Forza Horizon 5 is a deep and nuanced car nirvana for revheads and auto geeks to endlessly collect, tinker, and experiment. It’s also an extremely accessible buffet of racing spectacle open to everyone, from day one, Deluxe Edition diehards to Game Pass nomads – no matter their driving skill or mechanical knowledge. It’s an occasionally goofy but always earnest Valentine to Mexico’s world-famous culture, and a romantic ode to the magic of road-tripping through postcard-perfect vacation vistas. It’s a long-haul, MMO-inspired racer that’s exploding with more races, activities, and event types than can comfortably fit on the map – and yet it still always feels relaxed rather than daunting. It never locks you into something you don’t want to do and steadily rewards you for however you choose to play it. It looks beautiful, it sounds magnificent, and it is glorious to play. Yes, Forza Horizon 5 is a lot of things. Above all, however, it is the result of a racing studio at the peak of its craft and the best open-world racing game I’ve ever played.
Forza Horizon 5’s online events include Forza Horizon 4’s Eliminator battle royale mode and the Super 7 community challenges, and a remarkable amount more. Additional features are added like an enormous visual upgrade especially to lighting, dust effects. Hundreds and hundreds of new custom, performance mods, and cars with more character than ever are in the game now. And some improved tools that allow us to build completely custom events are more or less indistinguishable from those crafted by the developers themselves. There’s also a new event type—an ‘expedition’—used to unlock the outposts that contain Horizon’s different racing disciplines. You go to a new area, complete some optional objectives, and your map fills up with the new road, street, dirt, or cross country races.
It’s incredibly across the board. Let’s go and enjoy the ride.
