Forza Horizon 5 Reviews

Though it’s iterative in a lot of ways, Forza Horizon 5 is a near-faultless open-world racing experience that’s so sure of itself and its offerings that it goes the extra mile to sprinkle in the kinds of fan service that people go wild for. As a game it’s tremendous, but it’s also a brilliant, interactive postcard for a culture that is passionate about few things more than their country and their cars.

Forza Horizon 5 is an absolute treat on PlayStation 5, instantly catapulting itself into the lead for the best racing game available on the platform. This is a game you should be prepared to spend hundreds of hours in, collecting each and every car there is to find while racing to the finish line across countless races and events.

As we cruise around Mexico in a car emblazoned with Xbox logos and listening to Halo music on the radio, it's fair to say Forza Horizon 5 being on PS5 feels a little surreal.

Update [23 April 2025]: Hell has frozen over (for some), as Xbox mainstay Forza Horizon 5 is now playable on PS5 through early access ahead of a larger 29 April release. The PS5 version of Horizon 5 includes all DLC and the new Forza Realms update, and is perfect for PS5 players who’ve not experienced the title yet.

Forza Horizon 5 has finally landed on PS5 and it opens the roads for new players to experience this fantastic racing game. While it has a few visual hiccups, they are so minor and never distract players from the gorgeous and high-speed experience.

Forza Horizon 5 was well worth the wait for PS5 owners, who are getting the incredible racing game in its most content-rich state yet.

Forza Horizon 5 is an excellent arcade-type racer that puts the player first delivering a quality experience with a litany of modes, events, cars and some deep customisation/tuning options. If you are one of the many PlayStation players clambering for the long overdue return of the MotorStorm series, this is the closest you will presently get to realising that dream.

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It may well be more of the same, but Mexico beckons, ravishing the eye and devouring up the miles.

Forza Horizon 5 may not reinvent the wheel, but it sure does make balding tires as compelling and satisfying as ever.

Hot Wheels returns to Forza Horizon with more track types and an even larger map to speed through, but its strict progression is an unwelcome speed bump.

“Forza Horizon 5 doubles down on the series' winning formula to give players another hit racing game superpowered by next-gen tech.”

A perfect balance between arcade and simulation. Racing game of the year, no competition (at least until Forza Horizon 6 comes out).

Forza Horizon 5 looks phenomenal, plays well and is practically flawless. It is undoubtedly the best entry in the series and has the most detailed open world in any game to date.

Forza Horizon 5 is the natural evolution of the series so far - expanded, tweaked, and turned up to eleven. The result is a game that's been incrementally upgraded in the direction of perfection.

You just have to marvel at it. Playground Games’ fifth venture into the Horizon is the pinnacle of open-world racing.

It’s no surprise that Forza Horizon puts itself right into the mix with 2021’s Game of the Year contenders. Playground Games has been getting it right for a decade now. This is the definitive experience in the series so far, one that excels both on PC and the Xbox Series X. Minimal issues, such as server connectivity, fail to spoil the party that is just crammed with happiness and adventure.

Not the best racing game ever made, but a contender for best driving game. While perhaps overly familiar, everything here is very slick, refreshingly wholesome and easy-going.

Overall, Forza Horizon 5 somehow raised an insurmountable bar to new heights. Playground Games continued to show off their prowess with game development and their striving to make a game that is fun for every type of player in every aspect of gameplay. Regardless of if you’re a racing fan or not, if you have Game Pass, Forza Horizon 5 needs to be the next game you play. You never know, it could be the jumping-off point into a new genre that you never knew you’d click with.

Familiar, excellent, and polished to a degree that hardly seems possible. If you love taking vintage Porsches for joyrides through environments that’d have a poet bawling then you're going to be very happy here.

I used to think that it was impossible to improve upon Forza Horizon 4. I’m not saying I wasn’t expecting a sequel, as Microsoft’s executives need to put food on the table at the end of the day, but I never thought I’d ever play a sequel that would overshadow its predecessors in a way that made them look archaic in comparison. Then the Forza Horizon 5 trailer dropped during E3 2021 and made me want to believe in a miracle. I needed to play the damn thing and witness the impossible by ...

