. The amount of small detail and finesse to textures, environment detail and foliage on nature elements are massively improved. Reflections, time of day, lighting and shadows have been taken to a modern and more advanced level than 2018’s FH4.
Mexico is a more bold and exotic choice for location too, letting players get a taste of all the country’s aspects on one map. Sun drenched beaches, large mountains overlooking harsher, gravel surroundings. Jungles with ancient temples and even hilly roads curving along a valley of pine trees with an overhead railway crossing it back and forth. It’s an especially interesting map, considering the Mexican environment isn’t displayed much in racers or games in general.
In what’s become a tradition, yet equally awesome each time, are the Forza Horizon intro sequences. Playable, with a large variety of cars being dropped into various environments to give people a quick 10-minute tour of all the game has to offer. A mind-blowing experience and a console hardware showcase to boot, this intro airdrops you straight into a volcano, in a brand-new Ford Bronco off-roader! Right from the very beginning, you realise you’re in for a drive of your life. From rally classics to insanely fast hyper cars, the intro really gives players a teaser of what to expect from the whole game.
Thereafter, you arrive at your first festival site and here things quickly get into typical Horizon fashion, almost a bit much so if you are familiar with the franchise. We have the same set of events scattering overfilling the open world map too fast. It’s a typical downside of most open world games these days, cluttering the map up a bit too much early on. For somebody used to Forza Horizon games though, you quickly get familiar.
Apart from the ordinary races, my favourites are the special events. These are kind of familiar for Forza Horizon fans, but with innovative ideas each time. In FH5 these include racing water scooters, monster trucks or massive airplanes. You know the drill, complete with slow motion segments, blasting your eyes with incredible visuals and jumps.
In what’s become a tradition, yet equally awesome each time, are the Forza Horizon intro sequences. Playable, with a large variety of cars being dropped into various environments to give people a quick 10-minute tour of all the game has to offer. A mind-blowing experience and a console hardware showcase to boot, this intro airdrops you straight into a volcano, in a brand-new Ford Bronco off-roader! Right from the very beginning, you realise you’re in for a drive of your life. From rally classics to insanely fast hyper cars, the intro really gives players a teaser of what to expect from the whole game.
Thereafter, you arrive at your first festival site and here things quickly get into typical Horizon fashion, almost a bit much so if you are familiar with the franchise. We have the same set of events scattering overfilling the open world map too fast. It’s a typical downside of most open world games these days, cluttering the map up a bit too much early on. For somebody used to Forza Horizon games though, you quickly get familiar.
Apart from the ordinary races, my favourites are the special events. These are kind of familiar for Forza Horizon fans, but with innovative ideas each time. In FH5 these include racing water scooters, monster trucks or massive airplanes. You know the drill, complete with slow motion segments, blasting your eyes with incredible visuals and jumps.
In addition, this time around, there are some more location focused story stuff with exploring and highlighting anything from ancient temples to beautiful nature scenery spots in Mexico. It’s a lovely tour of the country and gives players a nice backdrop as they race past these many locations over and over as they progress the game.
FH5 packs in an impressive number of cars inherited over from earlier Forza games, as well as many new additions, with more being added as we speak. More rare models of classic cars or brand-new models keeping the variety interesting. Combined with a rich Dolby Atmos sound, featuring ray traced sounds so you hear the engine noise bounce back at you in tunnels, gives the player this punchy and rich sound to the cars. Whether you're racing a noisy V8 or an all electrical quiet car, you're treated to a lot of audio richness around you. The typical list of radio channels, with each their music genre, are available like always too.
Visually, FH5 brings the series to the most impressive yet, I played the game on the Xbox Series X and could choose between 1620p@60fps or full 4K@30fps. Although the latter better hides pop-in of environment detail, the 60fps mode is just the obligatory choice. The smoothness of racing so fast with high framerate is a necessity for any racer. I love how the lighting has a lot of variation, making each sunset, rainfall or sun-drenched landscape look a little different each time. Sandstorms add some crazy experiences visually, as well as being exciting to drive through.
Visually, FH5 brings the series to the most impressive yet, I played the game on the Xbox Series X and could choose between 1620p@60fps or full 4K@30fps. Although the latter better hides pop-in of environment detail, the 60fps mode is just the obligatory choice. The smoothness of racing so fast with high framerate is a necessity for any racer. I love how the lighting has a lot of variation, making each sunset, rainfall or sun-drenched landscape look a little different each time. Sandstorms add some crazy experiences visually, as well as being exciting to drive through.
The bodywork of the cars look incredibly detailed too, with shiny metallic surfaces bouncing off sun reflections, looking stunning as ever. Nighttime is especially a treat, as usual in the Horizon series, with the HDR going to town on bright sources like spotlights, windows in buildings and glowing red brake lights. Simply stunning to look at.
In addition to the ordinary races, categorised into: road, off-country, street, drag and dirt, with their associated car types, there are tons of online events and challenges to play around in. Fancy doing a battle royale styled deathmatch game of races, or just traditional racing cups? It’s all there. Each weekly weather season introduces new events and races to take part in. It’s easy to simply join and try racing against other players, without it feeling too difficult or intimidating.
In addition to the ordinary races, categorised into: road, off-country, street, drag and dirt, with their associated car types, there are tons of online events and challenges to play around in. Fancy doing a battle royale styled deathmatch game of races, or just traditional racing cups? It’s all there. Each weekly weather season introduces new events and races to take part in. It’s easy to simply join and try racing against other players, without it feeling too difficult or intimidating.
At the end of the day, I’m incredibly happy with the game, it’s a joyous ride, packed with content. However, familiarity kicked in earlier than I feared. I’m left mostly with the joy of racing in a new and stunning looking environment, rather than being intrigued by brand new ideas. I guess this is the downfall of following a series closely, there’s a limit to the innovation or feeling as if you're playing something overwhelmingly original. It seems bad complaining about such a perfect package, but for me it doesn’t do all much more than what Forza Horizon 3 & 4 already did.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful racer with top end production and newcomers to the series will get the best one to date, but for Horizon veterans it’s becoming a little run of the mill. But how can I complain? We want new places to race and tons of awesome new cars to try out, and this is exactly what Forza Horizon 5 delivers.
There's still something so thrilling about just pushing the pedal to the metal in a really cool car and driving off on a map wherever you wish to go that FH5 retains, that very few others, if any, manage to replicate. To me, the unique combination of the racing physics and how it controls on an ordinary controller, is what the Forza series really have nailed.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful racer with top end production and newcomers to the series will get the best one to date, but for Horizon veterans it’s becoming a little run of the mill. But how can I complain? We want new places to race and tons of awesome new cars to try out, and this is exactly what Forza Horizon 5 delivers.
There's still something so thrilling about just pushing the pedal to the metal in a really cool car and driving off on a map wherever you wish to go that FH5 retains, that very few others, if any, manage to replicate. To me, the unique combination of the racing physics and how it controls on an ordinary controller, is what the Forza series really have nailed.
If you're new to the series just start here, you're in for a ride of your life.
