Recent reviews by lis

It's everything good about Hades but improved, expanded and polished to a greater level.

A masterpiece.

pog

FH5 is basically an improvement over FH4 in every single way. Playground Games have taken user feedback from FH4, its 2 expansions and its live program and implemented it in FH5 to improve the experience. Looking at FH4, it's very likely that this game will also be supported for around the same time.


The visuals have received a significant improvement over FH4 with the inclusion of higher fidelity car models and world geometry made with photogrammetry. The new Global Illumination system provides more accurate lighting in most conditions. The 12K skies captured on location are back in FH4 with 10 times the sky presets available in FH4 providing a wide variety conditions to drive in. Ray Tracing is available only in Forzavista but can be enabled in gameplay with a Cheat Engine hack. Notably with all these improvements over FH4, the spec requirements are still relatively modest with the game performing well even on dated hardware without sacrificing too much on quality.
SFX have received a big improvement over FH4 with higher quality recordings as well as a greater number of them providing a lot more unique sounds to the wide selection of cars. Car upgrades now affect the sound of a car, meaning cars sound a lot more unique as every player customises their car differently. Ray traced audio has also been implemented; bouncing sound off of the environment (tress, rocks, mountains etc.) to provide realistic echoes and low tones. One of the important features of any Horizon game is the soundtrack and PG have curated an excellent selection of tracks along with many original tracks made in collaboration with artists they've worked with in the past specifically for the game. All the radio stations from FH4 are back with Timeless being rebranded to Eterna.


The handling model is the most important aspect of any racing game. Horizon has always followed the simcade approach, providing simplicity to casual players and complexity to experienced players. FH5 improves on the handling model by making the cars feel more weighty and responsive and the new changes to the suspension model makes it easier to drive off road. Wheel support has also received a big improvement, adding support for more wheels. However hand over hand steering is still missing. Driving modes and raising/lowering the roof in convertibles in freeroam has been added, however currently the feature is limited to very few cars and hopefully the number will increase in time.
The new weather events in the form of Tropical Storms and Dust Storms make the world feel more Dynamic and add interesting challenges to the gameplay by affecting visibility and traction. These storms can be seen from a distance and players can choose to drive into them or avoid them. The same is true with the Seasons system. Previously in FH4, players were forced to play in snow or rain depending on the season. However, in FH5, snow and rain are limited to certain parts of the map allowing players to opt out of them.
Expanding on Blueprints and Super 7 from FH4, the new Events Lab feature gives even more control over custom game modes and props to users allowing for even greater user generated content to be made. Events Lab allows players to set their own game rules and create actions using If-Then type actions .


The campaign is now called Horizon Adventure and adds a lot more progression compared to previous games. Players must earn accolades which are like mini achievements for completing various actions in the game which then unlock points that can be redeemed on various activities that further the campaign. The way that it's been set up allows players to earn accolades from any activity they liked doing and are not forced to do activities they don't like. Accolades provide incentive for players to play the game in different ways and explore activities they usually don't indulge in. The accolades leaderboard encourages competition amidst players to rise the ranks.
The season system returns from FH4 with a slight redesign to adapt to the new location. The traditional seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, are now simplified and called Hot, Wet, Storm, and Dry. The festival playlist which ties in to the week long seasons is back with a few tweaks and the promise of including user generated content and making more substantial changes to the game world such as the world makeover for Christmas, adding snowmen and presents to smash around the world.


Online Adventure is now called the Horizon Open and does not feature ranked racing (might change in the future). Eliminator has been added into Horizon Open, which is the battle royale game mode first introduced in FH4 and quickly became the most played online game mode. Horizon Tour is a new game mode which involves Team vs Team racing against AI. The extremely long loading times in FH4 sadly carry over to this game along with the inability to mute in-game voice chat. Whether the new handling model changes makes AWD and meta car builds less over powered will only be made clear with time. Forzathon Live events from FH4 have now been renamed to Horizon Arcade with some changes. The changes made to Arcade has made it unplayable as the lack of participating players combined with the small time limit and big score requirements makes completing the event almost impossible. As of the time of writing this review players are expecting connection issues which should be fixed soon.


The game has 3 editions on offer- Standard, Deluxe and Premium. Standard and Premium offer the best value with Deluxe only adding the Car pass over the standard edition. If you're new to the franchise, the standard edition offers the best value. If you're a Horizon veteran and know you're going to put in a ton of hours in, Premium could save you some money on DLCs you'll end up buying anyway if you bought the Standard edition.


FH5 can be seen as a refinement of the formula that worked so well for past Horizons. One of the best handling models in any arcade style racing game, breathtaking visuals and a soundtrack to complement it. Mexico as the new location is a great choice, providing a wide variety of environments combined with the new weather events adding more dynamicity. With this being Playground Games' 2nd live service program, and their history of listening to community feedback, the game is sure to improve over time and receive new and interesting content over its lifetime.

tl;dr If you liked FH4, you'll love FH5. If you're new to Horizon games, this is a great one time experience even if you don't stick with the game but chances are you'll get addicted. Also skip the Deluxe edition.

