Forza Horizon 5 (PS5) review

Ever since its introduction way back in 2012, the Forza Horizon series has been at the forefront of the open world racing genre. And with every iteration, it has simply gotten better, taking players to new locations, giving them more freedom, and giving them access to new content and features. Released back in 2021, Forza Horizon 5 is the newest and arguably best in the series. It’s also the first to make to make its way to PS5.

Inviting players to a stunning recreation of Mexico to take part in a festival that celebrates a multitude of vehicular antics, Forza Horizon 5 offers a near-infinite amount of four-wheeled (and sometimes three-wheeled) fun. At the start of this adventure, while you’ll have full access to the vast map, only a small number of events will be available to you. But as you set about completing these, and engaging in other tasks in order to complete Accolades, you’ll be able to expand the festival, opening up yet more events, activities and features until you feel like a kid in a candy shop.

It’s perhaps Forza Horizon 5’s biggest strength that it truly is up to you how you progress through its sizeable campaign. There are Accolades to be earned for just about anything. Just want to cruise around the world? You can unlock Accolades simply by visiting locations and discovering roads and dirt tracks. Love pulling off stunts? Soup up your car and go for it. And of course, there are a huge number of racing events to complete if you like a bit of competition, set on both asphalt and dirt tracks.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, really. Activities in Forza Horizon 5 also include multi-episode stories in which you’ll need to beat specific times to earn a maximum of three stars per episode, Showcase events that pit you against outlandish opponents such as planes and monster trucks, and weekly seasonal events to keep you coming back for more. Though it’s only once you’ve fully expanded the Festival and reached the Hall of Fame that Forza Horizon 5 fully opens itself up to you.

Needless to say, there’s a huge amount of content here. There was already a great deal at launch, and PS5 gamers get the benefit of nearly four years’ worth of content updates right from launch. This include multiple new stories for players to make their way through, a new Hide and Seek multiplayer mode, and Forza Horizon Realms, a quick and easy way to revisit a collection of world-changing events, where players can either compete to see how many skill points they can earn in an allotted time, or simply free-roam alone or with others.

My only real complaint about Forza Horizon 5 when it launched on Xbox and PC back in 2021 was that it didn’t do all that much to differentiate itself from its predecessor, aside from taking players to a new part of the world. Content additions since launch have somewhat addressed this, however, allowing the game to fully stand on its own two feet and feel more impressive than ever. And on PS5, there are even more improvements to take into consideration.

For a start, there’s DualSense support. Haptic feedback makes trailblazing around the world of Forza Horizon 5 simply more immersive, and so does the game’s use of the adaptive triggers. It’s PS5 Pro gamers that will get the best out of this release, however. On a standard PS5 you can choose between favouring Performance or Quality when it comes to the game’s visuals, two modes which pretty much match those offered the Xbox Series X. But on PS5 Pro, these are both bolstered. The Performance mode on PS5 Pro effectively offers Quality mode at 60fps, making for a truly stunning gameplay experience. The upgraded Quality mode, on the other hand, adds ray-tracing into the mix, but it’s not worth the hit to performance. 60fps is where it’s at here.

Whichever way you look at it, Forza Horizon 5 is a real treat on PS5. For years, PlayStation owners have had to make do with open world racers that have tried to compete with the Forza Horizon series but have simply failed, though The Crew Motorfest put up a good fight. But that’s now a thing of the past; with the arrival of Forza Horizon 5 on Sony’s latest console, a new legion of gamers can finally see what all the fuss was about, and they won’t be disappointed. Whether you enjoy racing against the CPU, taking on others online, or simply larking around an open world in a supercar, Forza Horizon 5 will have you grinning from ear to ear. One of the best racing games ever made has just found a new home.