Just a few years ago, the thought of a Forza entry appearing on a PlayStation platform would seem wildly asinine. Yet, here we are, at the apex of the global release of Playground Games’ Forza Horizon 5 on PS5. The hit racer took the world by storm when it first arrived back in 2021, and now, PS5 players get to also join in on the fun with a game that’s been refined and expanded upon in the years since.
Lap qualifiers
The Forza series first left the starting line 20 years ago in 2005 as Xbox’s direct answer to the illustrious PlayStation-exclusive, Gran Turismo. Since then, the series has grown exponentially across the 13 entries that have been released so far. The Horizon subseries kicked off back in 2012, ringing in a new era for not only the franchise itself, but also shaking up the open-world racing subgenre henceforth.
Forza Horizon 5 marked a new direction for Horizon, as it set out to expand upon the formula of its predecessors in new ways. Looking back on it now, four years since its initial arrival, Playground Games has made some interesting decisions, which has led to an even more interesting set of opinions surrounding the game.
Pistons of polarisation
When Forza Horizon 5 first arrived, it was met with overwhelming fanfare. It stands tall on Metacritic with a Metascore of 92, being marked with ‘Universal Acclaim.’
Full disclosure: at the time of its release, I authored the review of the game that appeared on the now-defunct PC Invasion, which made up part of the PC release’s Metascore. This review still lives, now on Prima Games. It continues to stand out for me as the only game in my career to date that I’ve awarded a ‘Perfect’ score.
I didn’t get into the Horizon series until it made its PC debut back in 2016 with the amazing Forza Horizon 3, which I absolutely fell in love with. Thus, I’ll be fully transparent: there was (and still is) some bias toward the series, since it became an absolute favorite of mine.
As time has gone on and as alluded to earlier, Forza Horizon 5 has developed a bit of a controversial reputation. For all the acclaim it received at launch, some fans have grown to despise it, calling it ’empty,’ ‘soulless’, and ‘repetitive.’
Search “Forza Horizon 5 isn’t perfect” on YouTube, and the two top results are two videos from different creators, one with 896,000+ views, and the other with 1.1 million. So, it seems that such a sentiment is rather strong within the Forza community.
On one hand, after all the time that’s passed, I can definitely sympathise with some of the current thoughts surrounding the game. Yet, every time I jump back into Forza Horizon 5, I remember why I awarded it a 10/10.
This remains as a truly amazing racing experience, and still, one of the best overall.
What it means to be ‘perfect’
Almost every game awarded with a number of significantly high scores is inevitably met with scrutiny. Beyond that, so-called ‘Perfect’ scores seem to receive most of the ire from skeptics. Nothing in this world is “perfect,” after all.
I’ve been critiquing games for the better part of a decade, and I wholeheartedly agree with the idea that no game is truly perfect. That said, every review is simply a reflection of the author’s thoughts and feelings with the experience they’ve had with a product/service.
In the case of awarding a game a ‘perfect’ score, this often goes to show that said game made a deep impact on the author and kept them smiling throughout their time with it. And, sure enough, that’s exactly the case with me and Forza Horizon 5.
For me, it stood (and continues to stand) as an extremely polished open-world racer with a wealth of content to enjoy and a great big map to explore. The Forzatech DNA that runs through it has been refined continuously throughout the years, and still stands out as the arguably superior formula within the open-world racing sub-genre.
The so-called “simcade” driving mechanics it possesses has, at least in my humble opinion, yet to be truly surpassed. Playground has done a great job at mixing in the refined nature of realistic handling and physics with the tech borrowed from Forza Motorsport alongside a just loose enough touch of arcade shenanigans to not be overbearing to the player. Each car category feels distinct from one another, and the performance classes also feel comfortably different.
The vehicle tuning system is simply phenomenal, and the fact that tunes can easily be shared with other players and curated is an ace feature.
Anytime I try out a new car, I immediately head to the tuning menu to see which of the community favorites are the best fit for my needs. The livery editor also remains as one of the best in the genre, even though it hasn’t changed all that much from past entries.
This series hasn’t grown to such a massive degree “just because it’s Forza,” it’s grown because it’s genuinely good at what it does. So much so, it’s pretty much become the marquee title for the sub-genre as a whole.
Pole position
From the wealth of different vehicles available to drive, to the exceptional degree of customisation that most of them possess, Forza Horizon has become the ultimate car enthusiast’s playground (pun intended.) With each entry, Playground Games has sought to crank up the level of what can best be described as absurdist-realism.
Forza Horizon 5 literally begins with a Ford Bronco being jettisoned out of a cargo plane, and then you take control of it as it hurtles down a volcano, into the valley below. “This is cinema.”
Sure, other racing games also possess some extreme situations. But, there’s just something about the way Forza Horizon constantly walks the line between being entirely outlandish, as is the case with this game’s Hot Wheels expansion, all while still feeling grounded in reality to a believable degree.
Yet, as the years have gone on, the flaws of Forza Horizon 5 have begun to show. But, even with its notable drawbacks, the core experience remains polished.
Switching gears
Community features have always been a big part of the Forza formula. But, Forza Horizon 5 has expanded on this notion in notable ways.
In addition to being able to share vehicle tunes and beautiful liveries, players have now also been given engineering hats and toolboxes to design entire courses, and even pseudo-new worlds within the confines of the EventLab.
This was a tool first introduced in Forza Horizon 4, which brought a Trackmania-style array of tools for player-made events. Forza Horizon 5 expanded on this greatly with not just more props and tools, but a larger canvas with the EventLab Island that was introduced in an update a few years ago.
