Forza Horizon 5 - PlayStation 5 - Review

For years now, I have adored the Horizon series from Xbox, as the open world and countless driving modes, just offers a variety of things to do. When I reviewed Forza Horizon 5 on Xbox Series X I said that the game was the most polished version yet and offers a remarkable adventure through Mexico. Some 3.5 years later the game is now coming to PlayStation 5, so my question racing into this one, would the game that I have hundreds and hundreds of hours in, be just as much fun on a new console?

Yes, very much so. There is no need to beat around the bush here, Forza Horizon 5 on PlayStation 5 is an incredible version of an incredible game. The game begins with that fun opening sequence and then, its time to build your Horizon Festival. That is the big hook for the game, as you complete races, pr stunts and more, you earn accolades. These can be as simple as drifting for a set distance or completing a multi-race championship. What it means is that if you are not someone who wants to take part in street racing at night, you don’t have to, you can earn your accolades another way. Once you have earnt enough, your festival will level up and you get to choose the next destination for it. The opening area grants a few races and pr stunts, but the next location is on you, this is also where you get to shape what you do. If you elect to build the Baja outpost, then you will get more off-road racing, whereas if you go for the Apex outpost, then you get more circuit-based racing.

Progression being tied to your actions is actually a clever system and it still works as great here as it did when the game first released. The game also offers a number of story-based missions you can undertake; these vary depending on the person, but like everything else there are 3 stars you can earn while doing them. Between the original release of the game and now, Playground Games did add some extra story missions to the game, so there is even more to do now and that is before you go online. With my playing the game before the servers were live, there were very few people rolling about that were exclusively PlayStation 5, but the game does support cross-play, so I could still have some fun there, but there is more to do now.

Realms is not a new mode, but rather a new way of experiencing some classic modes. The games main multiplayer offerings are still co-op for the race events, Horizon Arcade for those crazy moments and so on, but Realms is different. Over the years, Forza Horizon 5 was updated with limited time playgrounds, each with various themes and players could race on them for a limited time. Realms brings back eleven of the most popular of those spaces and adds in one all-new mode. Just to be clear, apart from the new Stadium track, all the others have been added to the game before, they are just now playable at any time you choose. What I liked about the Realms addition is that I was able to replay on a few that I liked but also enjoy some I never got to enjoy the first time around. Each realm can be played in free drive, or you can challenge yourself and others by banking the most skill points and of course, each space has accolades to earn, which helps your progress in the festival.

There was something weird that I found, my Xbox stats carried across. Ok, so in order to play the game you need a Microsoft account, easy enough to get one if you don’t have it, but I do. I signed in and thought nothing further on it, but then when I scored 2 stars on the first speed trap I went through, I noticed a little while later that on my map it said 3 stars and my top speed was well past what my car could do. I figured maybe its an odd glitch and moved on, but later on as the count of roads driven on increased, the game would tell me 50 roads out of the 500+, but then when comparing to a friend, it would tell me I had them all. It seems that my top scores in all PR stunts, barn finds, races and discoveries are all being included in the PlayStation 5 version, but only in the totals, not in the game itself. It is just a weird thing to see and I am sure there won’t be many folks that encounter it, but still, weird.

Something I was curious about coming into this version was going to be the performance, because while both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 are quite similar in spec, they are not the same. For a racing game I opted to start it in performance mode and that meant 60fps and the game stayed there. To ensure a fair comparison I also put the game into quality mode and while it dropped the frame rate down to 30fps, both modes looked fine. If you read my original review, you will notice how I pointed out that both modes have pop in on items and cars and that still holds the same here. Honestly, outside of all the extra content and expansions, Forza Horizon 5 on PlayStation 5, reminds me exactly of how the game launched on Xbox Series X.

On the audio side of things, the game is the same, again outside of the extra radio stations. The game launched with a good line up, but the expansions and seasons did bring a few more stations, for me Horizon Wave was all-new, but the variety of music genres is pleasant. Just like the original Xbox release, the mix still favours the car over the music.

Forza Horizon 5 on PlayStation 5 is an amazing release; the amount of content that is included boggles the mind. Not only do you have the base game, but there are also two decently sized expansions in Rally Adventure and Hot Wheels, plus some 30+ seasons of content to enjoy and now Realms. What really matters though is that the gameplay is near flawless again, I picked up the DualSense controller and was able to drift around corners without any hassles. If you have been watching those on Xbox and PC enjoy the game, worry not as the PlayStation 5 release is just another way to enjoy a game that is pure fun.

The Score

9.0

Review code provided by Xbox

The Pros

The gameplay is still just as fun as ever

The amount of content in the game, before the expansions is insane...

The Cons

... the game does sort of dump everything on players early on

The same graphical issues still persist which is weird