Image: Playground Games/Xbox Game Studiosĭriving any event cleanly and finishing it successfully, even if it’s a bone-rattling, top-speed plunge through La Gran Caldera’s rubble-strewn alluvial fan, is easy enough. Standard and sim steering, even with stability assist engaged, still had enough play for me to initiate and continue drifts. Only when I used “arcade” steering did I feel like I was fighting against a vehicle constantly trying to re-center itself, as is typical in Need for Speed and similar series. (And the visual information, at 60 frames per second, is smooth and responsive enough to provide a sense of momentum without motion.) This was clear from the preview, where I found that racing got better if I turned off the traction and stability assistance.Ī lighter approach is key when driving in Forza Horizon 5. In terms of pick-up-and-play usability, it’s better than any motorsports simulation I play, too. The range of control and freedom to delegate it, from just a modest set of options and adjustments, is better here than in any other arcade or action-style racing game. Road racing could mean a lot of technical cornering requiring something practical, like a rally car or it could be out on the highway, where the pure speed of a Koenigsegg, Pagani, or Bugatti hypercar can be brought to bear.īut whichever way I chose to drive, the handling in Forza Horizon 5 supported me.
All of this terrain meaningfully differentiates the action, sometimes within a racing series run with the same vehicle three times. įorza Horizon 5 immediately stuns with its jungles, swamps, and beaches. If you want to see the very best of the best for your platform(s) of choice, check out Polygon Essentials. When we award a game the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the title is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive or fun - and worth fitting into your schedule. Polygon Recommends is our way of endorsing our favorite games.
The key is knowing how to navigate the game’s expansive offerings, without drowning or getting distracted by the heft of them. Forza Horizon 5 is both the best game in the series, and a reminder of how good everything preceding it was. The arid canyons, above-the-treeline mountain roads, and rolling farmlands all feel like a reunion with what Playground Games did so brilliantly - and did with an Xbox 360 - nine years ago. Forza Horizon was set in Colorado, and much of that state was created from what was once Mexico, after all. Mexico, the setting for Forza Horizon 5, is both a quasi-return to the series’ origins, and the best execution of a racing open world to date. But no other racer has ever made me feel like my mind’s-eye recollection of a highway sunset, a woodsy switchback, or a tree farm’s precisely planted rows riffling by like a thousand dictionary pages was anything other than a lived memory. It’s a fictional representation of a real place, and in some cases, I’ve never set foot in the country inspiring it. It’s the uncanny sense of place I get from the setting. In five editions spread out over a decade, Forza Horizon’s most distinguishing quality is not high-fidelity visuals, a deep fleet of stylish cars, or immersive handling and acceleration.