Forza Horizon 5

Gameplay in Forza Horizon 5; here, a player is racing a Lamborghini Diablo SV against an opponent in a street race.

Forza Horizon 5 is a racing video game set in an open world environment based in a fictional representation of Mexico.[5] The game has the largest map in the entire Forza Horizon series, being 50% larger than its predecessor, Forza Horizon 4, while also having the highest point in the Horizon series.[6][7] The map was described by creative director Mike Brown as one of the most diverse Forza Horizon maps the team has built.[8] The map contains an active caldera volcano, jungles and beaches, ancient Mayan temples, and towns and cities such as Guanajuato. Players can explore the open world freely, though they can also compete in multiplayer races and complete the campaign mode. Both the cars featured in the game and the player character can be extensively customised.[9] Players are able to create custom liveries and tunes for cars, and perform engine swaps, drivetrain swaps, or install body kits on certain vehicles. The game is the first in the franchise to support ray tracing on cars (although this is only available in Forzavista).[10]

The game introduces a new weather system (local weather) in which players can visit one side of the map and can visibly see a storm. Because Mexico is such a vast nation with such a wide range of elevations, multiple climates would appear in the game at around the same time. The four seasons still exist but would affect the eleven unique biomes around the map. For example, in the dry season, dust storms will appear, while tropical storms occur throughout the fall storm season.[11] Another detail is in the jungle, in which the environment would now react to the weather; an example of this is leaves flying everywhere.[12][13]

Forza Horizon 5 also introduces a brand new Horizon Arcade. This consists of a series of mini-multiplayer games strewn across the map. One of these mini-multiplayer games is called "Piñata pop" where the Horizon Festival's cargo plane drops piñatas. The goal is to pop as many piñatas as they can with the help of other players. It also introduces the "EventLab", a toolset in which players can create custom games, races, and more depending on their personal preference.[14] A new feature called "Forza Link" was introduced. According to Brown, it is an AI assistant that tracks the current statuses of players, helping them to link with other players online and play together. Forza Link can also link players' GPS systems if they accept the invitation from another player.[9]

Accolades, new to the Forza Horizon series, allow players to collect points and prizes for completing certain tasks. Some vehicles can only be unlocked through the completion of the Accolades. There are over 1,800 accolades for the player to achieve.[15]

The Eliminator battle royale game mode introduced in Forza Horizon 4 returns, albeit with players starting in a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle rather than a 1965 Mini.[16] The world is designed for the mode unlike the previous game, which received The Eliminator after launch.[17] As in the previous game, players can buy in-game houses ranging from small beachside cabanas to even a hotel, which can unlock rewards such as Wheelspins and the right to Fast Travel. The game features over 500 licensed vehicles.

Forza Horizon 5 was developed by Playground Games. The goal for the team was to create a game whose scale was significantly larger than its predecessors. The team chose Mexico as the game's setting due to its diverse and varied landscape. The team partnered with Mexican artists to create the in-game murals, and Mexican musicians to create the in-game soundtracks. It also sent a team to visit Mexico to capture real-world light and sky data.[25] The game utilised photogrammetry data extensively in order to make the game's virtual environment to look similar to its real-life counterpart.[25][26] An example of this is the rocks in the side of the caldera volcano where they can be viewed with such detail.[27] Individual objects, such as the needles of cholla cacti, can also be displayed by the game (although this is only available for the Xbox Series consoles as of now).[28]

Forza Horizon 5 was announced during Microsoft and Bethesda's showcase at E3 2021. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S on 9 November 2021.[29][30][lower-alpha 2]

Forza Horizon 5 received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic.[31][32]

Game Informer appreciated the social interactions in the game, especially the score comparisons, "More times than I could count, I noticed my friend hit a higher top speed, causing me to turn around and try the challenge again".[43] Ars Technica liked the visuals of the title, praising how it looked "next-gen", "I seriously cannot keep track of how many times FH5 made my eyes bulge. The game takes special care to emphasize massive vistas... with screen-bursting HDR effects doing wonders for a richly saturated canvas of cities, sunsets, and scenery". While criticizing the car handling for making the game too easy, Rock Paper Shotgun enjoyed the new additions to the formula like the EventLab creator and Super7 events, "If you’ve played a Forza Horizon game before then you might feel a slight sense of deja vu, but you won’t care as the formula has been perfected at last".[44] Eurogamer praised Horizon 5's open world of Mexico, writing that "The map is an absolute wonder, backed by a game engine which can deliver staggering views across the whole thing from the summit of the volcano that towers over it. The environments are rich and saturated with colour and atmosphere, from humid swamps to arid dunes, from deep, verdant canyons to pastel-striped barrios".[45]

Polygon liked the settings to tune difficulty and handling, but felt the game bombarded you with too many events and activities at once, "I feel constantly pinged with mentions and suggestions, from all directions, like two teenagers are blowing up my DMs".[46] The Verge felt the progression systems were less confusing overall compared to 3, and praised how the player could choose what to do next, "You’re able to choose which specific types of events to unlock as you progress... I feel like if I stopped playing the game and came back to it weeks later, I’d have a much better sense of what I’d been doing".[47]

The game was selected as IGN's Game of the Year.[48]

• Official website