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Forza Horizon 5 review: the best modern open world driving gameAny game that dubs a smacked cactus a ‘smactus’ is a winner, right?
Any game that dubs a smacked cactus a ‘smactus’ is a winner, right?
It’s an open world racer of humongous scale, dressed up in beautiful, destructible environments that are nothing like the dioramas of old. Foliage flattens under your car, seasons change, and water splashes look the best they’ve ever looked in any racing game.
Forza Horizon 5 - Official Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube
Forza Horizon 5 - Official Launch Trailer
The festival format at this point feels like a beloved real-life event like Glastonbury or Burning Man. The marquees, grandstands and confetti guns have now rolled into Mexico and brought with them a delicious, licensed soundtrack to pump through your TV speakers. “Let’s have some Foo Fighters!” Says the DJ. “Yes, let’s!” you’ll say, reaching for the volume up button.
Sadly there’s not much new it can do to impress, since the series has already been at volume 11 for quite some time when it comes to its set pieces. The start of the game showcases the exquisite graphics engine, but we’ve already raced planes and motorbikes before. In all honesty, returning fans arguably want more of the same anyway, while newcomers to the series will love the frequent, joyous spectacle. Everyone’s a winner when the quality bar is this consistently high.
There are also new community event creation tools in ‘EventLab’, allowing you to place hazards and create your own rules for custom events - very much likeDirt 5’s Playground Mode. These turn up on the map in returning ‘Super7’ events, where a series of seven community-created events must be cleared in order to win a super spin on the gambling-lite prize wheel. You can vote to like or dislike any such challenge, affecting its likelihood of appearing in other Super 7 games.
However, the game always encourages you to relax, calling you ‘friend’ - and even though there are hundreds of events to unlock and beat, festival hubs in various racing disciplines to unlock, as well as the obligatory XP signs to find and smash through… oh and barn finds to unlock (you can even put your own cars in there to gift to other players now too, which is cute), the game never feels like it’s forcing you to do anything. You can just drive off into the jungle to see what you can find, spend hours setting up the perfect photo, or head online to race others. The game welcomes going at your own pace.
Then there’s the AI. In such a game of so many variables, balancing every race perfectly isn’t feasible, and the old Forza issue of one enemy car zooming off ahead is still occasionally apparent, but now only on higher difficulty levels. It matters less anyway, as this isn’t really a game you play for a hardcore challenge – it’s one to chill out in, so if you’re looking for the race of your life, look elsewhere. This is for fun.
WhileBurnout Paradise Remasteredstill offers more involved gameplay on a second-to-second basis while still offering a similarly gleeful atmosphere there isn’t another open world racing game so exquisitely polished as this. If you’ve played a Forza Horizon game before then you might feel a slight sense of deja vu, but you won’t care as the formula has been perfected at last. The best sound and visuals, the most variety of gameplay, the best editors, superb car handling… it’s sheer class. And so, so big. Yes, it really is the best modern open world driving game, so get it.
