The ninth part of Playground Games’ “Let’s Go!” Series for Forza Horizon 5 looked at the vastly improved character customization feature, as well as improvements to Horizon Stories and the festival playlist.
In November, FH5 will part ways with its UK predecessor by giving players more freedom to watch and do what they want. While there will be plenty to do in the game once players get behind the wheel of one of the hundreds of cars to be featured, the journey begins with creating your own avatar.
This time around, PG decided to offer more variety and choices so that players can really design themselves in the game. New options include hair, hair color, prosthetics, identity and voice. While hair and hair color are an expanded feature set, prosthetics are brand new to the franchise.
A total of 33 prostheses on arms and legs are available in different colors, some of which have murals from the game world. Also new to the franchise is the use of identity pronouns.
The pronoun chosen also affects the gaming experience. If another player is talking to you or about you, the appropriate identity will be used based on the player’s selection. It also affects the radio DJ who also uses the selected pronoun while discussing your achievements during the game.
Players can also choose between a male or female voice that will be used throughout their playthrough regardless of the body type chosen. The switch to clothing also shows a different diversity than in the previous game. With FH5 from Mexico, Playground Games has taken this into account as well as weather, environmental, architecture and clothing trends to give the players an authentic look.
As an example, you can choose from a variety of streetwear and floral dresses for the chosen character. Starting in November, players will be able to purchase popular and rare clothing items directly, with epic and legendary pieces tied to game progress.
Improvements have also found their way into Horizon Stories. Knowing that players like to “ignore the rules,” PG has given players a full minute to stay off the road before the event has to restart. This gives adventurous racers the freedom to take as many short cuts as possible within the limit.
The function itself will be expanded in FH5 to include other game types, including photo challenges and drivatar races. Interestingly, unlike the previous game, Stories won’t all appear in the same place. Once the opening chapter is completed, all subsequent chapters appear elsewhere on the map and players travel to that location.
Stories also uses a “choose your own path” feature that allows racers to choose what to do after completing a chapter. Depending on which of the three events you have decided on, this has a direct influence on the dialogues, awards and rewards as well as the action of the remaining decisions. If players want to explore each option, they can always go back and repeat each chapter in stories.
As expected, the Horizon Festival Playlist returns in FH5, but with some significant improvements. As usual, there will be new (and free) content every month to coincide with the weekly season changes. Each series features unique events, new sights, and a theme. At the market launch, the first topic is “Welcome to Mexico” to be won with the Mercedes-AMG ONE and McLaren F1.
One of the biggest, and perhaps most welcomed changes to the playlist, is an overhaul of the progression system. Horizon 5 will move away from percentage degrees and towards a points system. This takes away all the guesswork with the previous game’s system and gives you a clear path to the series rewards.
Another change is that The Trial event will be locked behind the Hall of Fame, which you can enter with an indefinite number of awards. This was done at the request of the community to remove the annoyance of gamers who don’t use competitive cars.
As if that wasn’t enough, Creative Director Mike Brown started the playlist section of the stream with an unexpected reveal. During the summer of Series 1, players can purchase the returning DeLorean DMC-12, a car that was last seen in Forza Motorsport 4 in 2011.
There are five weeks left before Forza Horizon 5 launches on November 9th on Xbox One, Xbox Series consoles, and Windows 10/11 PCs. With the next “Let’s Go!” already confirmed that it will be another fourteen days, more is to come. Stay tuned!
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