Review: Forza Horizon 5 by Playground Games for Xbox and PC

Forza Horizon 5 is an accessible motor racing game that offers an incredible degree of customisation

Forza Horizon 5 was developed by Playground Games and published by Xbox Games Studios for Xbox and PC.

The Forza Horizon series is focused more on having a fun time in cars, as opposed to the “enthusiast” approach of the main Forza Motorsport series, and for the fifth outing in the series doesn’t change the formula much at all.

Forza Horizon 5, developed by Playground Games and published by Xbox Games Studios for Xbox and PC, is an open-world racing game featuring hundreds of real-life cars and is set in Mexico. It allows drivers to engage in everything from off-road jungle races in 4WDs to street racing through cities in souped-up cars.

Reflecting a sort of “Mexico’s highlights” sandbox design with a number of regions and biomes, the game looks absolutely breathtaking on an Xbox Series X and a Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV. The reflections on surfaces, the graphics, and the environmental effects are visually incredible and the game runs very smoothly indeed.

I have to say the choice to set the game in Mexico is an interesting one, not least because the country is not somewhere most of us associate with car racing. It certainly looks nice though, even if the map seems to be pretty evenly divided between “desert” and “jungle”.

Forza Horizon 5

The various cars handle differently and feel very distinct – quite a feat when your only input is an Xbox controller or a keyboard – but I was really disappointed the developers hadn’t bothered rendering the full car interiors. You get the dashboard and about a 120 degree angle facing forward, but if you look to the side or read it’s full screen and totally breaks the immersion. I really want to feel like I’m in the car.

The dashboard attention to detail is quite remarkable, though, and the different cameras allow players to get the best perspective on the action, be that in the driver’s seat or a third person view behind the car, or one of the other options.

Yet for all its stunning graphics and beautiful rendition of pretty much every car that’s ever been anywhere near an episode of Top Gear, I just couldn’t shake the feeling this felt like Forza Horizon 4 but with palm trees and jungles instead of farmhouses and rolling English countryside.

I won’t say I was bored of the game, because I wasn’t, but it just seemed to lack a certain something to really grab my attention. I enjoy car racing games but this one just didn’t feel different enough from its predecessor to wow me overall.

Forza Horizon 5

The other thing is, having been playing Forza Horizon 4 since it came out, I have a gigantic virtual garage full of cars and having to re-earn them all again this time around was somewhat inconvenient, although I fully appreciate that just letting people port their earlier garages over would significantly disadvantage new players coming into the series for the first time.

Fortunately, Forza Horizon 5 does throw cars at you. After a few hours of play I had something like two dozen cars in my garage, plus more than a million credits with which to buy others, so I was never short of choice.

There’s a sort of campaign as you unlock new regions and racecourses, but the story is pretty thin and the characters you interact with spend entirely too much time going on about “family”, not to mention constantly referring to you as “Superstar”, even if your track record is thoroughly average.

You can race against the AI or other real-world players, as well as form “convoys” with your friends for team events too.

Forza Horizon 5

One thing I thought the developers did much better this time around was creating the feeling of being involved in a gigantic car-themed fiesta. The “Horizon Festival” gimmick didn’t quite land for me in the previous game, but in the sun-soaked splendour of digital Mexico it works really well and made the whole thing feel like a legitimate, fun exercise.

The adjustable difficulty level and vast digital garage of cars means there’s something here for everyone, regardless of whether you want a casual arcade game in expensive racing cars or to get an idea of what it would be like to actually compete in the Baja 1000.

Australian motoring enthusiasts will be pleased to know there’s a number of Australian-made Ford and Holden performance vehicles in the game too; a legacy of Forza Horizon 3 which was set here.

Forza Horizon 5 is an autophiles delight, a fantastic, accessible motor racing game that offers an incredible degree of customisation, although it still may not be quite enough for hardcore motorsports enthusiasts looking for a “true” racing experience.

If you’ve got Game Pass, and if you have an Xbox or PC then you really should have it, then it’s well worth playing. As a stand-alone purchase, though, I don’t think it’s really worthwhile at this stage unless you don’t have Forza Horizon 4.