With Forza Horizon 5 finally arriving on PlayStation 5, PlayStation owners finally get the chance to play the best racing franchise. And Horizon 5 is a pretty good one to start on.
As someone with thousands of hours across the Forza franchise and hundreds more in Horizon 5, I can say, “Yep. It’s Horizon 5 and it’s still amazing.” And I’m happy for all the people that get to experience Horizon for the first time. There’s not really much I can add that hasn’t already been said, so I’ll more be looking at the complete package that is Forza Horizon 5 as of today.
For starters, are there any differences between the Xbox and PS5 versions? Ehh, not really minus some haptic feedback on controllers. All the amazing things about Horizon in the Xbox version apply here along with the same occasional misses.
If you’re somehow unaware of Forza Horizon, Horizon is the more casual of the Forza titles. With Forza Motorsport being the more hardcore racer. Of course, you can wildly adjust difficulty and accessibility options. Compared to previous Horizon entries , Horizon 5 is the ultimate power fantasy. In previous titles, you mostly had to work your way up to the fancy and flashy cars. In 5, those are mostly accessible from the get-go. You start in a cargo plane being dropped across the map as you’re introduced to new locations and types of vehicles. It’s a fast, flashy, and awesome set piece that captures the full Horizon experience in under 10 min.
From here, it’s up to you which types of races you want to tackle. Do you want the off-road ones in the jungle? Tight turns through cities and streets or a mix of both? With each win or loss netting you XP and money to spend on outfits, cars, or car parts. And wowzer, there’s lots of car and parts and car customization to be done. This is the biggest sore spot I have with Horizon 5: progressions are incredibly easy, and you can progress through ranks in one tournament without even meaning to, and it feels slightly meh to almost become a champion through not doing much.
And if you’re not someone who is talented enough like I am to make your own designs or custom car tunings, don’t worry. There are plenty of creators out there sharing their designs for you to use. I personally am never let down when accessing the livery creator. What some people can do is just mind boggling.
Overall, there is just a mind-boggling amount of content in this game. There are enough elements in it that it’s essentially live service, but don’t worry, passes are free, and the only money you spend is on car packs. The biggest new addition here is Horizon Realms. While Realms is new, the content in it is mostly comprised of previous seasonal events. The Chinese New Year track, the ice skating car rink, and more. The only thing new here is the addition of a circular, almost NASCAR-style track. This will be available to everyone at the same time on release. I am happy that previous time-gated content is now available for everyone to experience at any time. But I can only assume this means there will be no further seasonal content? Time will tell. As sometimes the main allure of seasonal content is that you can’t access it 24/7. This area comes with its own leaderboards as well.
I have very little complaints about Horizon 5 as it stands in its complete form. One complaint is new/console specific. I was expecting a little more from the haptic triggers. If you’re a madman like I am who plays with manual plus clutch and all assists off, having that haptic feedback on the brake and gas would’ve really helped in tight races. There is some feedback on braking but practically none on the gas.
My second qualm is that the title is too much of a power fantasy. In prior Horizons, you worked your way up from dingy cars to the super cars through a pretty well fleshed out and enjoyable progression system. Progression in prior Horizons felt purposeful. In 5 though? You can access the crazy class of cars much faster. And as you progress through the different progression paths, it feels weird to be pretty far into one and not really be aware of the content you’re engaged with. For example, I had already progressed through much of the off road path by barely interacting with it. But this is such a petty gripe.
The last gripe is the process of playing coop never feels as smooth as it should. Inviting people to your convoy sometimes places them in your session, sometimes it doesn’t. Which is fine. But the extremely personal complaint I have for the multiplayer is how little time it gives your convoy to accept the race invite, then choose a car before they’re forced to race. If they didn’t choose a car in time, they’re placed in a default one which sometimes leaves you at a real disadvantage. Personally, I’d love a ready up system for coop races. Rather than the current system which requires a little too much coordination and very little time for decision making.
But again, all these are mostly a hill of beans in an amazing game. If you like car games whatsoever, buy this game.
Forza Horizon 5
$60
Pros
- Insane amount of content
- The best open world racing experience
- Tons of customization options
Cons
- Haptic feedback is not as good as expected
- Coop can be finicky
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