Forza Horizon has a new game set in the beautifully diverse country of Mexico so let's see if it does enough to warrant being a sequel.

Forza Horizon 5 is ultimately more of the same, but that's hardly a bad thing when it does the same thing so darn well.

This game is nearly perfect for me and there is no getting around that. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does make it smoother and faster than ever. Jaw-dropping graphics are paired with best-in-class handling and excellent audio. The story mode and progression is the best the series has had yet at this scale, and while the tone isn’t for me I didn’t find it nearly as annoying as the characters could be in FH4. Obviously, this game is on Game Pass as it is a first-party title, and with how successful the last game was I’m sure most of you will be checking this one out too. It is not only one of the best games to release this year, it is a true showcase of just what a “next-gen” title can be.

Forza Horizon 5 is a perfect marriage of the series’ best ideas so far, neatly planted in its most exciting and diverse location yet. For returning Forza players, there’s a combination of both major and subtle changes, from the fantastic improvements to car sounds to the intense dynamic weather options such as tropical storms and sandstorms. For new players, its once overwhelming litany of menus and activities have been streamlined, with easy-to-understand progression making it the most accessible Horizon entry yet.

Forza Horizon 5 is a superb racing game. Despite these slight niggles it still manages to put a beaming smile on my face every time I go hurtling off a danger sign, masterfully overtake the leader of a race to snatch the victory, or perfect a drift. It's easily one of the best looking games on the Xbox Series X, and it's extensive roster of cars and events will ensure it's engine keeps quietly ticking over for months on end. With an abundance of multiplayer options and seasonal content frequently releasing to offer more rewards for your podium finishes, it's the biggest and best Forza Horizon game you can play right now. Racing and Forza fans alike start your engines. It's time for a whole new Horizon festival that you simply can't miss out on.

Finally, EventLabs gives players an extensive suite of tools to build races and levels. This mode appears to have a lot of depth and even incorporates some basic programming but will likely go way over the heads of casual players. Expect some awe-inspiring creations from the hardcore community, though.

Xbox Game Studios, and Microsoft by extension, are starting to annoy me. Not in the way that you'd think, though. For quite a while, I ranged from a complete mistrust of the company to apathy. They had killed a fair few studios (Lionhead, Ensemble, Aces) while pushing games that were average at best compared to other things in the industry, driven more by people trying to justify a console choice than anything the games offered (Halo, Gears). Now, I can't even take my usual cynical approach because Xbox Game Studios are putting out great game after great game. The question then is: does Forza Horizon 5 keep up this streak?

Forza Horizon 5 is the greatest the open-world racing series has to offer.

A lot of Forza Horizon 5 feels similar to Forza Horizon 4 in a way previous Horizon games haven’t felt with their prequels, but Adventures bring unique storytelling and slight edutainment to the Horizon formula and if more Horizon’s are in the future, particularly ones not in Europe and America, it’s not a bad foundation to build on. Driving feels as good as it ever has and Playground Games absolutely succeeded in interpreting the beauty of Mexico. The seasonal model returns and it does a better job of incentivizing people to group up, but it’s still not quite enough to entice people to do activities like Forza Arcade.

Forza Horizon 5 is an amazing game, don’t get us wrong – if you’re a newcomer to the series you’ll likely have a blast, assuming you like car games. Returning fans though can expect a similar experience to past entries. For some, that’s where driver fatigue may very well set in. After five games, at this point, you could argue the series is no longer doing enough to protect its crown as the top open-world racer. It’s the same process of going to a festival, unlocking cars, racing a lot, levelling up and repeating the whole cycle. And the new additions - such as the EventLab - are more reliant on community efforts. It is mostly a flawless experience, but the lack of major evolution is how other franchises like Need for Speed fell behind in the first place. If the Forza Horizon series is to continue, it really needs to push the formula to new horizons. It would be great to see Playground really let loose with a future entry, as it's now getting a little too comfortable with the tried and tested template.

The feeling of true speed is something video games often get wrong. 200 mph should feel completely unhinged. As though every minor correction to your path is riskier than jumping out of a plane without a parachute. Forza Horizon 5 absolutely nails that feeling.

More of the same, and that's OK.

