Forza Horizon 5 just released on Xbox Game Pass on Tuesday 9th November at 12:01AM (GMT).However, the Premium Edition included Early Access so for those who ordered Forza Horizon 5 Premium Edition were able to play on November 5th.The game launched on several platforms including Steam, PC and Xbox Play Anywhere.The game officially released on the 9th November and on the 10th November, Xbox boss Phil Spencer revealed the game has already amassed 4.5+ million players.With the game being the largest launch day for an Xbox Game Studio ever, what did it do to gain such a positive response.
The game is set in vibrant Mexico, completely different to Forza Horizon 4 which was set in Great Britain which was essentially just a drizzly countryside. The map contains several different biomes including a swamp, Guanajuato City, jungle, Volcano and you can even drive into massive dust storms. From open roads for drifting freely to tight maze-like streets allowing for a unique driving experience. The map is the largest of the 5 Horizon Games driving at 150mph from coast to coast in a straight line would take 7-8 minutes this is without adhering to the roads. The map overall is a lot more beautiful than its predecessor with sandy shorelines, crystal clear seas, ancient Mayan structures and dense jungles.
Forza Horizon 5 improved on nearly everything since the last game including the quantity and variety of cars. Forza Horizon 4 launched with 460 cars which was then expanded on eventually reaching over 750 cars in the game. On the other hand Forza 5 released with 505 cars at launch not including the 18 Forza Edition cars and 5 welcome pack cars which total to 528 cars and will definitely gain more overtime. As well as increasing the quantity of cars they also increased the quality of sound the cars produced. The PlayGround Games team recorded over 320 new car engine sources, which they used to create an authentic sound for vehicles in the game. In the last Forza Horizon users complained that the sound created by the vehicles were inaccurate and sounded artificial. PlayGround Games have listened to the fan base and rectified this problem as well as making the audio ray traced. Meaning vehicle sounds will dynamically changed depending on the surrounding environment.
The gameplay has remained relatively similar however, that doesn’t mean its a bad thing since the physics and challenges available in Forza Horizon 4 were done pretty well. The cars handled themselves believably and there were a variety of types of races such as road,dirt,street and drag races.There’s still much to do in the game from barn finds to smashing bonus board locations.However,there has been a new addition, Accolades similar to influence points they are a means to level up and unlock new events and expand your festival.But whilst collecting Accolades you can unlock bonus rewards for completing certain milestones.There is a maximum of 1,876 total Accolades available to collect by doing challenges such as discovering all 56 landmarks in the game which rewards you with the Porsche Taycan Turbo S or getting 3 stars in every speed trap allowing you access to the Lexus LFA. Accolades make the game much more interactive as you are constantly gaining and unlocking new rewards for just cruising around.