Forza Horizon 5 PS5 Review. Like Halo, Forza is an iconic Xbox series. Having released regular entries in the beloved franchise since its inception in 2005, the series is sub-divided into two main titles – Forza Motorsport, which is its SIM racing series, and the arcade racing offering, Forza Horizon.
Originally released on the PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S consoles back in 2021, Forza Horizon 5 is the latest entry in the Horizon series and the first ever instalment in the critically acclaimed racing franchise to make its way onto a PlayStation console. Is it worth the wait?
Forza Horizon 5 Review (PS5) – Motor-Storming Onto PlayStation
Viva La Festival
The game centres around a motoring festival known as the “Horizon Festival” and is a celebration of all things motor racing with events, music, fast cars and burning rubber. Now if like me you are a long time PlayStation player, the mention of a motor racing festival may be tickling your nostalgia for Motorstorm. Well, fire up Forza Horizon 5 on your PS5 and it won’t take long before you are hurtling down the side of a volcano reminiscing about how much fun Pacific Rift was with a big Monument Valley shaped grin on your face.
Do As You Please
The beauty of Forza Horizon 5 lies in the fact that it caters to a wide array of tastes, play-styles and skill levels. The XP system constantly rewards you for your driving regardless of how you fare. It encourages you to play as you like rather than shoehorn you into a particular path.
Once past the initial tutorial section you are free to go where you want, do what you want and drive how you want. Want to just explore around the map doing some crazy stuff, leaving a trail of destruction behind you? Go for it! Want to focus on the races and get into deep customisation and tuning of your cars? You can do that too. Fancy gathering up some real world buddies to enjoy the mayhem with? It’s just a few clicks away.
The design here is to foster fun in a vast motoring playground by giving the player a wealth of choice to enjoy the driving experience their own way.
Stunning Visuals
Right off the bat the game stuns with absolutely delicious visuals. The sheer scale of the map at your disposal is shown off with an insane draw distance that stretches as far as the eye can see. The environments, cars, weather effects and lighting throughout are outstanding. Playground Games should be applauded for delivering a highly realistic presentation that is rarely seen in arcade racing games.
Making this world feel alive the game features not only a day/night cycle but also a dynamic weather system. Incoming storms can be seen in real-time crossing the landscape. See a sandstorm in the distance for example and you can put the foot down and drive your whip directly into the violent dust devil.
Players have the choice of Performance (60 FPS) or Quality (30 FPS) settings for the visuals. One visual anomaly throughout my experience was detail pop-in, especially noticeable on trees, plants and vegetation. While it’s not a deal breaker it is quite prominent in certain areas.
The Joy Of Discovery
With the game having a sort of RPG element to it, you need to travel across the map discovering roads, events, locations, challenges and uncovering hidden items. This is all done while earning accolades in the aforementioned XP system so even the drive between events sees you continue to progress and level up your rank.
You may just come across a shed which contains a doer-upper and after a little TLC you are left with a nice legendary car to add to your growing collection. So getting off the beaten path and spending some time just roaming the countryside can pay off handsomely.
There is also a d-pad quick menu called Forza Link. When you are in certain spots on the map, this system will suggest and recommend different ways to play that may be of interest to you.
Finely Balanced
The development team have managed to perfectly balance the amount of realism in physics and handling whilst keeping things approachable and fun. Should you be finding things are way too easy there are a slate of tweaks to be made to the gameplay. One of the stand outs here is the ability to change tyres from cosmetic items to realistic degradation. It’s great to see such effort put into having such a custom experience for individual tastes and skill levels.
Likewise the balance of different ways to play along with the varied events offers players an assortment of experiences to extend the longevity of their Forza Horizon 5 adventure.
One nice addition in the future would be to add DualSense specific features, like use of the speaker, haptics and adaptive triggers. This would further elevate the experience and give PlayStation players some of the features they have become accustomed to.
Pay It Forward
To promote the growth of a positive online community, the game encourages gifting rewards to other players and also gives you the option to tip the hat to players you race with that you think do a good job. It’s selfless acts like this that help to improve the experience for all players. Positivity breeds positivity and your acts of kindness may just make someone’s day in real life.
Creativity
Leading on from the push for a positive community are options to share liveries you’ve created, your tuning setups for different vehicles and to create custom events/challenges for real world players to get their hands on. The liveries and setups in particular might be of interest to players who don’t want to get into the nitty-gritty of the deeper customisation elements. This allows them to grab some cool looking paintwork or get the benefit of knowledge from experienced players on best setups to use.
This is all round fantastic fun and a really enjoyable experience that will keep you coming back for more. Grab your keys and buckle up for a wild ride as Forza Horizon 5 is the pinnacle of arcade racing games.
Forza Horizon 5 releases April 29 on PS5 (April 25 – Early Access Premium Edition owners).
Review code kindly provided by publisher.