Where to even begin with Forza Horizon 5… This is a great game that takes you through Mexico to race, drift, jump & stunt your way through. There’s slight story line compiled of “missions” which are actually pretty quick and interesting. I personally find them to be very enjoyable! However a lot of it is simply nods to older Horizon games, which I find great as well!
There’s a lot to say about this game, so aside from the story I’ll start at graphics. WOW. Forza features extremely high polygon counts for even the smallest of details such as car badges. Leading to this game looking ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. I always spend hours playing around with games photo modes when they are available to me and Forza Horizon 5 is NO DIFFERENT. The photos of these cars you are able to take are absolutely jaw dropping and sometimes indistinguishable from real life. Immersion is great due to that fact and it is easy to get lost in Mexico for hours on end. Graphics do degrade when driving at higher speeds (180mph+) at least with my setup of a 2700x & a RTX 3060, I also play with DLSS on performance, so I’m sure that has something to do with it, however I don’t mind it. It’s not noticeable enough when driving and I am still able to see ahead of me while still being able to enjoy the beauty at slower speeds, so it works for me!
Car sounds are amazing, not even riding Forza. I’m not exactly a car guy, so I can’t say if they’re 1:1 as you’d expect from the cars in real life, but I do know that while upgrading my cars, and hearing the progression of the sound of the car over time is extremely fulfilling. So I do find the engine sounds to be enjoyable in that sense and sound great! The music in this game is awesome! There’s a great blend of everything and showcases will use them to build hype and OH MAN, DOES IT WORK! The music in this game is great and works well with the game!
I’ve ran into a couple of bugs in my time playing so far. Mainly they’re simple and stupid mission bugs like during the Forza Link tutorial where the button my controller or keyboard wouldn’t work. Then during the Drifting missions when you drive the Electric Mustang and have to switch from AWD to RWD and neither the thumb stick on my controller or the button on my keyboard were working. Eventually it just worked but I sat there for like a minute before it did.
As far as content, there is A TON of content to do. Tons of different races & events and the PR stunts we all know from previous Horizon games! I would bet that someone who gets in and really enjoys this game will probably be able to put in 100 hours easily. There’s not really an exact end other than for the showcases & entering the Hall of Fame, but that happens pretty quickly and it’s all free roam & do whatever you really want from there. I’m only 30 hours in as I write this, and I’m still playing controller, but I know I have plenty of time left in this game, especially when I purchase a racing wheel!
My Rating:
8.5/10
To wrap up my current 30or so hours with the game, I’ve enjoyed it and have been extremely immersed regardless of using a racing wheel or not. I’ve spent hours and have only made a small dent in all of the things that I can do in this edition of Forza. I will continue to update as I play through and as I play through some of the DLC (I’ve already started the Hot Wheels, but I will not talk on it until I’ve played enough!) Thank you for reading my review on Forza Horizon 5!