I think one week is enough for a review.
Story: 0/10
When players asked for a story in a Horizon game, they actually meant “progression”, but Playground understood it literally as “story”. As a result, what we see in FH5 is a game with completely broken progression and Playground trying to make a Forza Horizon universe out of the horrible characters they have. And failing miserably at it.
IMO the biggest issue is how PG wants us to somehow care about these characters, yet they don’t even have a face, they’re just voices and generic NPCs. They violate the golden rule of storytelling: “show, don’t tell”. Jaimin for example is told to be this superfriendly guy who is rich and a PR Stunt specialist and you must love him for it, but in reality he’s extremely obnoxious and comes across as a douche.
The E rating also creates some unusual situations. So I have these girls (Alejandra and Carmen) obviously flirting with me and the game not only does not have a romancing mechanic (unnecessary of course but it could have one) but is also forced to play it down when Alejandra wants me to “teach how to tune the Vocho” or Carmen is interested in my “Hall of Famer skill”.
Another huge problem is how they said we would have choices. Well, not once did we make a choice that impacts the story, at all. Doesn’t matter if you let Charlie win that race, not whether you pick the airport or the beach for Mike’s scenes. The outcome is always the same. And it sucks.
Finally, playing as a goody two-shoes is beyond irritating. Being silent is better.
Character customization: 6/10
So we have pronouns and prosthetics now, but we’re still limited to clearly male/female voices. If you want representation, you have to go all the way in, sorry.
Also, no facial hair option, no ability to tweak hair color like in NFS, no licensed clothing. A disappointment.
Graphics: 9/10
Forza Horizon 5 on the Xbox Series X is nearly photorealistic. Period.
So why a 9/10? Because apparently Microsoft’s “monster eater” is incapable of rendering photorealistic graphics at 4K and 60 fps without severely limiting object draw distance. The LOD transition reminds me of Gran Turismo Sport and I’ve actually seen road props appear in front of me.
I saw no need to play in the 30 fps mode because this is a racing game, we’re in next gen and I’m not as bad at games as an IGN journalist.
Seriously, it wouldn’t have hurt to lower the resolution to, say, QHD if the “monster” struggles with 4K at reasonable options.
It’s a bit of a shame, because I think this map is the best yet. It feels like a 4 times bigger Fortune Island as well as a mix of FH1, 2 and 3’s best areas.
Sounds: 7/10
This is the major upgrade next to FH4. Much was talked about these new sounds and how incredible they are compared to FH4’s.
This being the case, why does the E46 M3 in FH4 sounds more accurate than the one in FH5? Because it clearly does.
Don’t get me wrong. Overall, the sounds are an upgrade. But not enough to justifiy the craze. Alongside the Huracan, you have cars like the aforementioned M3. Furthermore, many (most?) of the cars are lower pitched compared to their real life counterparts, which forces me to upgrade to Race camshaft to get them to sound as they should when stock (sometimes not even that!).
The part changing sound thing has created an inconvenience. Personally I think Forza should do like NFS and GT and move away from aesthetic parts influencing performance. The system they have now was pioneered by NFSU2 back in 2004 and EA moved away from that in Heat because it limits your ability to match performance with looks/sound.
Physics: 9.5/10
I think many pros are complaining about the physics because the cars have become quite easy to drive, but I found myself greatly enjoying it. Drifting in this game is incredibly fun. RWD cars slide less in races. Suspension tweaks worked to make cars react much better over bumps.
That 0.5 point is because there were rare instances where the car was upset by kerbs when it wouldn’t have been in FH4. But it could also have been due to my driving.
I guess you could also take another 0.5 because the roads feel like carpet, but that’s probably too strict.
Content: 5/10
Losing Rocket Bunny and a few Italian brands was a pretty large blow. RB had bodykits for many cars, most of which only appearing in FH4. Lancia would’ve been perfect for the game and it could still come back given they were testing the Stratos and could be sorting licensing issues.
On the other hand, looking in hindsight, supporting FH4 for so long has proven to be a mistake. The vast majority of cars new to FH5 launch compared to FH4 launch have been added to FH4 via DLC and updates. As a result, the car list doesn’t feel fresh enough.
When it comes to customization, the only major improvement were the new wheels, which have created an unfortunate contrast, because we now know how bad the old wheels look next to them!
Apart from this, the customization system is definitely not “deeper”, it’s the same as it’s ever been, with the same flaws.
Online: 4/10
It’s broken ATM. Not much to say about it.
Even with the might of the Series X, FH5 is hindered by the same bad netcode from 4, which makes finding matches take ages.
Playground also seems to hate the game’s competitive scene considering this is their second attempt at undermining it in the game’s launch with lack of features like ranked. How long until players go back to 4 and they’re begrudgingly forced to add features back?
Final thoughts:
I have no idea how this game scored 9s and 10s across the board. Actually, I do, but I won’t get into that.
I still find Forza Horizon fun to play… when the obnoxiousness they’ve been pushing since late FH3 doesn’t get in the way. But it’s got Xbox exclusive plastered all over it: so much wasted potential because Microsoft is satisfied with “good enough” rather than “the best we can do”.
One thing for sure, though: if you’re a franchise veteran like I feel entitled to call myself now after 4 years and every FH game in my resume, you’ll tire of this game quickly. Playground better have some spectacular stuff planned for the holidays, otherwise I’ll just go back to other games.
(btw your character is in the car most of the time)