Forza Horizon 5 is the latest in the long running Forza Horizon series. It is published by Xbox Game Studios. The game is set in a fictional version of Mexico.
So is it any good? This is going to take a bit of explaining but I think the goodness of this game cannot be measured in isolation but the context of the last few Forza Horizon games has to be taken into account while judging it.
This iteration of Forza was based in Australia. It is the first title of the series that I played and I remember loving the handling dynamics of the cars which were not too arcade-like as one would find in Need for Speed franchise but also not too simulation like such as in Gran Turismo or Assetto Corsa. There wasn’t a storyline as such. So there was no particular end to the game as one would find in Need for Speed but to gather more cars, explore the vast map and race till you get bored.
This iteration was based in Britain. There were a few changes such as introduction of seasons (there were different racing surfaces in different seasons), more cars, even better graphics but essentially most of the UI was the same which was a good thing because if it ain’t broke, not point in fixing it.
But the thing that stood out for me most of all was the 1:1 to copy of Edinburgh included in the map. This just shows that the developers went above and beyond in making the game as real like as possible. Most importantly one could see the scenery and tell exactly that they were indeed in the UK.
This iteration as mentioned is based in Mexico and as a result you can find a lot of Latin American themes in the UI (the colours and the graphics). My beef with FH5, when I compare to Need for Speed Heat which is another racing game with Latin American theme, is that they didnot put in an effort to include a radio station that played latin american songs which Need for Speed does. Even the trailers and cut scenes have American music playing in the background which sounds a bit off. There are a few Mexican songs in the mix but overall, it doesnot have the same vibe. Then there is the very hateful overexposure of everything to give a tropical vibe which actually makes it difficult to see the road markings properly which is a shame given the fact that it is a racing game.
My second concern with FH5 is that it doesnot have a very consistent career progression. Everything happens too quickly. I mean I have played the game for 7hours and I have already been able to unlock most of the event, even though I started with the base car pack which included 7 cars only. In FH4 it actually took a bit of time even with the welcome pack cars and an additional DLC purchase. Then there is the distribution of races. Races are unlocked by using a point system but everytime you can unlock a bundle of only homogenous races. So if you unlock a bunch of Road races then you will have to play only those till you unlock the next bundle which could be Offroad or Dirt racing. It becomes monotonous after a point.
Last of all, the arrangement of festival sites which was bad in FH3, was improved in FH4. The problem with distributed festival sites is that places become inaccessible when you start your campaign and travelling across the map becomes annoying. This can be remedied by using fast travel but that is unlocked very late in the game. I would have preferred the arrangement of FH4 roads and festival site with one central site which is well connected to the corners of the map. I faced this travelling issue in FH3 too and felt that it took the fun out of the game somewhat.
It is not all doom and gloom though as FH5 still retains some of its best features which are the handling dynamics and the very real like AI drivatars. It however has not been able to improve upon the last title and has taken a few steps back I think in overall game design and execution. It is still a very fun and enjoyable game which will appeal to most car enhusiasts given the addition of nearly a 100 more cars from the last FH4 including all DLCs.