A litany of elaborate creations have spawned from this, and the developers have been sure to continually spotlight the cream of the crop. Much like elaborate Minecraft-builds, these creations are works of art and deserve the credibility.
The live service aspects of the game’s formula have also been expanded, with an even stronger focus on the weekly Horizon Playlists; a series of events that players complete to earn points and rewards. All this combined with the Seasons mechanic that manipulates the game’s weather each week (yet another carry-over from FH4,) all points to trying to exploit the psychology of player engagement.
It’s a bit of an icky trend that’s grown in the industry, as it tries to harp on FOMO. Yet, when viewed through a less sinister lens, it does at least show a desire from the developers to keep players feeling entertained.
Varying conditions
Fair is fair, and perhaps now is a good time to acknowledge the herd of elephants in the room.
To some extent, the increased focus on social and live service aspects seems to have cut into the single-player experience to a degree. While it’s still there in Horizon 5 and was even expanded upon a bit compared to past entries, it does admittedly lack a feeling of cohesion and natural progression.
Much like the rest of the experience, it’s a very off-the-rails journey that takes players all over the map, driving all sorts of different vehicles, to which Horizon 5 has an eyewatering 900+ of them.
As good as that sounds on paper, the roster can certainly feel very diluted very quickly. Gone is the longstanding racing game formula of beginning with slower, less desirable vehicles and working your way up to coveted, exotic track toys.
Credits are thrown at you for just about anything, making money almost valueless in this game’s world. Buying high-powered cars is achievable within the first hour, and there’s almost no rhyme or reason to unlock the rest of the roster.
This can make car collection in Horizon 5 feel more like trying different flavors in an ice cream parlor; they’re all at your disposal, so go crazy. An exciting proposition at first, but this eventually loses its luster.
Besides that, the sheer number of general unlockables is genuinely overwhelming. From Accolades, to car perks and more, there is menu after menu of different things to unlock. Sometimes you’ll just be driving through the world and unlock something without even trying. And, in reference to the world, Forza Horizon 5’s rendition of Mexico is a mixed bag.
On one hand, it captures the country’s wealth of different regions to an amazing degree. From the sandy deserts to the north, to the gorgeous Pacific and Gulf coastlines and jungles in between—there’s a lot of landscape to love.
But, as other players have pointed out, after a while the world does feel a bit empty and vapid. There isn’t much traffic to get in your way, or notable landmarks to help orient yourself. In some ways, it does feel big for the sake of being big, despite it looking beautiful.
Even with these shortcomings, however, as I’ve repeated multiple times—this racer scratches a certain itch.
Leading the pack
Open-world racing games certainly existed before Forza Horizon first arrived in 2012. But, ever since, there’s been a notable trend that’s spawned from its wake.
For better or worse, there seems to be a bit of Horizon homage, if you will, that a lot of other modern open-world racers pay.
From The Crew Motorfest by Ubisoft, which feels like an almost carbon-copy of Horizon’s formula, to even the ill-fated Test Drive Solar Crown by Kylotonn which has marred the great series’ reputation—they all feel like they’re trying to catch-up to Horizon in one way or another.
Its influence is so strong that even the embrace of open-world racing as the headline feature of the new Mario Kart World has been described as “Forza Horizon-like”, rather than simply referring to it as another new open-world racer.
Even with the Horizon holding the crown for being the biggest crowdpleaser, that doesn’t mean subsequent games in the genre haven’t had highlights of their own.
For instance, I initially viewed The Crew Motorfest as a poor-man’s Horizon at launch. But, now that’s grown and been improved, in some ways, it has managed to even surpass Horizon 5 to a degree.
Regardless, the great work that Playground Games has done with the game shouldn’t be reconstructed by means of revisionist history (I would hope a game released in 2023 be better in at least a few ways than one preceding it.)
This sub-genre only gets a few entries every so often, almost assuredly due to the insane scope of such a task.
Making a good racing game is already quite the challenge, so making one with the added weight of crafting a diverse open-world that feels good to drive in and efficiently progress through is no easy feat.
Playground Games has arguably been cheating the challenge since the beginning, as it has always benefited from having access to Turn 10’s established Forzatech engine, along with all the capital and brand connections that come from being a Microsoft product.
Yet, even with good ingredients, a chef could still make a horrible dish if they mess up the process.
On that note, it’s fair to say Playground has done a remarkable job at expanding the series over the years. And now, PlayStation players get to benefit from all those years of refinement with getting access to the largest, most expansive and longest-supported Forza Horizon title to date. With 43 content updates and two large expansions, there’s a lot to unfold with Forza Horizon 5 on PS5.
It’s a shame that the older games have been delisted and likely will never be brought back for this new player base to enjoy the series as a whole. Nevertheless, even with its flaws, this has the potential to provide a pretty great first impression, which will certainly play nicely into the franchise’s future.
Forza Horizon stands as one of the greatest racing franchises there’s ever been, and Horizon 5‘s extremely well-tuned experience remains a joy to experience to this day.
Would I still award it a 10/10 if I re-reviewed it today? I can’t say for certain, but looking at it purely as it released in 2021, I still believe it’s worthy. Nevertheless, I continue to enjoy myself each time I boot it up, and I’m thrilled to see a new set of players getting to experience it.
Welcome to the Festival, PlayStation fans. Grab some keys, and let’s tear up some tarmac.
