The map was touted as being “the most diverse map in Horizon history” but in the end it feels like more of the same. Sure, VISUALLY the map can look pretty varied at times but you know what doesn’t seem to vary at all?
Gameplay. The entire map is clearly designed so an X class AWD swapped Lamborghini can fly through it at 150+ MPH. Sure, it could be through a jungle, or sand dunes, or arid field (all of which are environments seen in Horizon 3 by the way) but it all plays the same.
What I would consider a diverse map is one that has many gameplay opportunities and sections of the map (preferably intertwining and intersecting routes) that appeal to certain car disciplines.
Ignoring scenery, there’s plenty of road environments we haven’t ever seen in a Horizon title at all. No expressways, cliffside paths, drainage ditches, narrow back alleys, parking garage, touge roads, the list goes on.
I remember trying out Beam.NG and was astounded the devs managed to waste virtually no space at all for their maps. They felt way more compact and full of diverse but realistic environments for driving. The Horizon maps, especially 4 and 5’s have so much wasted space. Meanwhile Beam is able to cram more meaningful gameplay situations in a map that’s hardly a quarter of the size FH5’s map is.
Going forward, I hope that the new ForzaTech engine FM8 and FH6 will be running on will help foster a new map design philosophy at PGG, one where the map isn’t 75% rocks and fields with roads double the width of a four lane highway.
I think it is diverse but just not in a likeable manner, it feels diverse in a checklist-y sort of way.
Too much focus on having however many different biomes they spoke about pre-release, I think it was 9 but I’m not sure, regardless it does feel to me like it was made from meetings + lists rather than any inspiration + creativity.
It’s not a bad map but it’s just lacking something, I originally preferred Guanajuato to Edinburgh’s city centre but having driven around it so many times I’ve changed my opinion on that now, the circuits both road + CC were more enjoyable in Edinburgh and visually it is much prettier to me than Guanajuato.
With only 1 dirt trail + 1 tarmac road (which I do actually enjoy) leading up to it the volcano is pretty isolated and under-used as well, another of each road on the N/S sides would have created at least 2 great circuits where you would ascend to the volcano, race alongside it before a faster descent back down for the 2nd half of the lap.
I agree, the map initially looked great and diverse but 6 months on it’s a bit of yawn. Driving in the tight city really isn’t that much fun especially in S1 or S2 cars. I much preferred Edinburgh. Fortune Island in H4 was much better for racing on than the mountain in H5.
Hoping that the first expansion has a big city but I doubt it. I’m picking an island like they’ve done before.
The map is diverse and well authored. I applaud their ‘diversity’, lol & attention to detail. Keep that end of things up.
They need far larger areas for snow for whatever relevant season – but bar that the map’s problem isn’t diversity, it’s proportionality.
There’s waaay too much flat terrain/gentle rolling hills. You can cross the map quickly with flat terrain/gentle rolling hills.
I’d strip out 80% of the farmland, 50% of the cactus areas and replace them with treacherous areas - like the areas near the railway - that would be hard for an all terrain vehicle to handle if it leaves the back roads.
There should be only one way to cross Mexico quickly - with the highway. Any other quick attempt, should put you on the roof.
There’s a well authored river in the north of the map. That could be a good asset but it’s largely tucked out of the way for some reason.
If you could get issues of proportionality sorted out, your freeroam experience would give you the impression that you do have access to a country to drive around. I think that’s largely a missed opportunity here.
I’m under the impression that the game map was optimized for Eliminator. That may explain why the bulk of the map is nondescript rolling hills with few obstructions. Geographically interesting features, like the canyon, are pushed off to the edges.
No one’s right or wrong. Everyone is coming in with different perspectives, expectations and past experiences from similar games or titles.
For me I much prefer the FH4 map over the FH5 map. I loved the seasons. Each season was drastically different both visually and driving wise. For example in winter there were no leaves so you could see into the distance which also changed how you played eliminator. Obviously driving on snow was different. So to was driving on wet in spring vs dry on summer.
