---{ Graphics }---
☑ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☐ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☑ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☑ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10
If you’ve played any Horizon-branded game, you’ll be familiar with the basics. The story starts with you, the main character, behind the wheel of a car as the Horizon Festival kicks off. Except this time, it’s not just one car, it’s four. You, strapped into the seat of your Ford Bronco, are dropped out of a plane directly into a race down a mountain. Before you know it you’re getting thrown out of the same plane behind the wheel of a widebody C8 Corvette, then again in a safari 911. Finally, you end up behind the wheel of an AMG One battling it out against a Koenigsegg Jesko in a race to the Festival hub. It’s an assault on the senses that throws you right into the action, which is fun.
From there it’s off to the races, literally. With your small collection of starter cars you’re allowed to begin exploring the vast open-world environment to your heart’s content, participating in events to earn credits, win cars, and compete for glory as the Horizon festival’s ultimate driver. Horizon 5’s campaign isn’t vastly different from the single-player modes that came before it, meaning you’ll have the opportunity to pick and choose the races you’d like to compete in throughout the map. Every event is different, but the majority of the time you’ll find yourself competing against AI-driven competitors that, depending on your difficulty settings, can actually put up a good fight. Other times you’ll be racing against the clock or unplayable computer-operated vehicles like airplanes or helicopters. But when it comes down to it you’re always following the suggested line from start to finish, which, if you’re not deeply invested into it, can become a bit tedious.
Because Horizon 5 is designed to be more of a casual, fun-to-play, pick-it-up-whenever game rather than a hardcore simulator, you won’t be faced with a huge learning curve. All of the controls are easy to learn, and there are tons of difficulty and assistance adjustments that let you dial in your perfect setup, whether you’re using a hand-held controller or a wheel and pedals. That being said, stringing together a perfect lap still requires a good deal of skill. This isn’t a cheap arcade game where going flat-out all the time will net you a perfect score. This game is still powered by Forza’s impressive physics, meaning the cars react like real automobiles would, with notable differences based on driven wheels, weight, height, center of gravity, and so on. If you turn off traction control and ABS, you’ll be rewarded with a more natural feeling vehicle. But keep them on, and there’s still a great deal of enjoyment to be had, along with a greater measure of control.
While racing on pavement is endless fun, it’s clear Forza developers spent a lot of time nailing down how cars behave off-road for Horizon 5. Every surface feels different, and the cars react differently based on where you’re driving. Sand is looser than dirt, and gravel feels totally different from mud. It seems like every off-road event I’ve driven so far has had at least one river crossing—and just like real life, driving through deep water slows the car down significantly, killing your momentum. So you have to plan your approach accordingly. And when you get it right, it’s immensely satisfying.
