Welcome to our review of Forza Horizon 5, set in the beautiful Mexico and a true showcase for how a racing game should be!
Lead breathtaking expeditions across the vibrant and ever-evolving open world landscapes of Mexico with limitless, fun driving action in hundreds of the world’s greatest cars. Explore a world of striking contrast and beauty. Discover living deserts, lush jungles, historic cities, hidden ruins, pristine beaches, vast canyons and a towering snow-capped volcano. Immerse yourself in a deep campaign with hundreds of challenges that reward you for engaging in the activities you love. Meet new characters and choose the outcomes of their Horizon Story missions.
Take on awe-inspiring weather events like towering dust storms and intense tropical storms as Mexico’s unique, dynamic seasons change the world every week. Keep coming back for new events, challenges, collectibles, and rewards, and new areas to explore. Team up with other players and enter the Horizon Arcade for a continuing series of fun, over-the-top challenges that keep you and your friends in the action and having fun with no menus, loading screens or lobbies.
Create your own expressions of fun with the new EventLab gameplay toolset including custom races, challenges, stunts, and new game modes. Customize your cars in more ways than ever before. Use the Gift Drops feature to share your custom creations.
I will admit I was a little unhappy to be reviewing another racing game, but I have to say I was proven wrong from the first time behind the steering wheel in this game. Forza Horizon 5 is just so drop dead gorgeous and impressive, it made me fall in love with a game in a genre I more tend to dislike than anything else.
Forza Horizon 5 starts when you and your car get ejected from a plane and it is up to you to race to the goal upon touchdown. It sure beats those lame ass tutorials you get in more technical games of the racing genre. I was enamored straight from the start and I had not even made my character yet.
In all honesty, I was never expecting such a great experience, from start to wherever I will end up going, I am truly having fun with this game. It must be said that while this is not a technical experience, more of an arcade racer feeling, but one with tons of things to do, even more to collect and well, let us talk about that.
I currently own 38 cars in this game, mostly bought but also just obtained by spinning the wheel. I got my real life dream car among my first cars, the Toyota Supra in yellow. I used to own a Toyota Yaris and actually wanted to buy that one first, but when I saw the Supra instead, I just went for it. It also solved a year long question I had, would I ever buy this car? The answer is now NO.
Even the majestic Porsche Taycan, never buying it. Forza Horizon did make me fall in love with Aston Martin, that Vantage car, god, I just love the way it handles itself. Sure, in real life I will not be racing across the plains in Mexico or even the highways in my own Belgium. But that car just behaves the way I wanted.
Never in a million years would I have guessed to be this into a racing game and I have not even bothered much with the actual storylines, sure, I got the Beetle car and all, but mostly I am just going into races with bots or just try to gather more collectibles. I love wrecking those XP boards along the way and I am down to 50ish out of 200.
I just love how this game dragged me out of my comfort zone and got me enjoying a racing game. Have I mentioned how pretty this game is? I am sure I have but I would like to say it once more, this once again proves what a real beast this Series X is. From the flamingoes that flew away as I sped by them to the airdrop from a plane to the detailed options to edit your cars.
Yes, you can pretty much do anything you want with your car, from editing the color to putting on Vinyl decals and so much more. I have seen some energy drink branded cars in the game and I am actually looking forward to getting more cars soon.
I do have one small caveat though, not everything is perfect sadly. I have had a few races where the bots pushed me out of bounds, forcing me to rewind a few seconds so I would not miss the checkpoints. Maybe I just need to improve my game and become better at it, right?
In conclusion, Forza Horizon 5 is marvelous, simply marvelous. I am so happy this is coming to Game Pass on day 1 so everyone can give this behemoth download a try!
