If you’ve never heard of Forza Horizon (do you live in a cave?), It’s an arcade-style racing game set in an open world that’s as big as it is engaging. The story is relatively simple: pilots from all walks of life come together to Take part in a fictitious and delusional festival of speed and race against customizable car wheels, often in the middle of the streets, but also on completely improbable roads and other terrain. Victories and progress in this vast universe allow you to earn rewards to unlock new races and a host of new events.

For this fifth installment of the “Horizon” saga, the player plays the main star of the previous festival that took place in the United Kingdom. Your special rank entitles you to join the organizers and thus explore new locations and new missions, as well as participate in events like all other competitors. After this novelty in the narrative, this work follows in the footsteps of its predecessors in offering total freedom to the player to walk, compete or even drift on a map with the condensed air of Mexico, a little bigger than the one in the previous part. In total, there are 6 different and representative biomes of the country, which players will have the pleasure of exploring with all 520 licensed vehicles offered by this new Forza Horizon.

On the technical side, let’s first observe that the newborn of Playground Games studios is at the height of the latest generation consoles, without suffering its cross-gen adaptability between the Xbox One / X / S or on PC. From the first hours of play, the sound and visual environment transports us. The landscapes are varied and sumptuous, the lights great and the sounds of the engines faithfully reproduced. Oh my gosh, it’s a treat for the eyes and ears!

No disruption in the gameplay department. The real evolutions are felt rather on the side of the behavior of the vehicles that evolve differently depending on the terrain on which they evolve: asphalt, mud, sand … In addition, all The cars do not react the same, which will cause the player to be careful when selecting a mount for their race.. The other great novelty is the dynamic weather which can at times become more than capricious and play a problematic role for the drivers. Obviously it’s more difficult to drive a 500 horse race car in pouring rain or in the middle of a sandstorm … Good news for beginners though, the aids and difficulty level can be customized at will , allowing players of all skill levels. to find your account there.

Verdict

This new Forza Horizon 5 is a total success. Fun awaits you, the superb and immense playground, and the contents are rich and very varied. Between the modeling of the vehicles, the textures, the beauty of the landscapes, and the accessibility of the game, it’s almost flawless. Rich in many novelties, this work nonetheless builds on the series’ achievements and gives hope that more risks will be taken for subsequent ones.

We love :

• Map diversity
• Accessibility and handling
• Sound and graphic atmosphere
• Personalization as desired

We like less:

• No big risks on the part of the developer
• Without great evolution in the gameplay.