Something overcame me recently that brought me back to Forza Horizon 5. This is weird for the sole reason that I have not thoroughly enjoyed a Forza Horizon game since 3, and a Motorsports title since 4.

So, is FH5 so good that it’s brought me back into this series? No, not really, I just think I haven’t played a racing sim in a while and got the itch. The point being is that Forza has been very on and off in quality, especially to me, someone who has played nearly every title since FM2. So how does FH5 fall flat?

The first thing thats really stuck out to me is the location. For a Horizon game to really work I think it needs a good mix of every type of environment. I think 3 nailed it, Australia had the right mix of barren desert and dense urban zones with a lot of great mixed open space between. Mexico, on the other hand, is a lot of desert. It’s almost overwhelming how much brown you will drive past and how underwhelming every forest and urban zone is. Obviously it’s difficult to get this good mix when you’re following real environments, because Mexico is just a lot of desert. Picking a location is extremely hard for a game like this because of how vital it is, and Horizon as a series faces this weird issue because it’s already expended all of the really good diverse environments out there. America, (Southern) Europe and Australia have already been done. While there are lot of cool setpieces to make from other countries, a lot of them aren’t diverse enough to settle the fantasy Horizon wants to achieve. For instance, Japan would make for a cool Horizon locale, but its way too urban. Norway could be cool too, but now thats mostly mountain zones. Ideally, the direction Horizon should move in is a mix of each previous location, letting you travel between all these maps Playground has sitting around that they aren’t using. Though, at that point, you’re basically making a more complex Motorsports title without the real life tracks.

Anyways, the point is, H5’s “bad location” problem is intrinsic to the series because so few real world places can achieve the perfect mixed environment open world Playground/Turn10 wants you to experience.

FH5 also follows the same problem every other Horizon title has, being that it integrates the previous title’s interesting gimmick worse than than its predecessor did. FH4’s dynamic weather is here, to a much lesser degree, and with the same problem FH4 had. The changes in weather are novel but after a while prove to be more of an annoyance when how you drive is constantly being fucked with in the cold and wet months. Had they leaned into FH4’s real-time season changes, it would have been much better. However, they doubled down on the weekly seasonal model and (to my knowledge) cut the real-time changes. If I want to race hypercars during the winter week without gliding everywhere, I basically have to wait a week for the next season. If I want to take 4x4’s through thick snow, I have to wait for winter or just boot up FH3’s DLC. There isn’t a way to change the weather manually and it kind of blows.

The track design has also taken a downgrade IMO. 80% of tracks feel like they’re mostly made of sharp 90° turns. Like a lot of them. I really don’t remember having to deal with so many sharp turns in a Horizon title before and they all really a pain in the ass to drive through. The argument here is that it increases difficulty, which is true, but sharp turns are so abundant that they become more of an annoyance than a challenge. Unlike FM you really need to place your faith in the track designers and this time around it’s not really there.

While FH has always been plagued with a seasonal model for exclusive cars, it isn’t much better in 5, and feels arguably worse than 3. A lot of really cool cars are locked behind a single week of challenges and if you don’t play that week you’re shit out of luck until they decide to rerun that car. A lot of cool cars I’d like to race, like the ‘21 Countach, are inaccessible due to this. It really blows given half the point of Forza as a series is to drive really accurate recreations of cars you wont ever afford.

This being said, the UX is incredibly on point. If Forza consistently excels at one thing it’s that. Every car feels unique and true to life, engine sounds and controller feedback are fantastic, and the visuals are spot on per usual. This is partly why it stings so bad that you can’t easily access half the cool cars in the game. The game feels so good that it’s genuinely frustrating to be told you can’t get a car because x. It’s frustrating to be told you can’t access content at all, but moreso that the content they aren’t letting you access is that good.

EV’s are here too, now. Nothing against them, but mechanically they’re very boring. I like playing Forza games with manual on, and EV’s, much like real life, really only have one gear. Whenever Forza has an EV based challenge I’m basically forced to play a less fun version of the game. I would have appreciated some bullshit made up gear system for EV’s, but Forza isn’t really about that, I guess.

I think FH5 is really just a sign that Microsoft is getting lazy. As they are with a lot of their games. The tracks are getting bad, locations lacklustre, and even as good as the driving is, they’re still reusing models from as far back as Forza Motorsports *3*. FH5 leaves a lot to be desired. It also locks you out of a lot of desirable stuff. All things considered, it’s fine, but at this point I think we need to step back and realize that they should’ve just kept supporting FH3 until the engine fell apart.