Update: This game deserved to be nominated for GOTY if not win the award.

Since I've never owned a console, I had little to no experience playing a Forza game. So when this game launched on Steam I had to try it out. Many describe this game as a 'Car-PG', which is a very accurate description. It includes subtle lifestyle features like character customization and purchasing homes, reminiscent of the Test Drive Unlimited series. Unlike other arcade games of its era it chooses to have a mix between a simulation and an arcade experience; providing casual players a simple experience while having the more technical aspects and complexity available to the hardcore players such as with the Tuning system.

This game has to be one of the most stunning looking games out there. The game looks excellent for its relatively modest performance requirements. It manages to run at 60 fps on High-Ultra settings on my 6 year old PC at the time of this review. Subsequently the game produces some of the most realistic screenshots using the in-game photo mode. I have personally taken hundreds of photos in-game and still keep taking more frequently. The lighting, weather and season system keeps the game always looking fresh. Using 12K recordings of real UK skies they were able to achieve realistic looking skies and lighting through around 300 unique weather and lighting presets. The map manages to recreate the UK well through a condensed scaled down map capturing the essence and the greatest vistas the UK can offer.
The SFX are mediocre in this game. The sound quality is not exceptional and nor are there many of them to provide unique sounds to every car in the game. The engine sounds become forgettable after spending a few hours playing the game since a lot of cars sound very similar. The music selection in this game, on the other hand, is brilliant. Providing users with 6 different radio stations featuring genres such as Pop, Hip-Hop, Rock, Electronic and Classical. All of which are perfectly curated to provide the best driving experience. However, the limited number of songs does make it repetitive and make you want to disable the radio and put on your own songs in the background after a while.


The simcade approach they've chosen to go with provides the right experience for all kinds of players. The variety in cars is one of the standout features of the game. While it includes the usual supercars, hypercars and sports cars it also includes many common everyday vehicles you'd expect to see. The game also provides different experiences in the form of Road Racing, Off-Road Racing, Drag Racing, Drifting etc. The tuning and livery design systems are designed very well and the game allows the community to share their own designs and tunes for anyone to use which reward the creators as well.
Probably the biggest gameplay feature of the game is the live service update system through 'Forzathon'. The game is divided into 4 seasons which last a week each and 4 seasons make up a 'Series' which lasts a month. Through Forzathon, new content is delivered to players through the form of new events, cars and other items. This is a big reason why the game managed to keep players around for years.

For new players who are not familiar with Forza Horizon games, it can be quite daunting to get into. Since the game takes an open approach, letting players play the way they want to since the very start, meaningful progression takes a back seat. One can start driving the fastest hyper cars within a few hours of starting the game, providing very little incentive to spend any time in lower tier cars which takes away from the experience the devs intended to provide. Another difficulty new players can experience is the lack of guidance in the campaign. Since the game never pushes you towards any activities it makes it difficult to know what the end goal is in the game.

The multiplayer experience in this game is far from perfect. Online races are riddled with rammers who create a bad experience for players looking to race cleanly. Although many updates have been made to the game since launch to remedy this issue, it has not completely fixed it. The game also discourages the use of its vast collection of cars and limiting your options to a few 'meta cars'. These meta cars provide a distinct advantage to players who use them. Leaving players to choose between using the cars they want and losing frequently regardless of skill, or using one of the meta cars and playing lobbies with every player using the same car and occasionally winning.
The Horizon Life feature is a well made one. It puts you into an online lobby with real players who show up in free roam. Players have the option to create 'convoys', so they can join their friends and play around in free roam as well as initiate different events.

For long time racing fans who love to put tens or hundred of hours into a game, the ultimate edition is typically the best option. It provides access to the 2 DLC expansions as well as a large number of cars and other minor benefits. The DLCs can add around 10-20 hours of content each. For more casual players the standard edition is a good deal letting players who really enjoy the game opt in to buy the DLC later if they want to.
Basically, skip the Deluxe edition and you can't go wrong with it.

FH4 captures what made the series successful by providing a fun experience to casual and experienced players at the same time. It also delivers an excellent graphical experience while being a well optimized game running on older/slower hardware. The multiplayer experience of the game is far from perfect. While Horizon Life works very well, letting you join other players, Online Adventures on the other hand are plagued with rammers and meta cars taking away the diversity in the game in terms of cars.
Overall the game provides a unique and relaxing experience to players who love driving, featuring a wide variety of cars, beautiful vistas and the perfect soundtrack to accompany it which is its greatest strength.

Really good game. Would recommend for racing sim fans

not so gud game

played it a little bit..... pretty good