Forza Horizon 5

Game review by Chad Sapieha, Common Sense Media
Forza Horizon 5 Poster Image

Common Sense says

age 10+

Accessible open-world racer encourages social gaming.

Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S 2021
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Parents say

age 6+

Based on 1 review

Kids say

age 6+

Based on 22 reviews

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A Lot or a Little?

The parents' guide to what's in this game.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Forza Horizon 5 is an open-world racing game for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs. This 2021 game in the Forza racing franchise puts players in the role of a star driver helping to introduce the Forza Horizon racing festival -- a collection of races, challenges, and other car-focused events -- to Mexico. This driver can be customized as the player likes, including gender, pronouns, skin tone, and even limb prosthetics. The high-speed racing action is set in an open world rather than closed circuits, which means players zoom through towns and in and out of civilian traffic, often getting into high-speed accidents. No one's ever killed or even injured, but the lack of consequences may give young drivers the wrong impression about the dangers of street racing. Parents should be aware that real-world brands feature prominently throughout, including dozens of car and auto parts manufacturers as well as consumer brands painted on vehicles. Players can also use real money to purchase additional in-game items, such as car packs and a treasure map. The Hot Wheels Expansion promotes the history of Hot Wheels cars, tracks, and content. It also features a new section themed and branded around the popular toy line, which could get players and fans interested in checking out the toys in real life.

Community Reviews

iced327
iced327 Adult
March 15, 2022
age 6+

Just driving, lots of driving, and more driving - and that's what makes it great.

This is a "driving" game more than a "racing" game, and that's kind of a positive. Yes, there is racing and competition, but the thrill of Forza Horizon is that you can pick from hundreds of amazing cars and just drive around this huge area - on roads, through dirt, up mountains, through grass - ANYWHERE. There is a story but it's mostly optional and it's always positive. The main character helps another honor her family's love of cars, there's friendly trash-talking about racing that always ends in characters bonding over their love of cars. It's almost awkwardly positive at times, but that makes it approachable to players of any age. But at its core, this is a forgiving and fun driving game. The driving physics are fine-tuned and realistic, but the world physics are meant to be unobtrusive to the driving, meaning you can easily plow through telephone poles and fences without losing any speed. But you can also drive off cliffs, hit the ground, and just keep going, so it's very clearly implied that this isn't how cars actually work and wouldn't give the false impression to a player that this is a "safe" way to drive. The fact that you can drive anywhere, all the time, is part of the fun. It's the kind of game where you could hand the controller to a young kid and they would have fun watching the trees go by at 150mph but not be bombarded with consumerism or violence or anything negative. It's neither an educational game nor a violent or offensive game. You pick a car, you drive it everywhere, you pick a different car, repeat. Easily accessible, fun to play.

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Easy to play/use
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What’s It About?

FORZA HORIZON 5, the 2021 offering in a series of games spun off from the original Forza Motorsport series designed to reach an audience beyond just serious racing sim fans, brings the franchise's famed (but fictional) racing festival to Mexico. The player's avatar -- a customizable racing idol recruited to promote the festival -- arrives in style, behind the wheel of a car dropped by parachute into the festival grounds, where they immediately begin zipping through rainforests, careening down the side of a mountain, cutting across the desert, and skirting waterfalls. Once this introductory race ends, the world is open for exploration. Players can freely race around hundreds of square miles containing nearly 600 roads and an enormous variety of events, including dirt races, speed challenges, multiplayer championships, drifting events, and more. Gradually unlocked story events progress the festival narrative, unlocking outposts and introducing players to key festival characters, but the bulk of the game is the seemingly endless collection of racing activities dotting the map for players to find. Nearly every aspect of play is customizable. You can alter AI difficulty and which driving assists to use, upgrade and tune cars, choose whether to play solo or to go up against human opponents, and even create and publish your own courses for others to try. As the game progresses, the player's garage will fill with hundreds of authentic cars, each of which can be assigned skill points earned for stylish driving, improving the rewards you receive while using that particular car. This is a massive racing game, with scores of hours of activities and content plus ongoing multiplayer challenges. This has only been broadened with the release of the Hot Wheels expansion pack, which brings the festival high above the canyon floors and mountains of Mexico into the clouds, with miles of orange tracks suspended in the air. Players will be able to race in Hot Wheels vehicles, complete new story missions and challenges, and even have the option to build their own courses thanks to the EventLab feature, giving the option to snap track and stunt pieces together.

Is It Any Good?

If there's a racing game meant for everyone, this is it. Forza Horizon 5 is wonderfully welcoming, featuring instantly intuitive controls and a collection of cinematic events and activities bound to drop the jaws of both racing rookies and seasoned gearheads. Whether you're drifting around dirt tracks in the jungle, hitting ludicrous speeds on the drag strip, or engaging in wild one-off events racing against airplanes and people in wingsuits, it seems like there's always something new to do that takes full advantage of the game's lush setting and extraordinary driving physics, which can be made as realistic or as arcade-like as the player prefers. Indeed, with a bit of tweaking in the settings menu, even first-time racers should be able to handle some of the game's fastest and wildest vehicles. Hard-core racing fans, meanwhile, can adjust these same settings to create a deeply realistic simulation-style experience, fine-tuning each of their cars exactly how they like.

What really makes Forza Horizon 5 special, though, is that there's never a wasted second. No matter what you're doing -- working through a series of story races, exploring the countryside looking for a barn containing a rare car, or just driving across the map from one event to the next -- you're constantly being rewarded for every drift, near miss, and smashed street sign, earning experience, skill points, and chances to spin the game's prize wheel to obtain new cars and more credits. It's a powerfully satisfying feedback loop that (for better or worse) makes it very hard to put down the controller. Add in gorgeous graphics -- this may be the prettiest Xbox Series X/S game yet -- and an enormous array of social multiplayer opportunities, including team-based arcade challenges that see groups of players working together toward a single goal, and you've got a game that players are bound to keep playing for months, if not longer. This has been further extended thanks to the Hot Wheels expansion pack, bringing the sprints, drifts, and other activities high into the clouds in a fantasy environment built out of Hot Wheels tracks. It's awesome to tear around volcanoes, soar through giant racing loops, and get your vehicle accelerated thanks to boost pads scattered across the track. But even cooler, there's so much lore and history provided about the toys and cars that even if you weren't a fan of them before, you will become one shortly after tearing across each course. What's better is the fact that you also have the EventLab where you can build your own challenges with stunt pieces and tracks, which feels like it was borrowed from the racing kits themselves. You may not think you're a racing game fan, but spend a little time with Forza Horizon 5, and you might surprise yourself.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about social gaming and teamwork. Forza Horizon 5 encourages players both to race competitively and to attack challenges as part of a team. Does working as part of a team change the way you play or alter your strategy?

  • Do you feel as though in-game advertising affects your perception of brands? If a company chooses to advertise in a game you like, does that make you want to support the company by buying its products?

Game Details

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