Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure Review

Previous Forza Horizon games featured wild, toy-themed expansions rear Playground Games, developers of Forza Horizon 5, created a fantastic Hot Wheels addon last year. But after seven months of pounding orange plastic on clouds, the team has brought us back to the desert and dust for a new rally-themed race across fresh slabs of the Mexican countryside. . It’s certainly not very eye-catching – and set back from some significant tweaks to the progression system introduced in Hot Wheels – but the race against time with co-drivers is what Horizon It’s a great new way to race in, and the excellent maps are packed with routes that are much more technical than the main game.

This map, named Sierra Nueva by Playground, is a true highlight of the Rally Adventure. Probably deceptively so, given that the Snowy Blizzard Mountain DLC, for example, was from the core Forza Horizon 3, not immediately distinguishable from the main game itself. map. Sierra Nueva is a mix of six different environments that upon closer inspection looks like a different part of Mexico than where we’ve been driving since late 2021. There is new vegetation, and the Quarry-like zones don’t resemble those already in Horizon 5.

But Sierra Nueva’s real strength is its road network. Don’t be fooled by the initial popup that appears. It shows that there are only 32 roads. Many of these roads are long and technical, like Free Bird’s guitar solo. The best of them are characterized by tighter corners and more hairpins than the usual Forza Horizon 5 roads, plus more bumps and jumps and longer stretches between junctions.Sierra Nueva’s new dust effect also stands out, floating on dirt and gravel much longer than before.

After a strong opening drive where the route to the festival is jammed with campers on the way to the main hub, Rally Adventure splits the race into three threads. A little disappointing, rather than the gated class system that gave the Hot Wheels expansion a better sense of progression, it now has a little more freedom to participate. Adjust your classes accordingly. This is how I played, changing cars every about 30 events to have variety. I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by driving through everything in the fastest hypercar unless you’re here for a short amount of time instead of a good time.

Each event can be played two ways – either as a single car rallying against time or as a standard race against hordes of enemies, but a proper rally is the highlight. It’s not a particularly demanding simulation (and its frank pacing notes are enough to pull off the pick-and-play fun of her Sega Rally, the grandpa of the genre), but it’s an arcade-inspired addiction. It’s fun to be. Having your co-driver soar above you in a helicopter is also a cool touch. Not only does it look cool, it’s also a smart solution that explains why you’re still receiving co-driver audio in a single-passenger vehicle.