I also loved being able to drive offroad between trees in FH4. Can’t do that in FH5 because of all the darn logs. Being able to drive through trees was also a great feature in Eliminator as it opened up so many different routes and possibilities with varying risks and rewards.
I also like the number of assets on the FH4 map based on its size. FH5 map is way to big for the number of assets it has such as buildings, lakes, rivers etc. This makes the FH5 map feel empty and boring alot of the time. Which is a huge shame because some parts of the FH5 map are absolutely stunning.
Lastly although the cities in FH4 and FH5 map may be comparable in size, I personally prefer the FH4 city. It was more open and easier to race around which again was exciting for eliminator. Whereas FH5s main city feels too small, narrow and windie. Ultimately feels very very small and makes the map feel cityless.
They say eliminator wasn’t designed for FH4 map and that it was a trial for FH5. I would argue eliminator was perfect in FH4 and is horrible in FH5.
The map itself is fine, the city could be bigger, but the everything just looks overbright and brown because the sunlight intensity is turned up 11 while in FH4 the overcast weather added more contrast and texture to the world. The LOD pop-in doesn’t help the feeling at all as the small bushes constantly change their lighting at rapidly.
The map IS “one that has many gameplay opportunities and sections of the map (preferably intertwining and intersecting routes) that appeal to certain car disciplines” - if, for whatever reason, a player chooses to ignore those for one catch-all super-vehicle choice, that isn’t a problem with the map.
Maybe it’s just me, but Mexico feels like someone took FH4’s map…and pulled on all 4 corners to make the hills shallower but the length from edge to edge longer. You get longer stretches of winding road to drive faster on, but less dramatic elevation changes, aka: the map is overall flatter. And then someone said “let’s make a twisty dirt hill climb on one side of a big hill, and make a twisty paved road down the other side” and so they created the volcano which…admittedly is a huge elevation change, but it’s very isolated.
They tossed in the jungle and dunes from FH3…
Map has a lot of 1’s…1 canyon run in the north east, the afore mentioned hill climbs/Initial D roads, but in the center its an aful lot of flat.
I think FH5 is fun to cruise on because you can cruise for longer before you realize you’re repeating yourself, but the game really requires you to use EVENTLAB to “Make your own routes”. Like making routes that YOU want to take between your assorted properties, and time trialing those runs in various cars.
I use a wheel so its possible to create really challenging roads to drive on with various vehicles…but if you just use ANNA to do the gps point-to-pointing it tends to take you on some overly-familiar routes.
It spent so much space for putting tree/plants as filler.
It feel like a Far cry 6 map.
I still prefer NFS:payback map
It got almost everything.
Big city
Some open offroad aera
A full highway system
It got more/longer road aera than forza because it dont waste resouce on useless aera (like let you drive into background forest)
I don’t get the need for there being a Real World related site to the Map in Forza…just 86 the site theme, nix the fact finding trips, re-allocate funds wasted there to actually developing the game and make a game based on a “generic centralized” location with some google-able calls to real world locations.
I agree, I don’t think they’ve done a good job since FH2 of making you feel like you’re in the actual place it’s set anyway, leaving that behind would remove the worry they evidently had with FH5 concerning it snowing in Mexico for instance.
NFS has never done it yet Rockport + Bayview will be probably be forever adored places in the racing game genre, the reboot trilogy maps have received some love in another thread on here too.
It is a brake to drift game (I like brake to drift game but it is not as good as NFS:hotpursuit 2010)
The game itself ruined by slot-machine card system.
it patched now but you still see the car handling and balance are bad.
Like many pay2win game it make Max level car too fast. It dont feel good when driving in competitive speed.
And standard car drive like trash to provide lots of space for upgrade.
It is almost impossible to drive safely with someone in online MP. most of the mp race player are very far between it dont feel like playing together
