Forza Horizon 5 continues to bewitch us during its Let’s ¡Go exhibitions! Playground Games has dropped off the suitcases of its new racing game in Mexico and intends to take us there from our sofa, from landscapes to tourist sites, to making us feel the roughness of the roads at the wheel. Let's discover together today the direction that the game's single-player campaign is taking.
The engine sings freedom
With its open world, the Forza Horizon series has always wanted to offer players the most pleasant freedom of action possible and with its fifth installment, Playground goes a step further further by allowing in particular to do the chapters of the Horizon festival in the order you want.
Each chapter is offered in a region of the game and will offer different challenges and races to complete as well as stories to complete. The Mexico City festival, for example, will require the restoration of an old car. And since each player will choose the chapter with which he wishes to start, each will therefore have a significantly different start to the game. Some will do their first hours near the beach while others will be more in off-road races through the forest. Different events and stories will be unique to each festival.
- Forza Horizon 5's colorful map
Always with the goal of encouraging exploration by rewarding it and adding a twist fun, Forza Horizon 5 introduces "Accolades". These are actually challenges to achieve which are also used to unlock chapters of the game. The number of points necessary to unlock a new chapter is then displayed at the top right of the screen and all you have to do is play and participate in events to get these points.
Some will prefer to participate in races, others in stories, expeditions or stunts... Again, the developers want everyone to be able to play Forza Horizon 5 as they see fit and unlock the chapters depending on his style of play. In any case, there will be points to be won in a wide variety of events so that everyone can find something for themselves.
Playground Games specifies that even when you have arrived at the Hall of Fame of the game, and therefore at the end of the main adventure, there will always be events and challenges to complete in the Accolades menu. In the video presentation of the concept, we could see a total of 1897 accolades to achieve, representing as many diverse and varied challenges in the game. Here are some figures as to the number of these challenges to be achieved in the game at launch:
Below are the six different festivals scattered around the corners of the Forza Horizon 5 map:
Exploration at the heart of the game and the enhanced car collection
The developers also took advantage of the Apex road racing festival to discuss expeditions, which are semi-guided events with a few cinematics which will allow you to discover the environments and new things about Mexico. An Apex Festival expedition, for example, will be a race during which a storm will rage along the road to the Mayan archaeological site of Tulum.
In terms of the lifespan of Forza Horizon 5, the developers promise us 20 chapters and specify that it will take between ten and twenty hours of play to come to end of the game's campaign. It will not be necessary to do all the challenges to get there, everyone can earn points in the disciplines they like to advance.
Playground has worked to bring Forza Horizon 5 closer to MMOs by placing all of its players on a single server and to encourage more interaction, the "Kudos" system has been introduced. These social points do not replace Forza points and rather reward friendly players, a J2 player who indicates the location of a barn following the request of J1 will, for example, receive some Kudos for his precious help.
Collectors of cars of all categories will be delighted by the new collection of cars which comes in the form of a "Panini" card album where they can admire their mobile trophies and at the same time get a new car at the touch of a button.
Never Alone in Horizon Valley
Online co-op is popular with Forza Horizon players and is making a comeback in Forza Horizon 5. It will be available very early in the game, after just a few chapters of the festival that ends in about twenty minutes.
To make it smooth, the studio has made the progression independent of Solo or Co-op. It will thus be possible to participate in races and other activities by going from solo to coop and vice versa without worrying about progress in one or the other of the modes. Either way, experience will be gained and items unlocked.
Tweaked driving
Forza Horizon is certainly an arcade game, but that does not prevent its developers from improving the driving experience to make it more faithful and enjoyable to the driving seat. The game will thus offer better force feedback to the steering as well as to the braking which varies according to its type, whether it is a disc or a drum brake and whether it is carbon or another material.
The calculations of the force feedback are all the more felt off-road where bumpy roads can be recognized right up to the steering wheel, the reactions of the suspensions have also been improved, as has the contact of the wheels with the surface depending on the quality of the latter (gravel, bitumen, etc.). Many options also allow you to adjust everything that revolves around the use of a steering wheel and a pedal set.
Playground Games has no plans to offer a demo of Forza Horizon 5 but promises to show gameplay on all platforms by release. Forza Horizon 5 will arrive with a bang on November 9, 2021 on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S with long-term parking planned in the Xbox Game Pass.