The implicit promise of Forza Horizon is in the name. You see something on the horizon, you can drive to it. Skyrim with cars. Far Cry with more cars and no guns. Forza Horizon 5, the latest game in the venerable Xbox racing series, is no more and no less than that promise—just bigger, brighter, and so, so much more beautiful than its predecessors.

There’s no other escapism quite like the one provided in Forza Horizon, the long-running open-world racing series that started as a spin-off of Forza Motorsport, but has now completely evolved into “its own thing”. Forza Horizon 4 has been wonderful running on the Xbox Series X, but now three years old, we’ve been chomping at the bit to take another trip to really see how the current generation of hardware can be pushed in the popular racer. Forza Horizon 5, set in the diverse and bea...

Since the spin-off series’ inception, Forza Horizon’s approachable and exciting racing action has appealed to a broad audience. Forza Horizon 5 continues this tradition of delivering stellar driving mechanics within a gorgeous destination, this time taking players to Mexico for one of the best, most expansive racing games I’ve ever played.

Forza Horizon 5 is the pinnacle of Playground Games' open world racing series, and in turn, one of the best racers you'll ever play.

There may not be much new in Forza Horizon 5 beyond its location, but that doesn’t stop it from being yet another action-packed, adrenaline-fuelled open world racing extravaganza. This is the biggest and best entry in the Forza Horizon series yet; it’s just lacking that spark of originality that has made each entry prior a clear step up from the one before it. But for the huge majority of players, that really won’t be an issue. Forza Horizon 4 raised the bar to an impressive height, and Forza Horizon 5 nudges it that bit higher. It’s hard to imagine how Playground Games will raise it substantially in a future Forza Horizon entry, but let’s hope it does find some magic, or the formula might become a little bit stale.

Forza Horizon 5 is like a greatest hits compilation of the entire Forza Horizon series. From the opening seconds when you're dropped from a cargo plane, to the moment you put down the controller, you’ll become transfixed by everything that Mexico has to offer. From racing through the cobbled streets of Guanajuato to flying off the side of La Gran Caldera, Forza Horizon 5 is a slice of sheer racing brilliance. Again.

Forza Horizon 5 is still an incredible racing game, one only overshadowed by the brilliance of its predecessor. Those with a lot of time behind the wheel in Forza Horizon 4 may feel this is one step forward for two steps back, but there's still a ton of fun to be had in this high-octane adventure.

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Forza Horizon 5 has carried the tradition of consuming my time inside a genre that normally doesn't interest me. Playground Games has displayed technical wizardry with this game and while it doesn’t change the formula to any significant extent, the experience found within Forza Horizon 5 is killer.

A reheated cutlet has never tasted so good. Or rather, he has never tasted a delicious tortilla or burrito before. Despite the lack of significant changes, the new Forza Horizon 5 looks amazing and does not let you break away from Mexican roads and wilderness.

Forza Horizon 5 is built to deliver hour after hour of glossy, beautiful fun. Hit the race mechanics as deeply as you like. Zip around the amazingly beautiful map in a Corvette for no reason at all. Find secrets. Build out your car collection. Get rich. Have a good time the way you want. Go anywhere, do anything, just don't skip this stellar game.

The best in the series so far, that embraces the open world approach in a way previous entries never quite did – while also being an endlessly enjoyable and highly varied arcade racer.

Forza Horizon 5 is flashy and vibrant. It packs in pretty much everything one could want out of a racing game, with a broad selection of cars, tracks, and challenges to complete. Its addition to Xbox Game Pass alone should be reason enough to try it, but it stands as one of the best Xbox exclusives out right now regardless. It might not do much to separate itself from the other entries mechanically, but Forza Horizon 5 is the best the series has felt yet.

Mechanically, Forza Horizon 5 is the best the series has ever been. All the cars feel fantastic to drive, and although Horizon has always hit that nice middle ground between simulation and arcade, this game really lets you lean more on one over the other if you prefer. You are unrestrained in how you choose to approach the game, and that still includes getting into the super nitty-gritty of your car where you can futz around with a bunch of car parts that I have no understanding of.

Forza Horizon 5 is a masterclass example of how to do an open-world racing game, bar none. Thanks to its deeply rich map, wealth of content, and fantastic visuals, it's the best racing experience I've had yet.