Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5 is a single-player and multiplayer open-world racing game. The Horizon Festival returns in Mexico, where the player is cast as a rising star invited to expand the festival across a variety of terrains and climates. The story framework is light, serving mainly to contextualize events, expeditions, and showcase races that unlock new festival sites and open up regions of the map. Progress is tied to the player’s growing reputation and influence as they explore, race, and discover the diverse environments of the country.

The player drives a wide selection of licensed vehicles across an open-world map that includes deserts, jungles, cities, beaches, mountains, and the active volcano La Gran Caldera. Races take the form of road events, dirt trails, cross-country routes, and street races, each suited to different vehicle classes and handling models. The driving model combines realism with accessibility, allowing use of assists such as braking and traction control, or turning them off for a more simulation-oriented experience. Events include circuit races, point-to-point sprints, speed zones, drift zones, and showcase races against unconventional opponents like trains or aircraft. Progression is linked to the player’s Horizon Adventure campaign, where each activity contributes accolades that unlock new outposts and story-driven expedition events. Completing races, stunts, and discoveries awards experience points, levels, and skill points that can be spent on vehicle-specific perk trees. Credits earned in events or wheelspins are used to purchase new cars, upgrades, or properties that serve as player houses and fast travel points. Seasonal events rotate weekly, tied to an in-game festival playlist that provides exclusive rewards for completing objectives.

Vehicle customization is a central system. For over 900 vehicles, players can tune engines, suspension, tires, and aerodynamics, swap body kits, and create custom paint designs. Cars can be upgraded into different performance classes, and community-created tuning setups and liveries are available for download. Each car gains mastery points through driving that unlock bonuses like skill multipliers or free wheelspins. A garage system allows players to store, sort, and manage their growing collection, with more than 500 vehicles available at launch and additional cars added through updates.

Multiplayer expands on the open-world setting. Horizon Life integrates other players seamlessly into the map, where they can join convoys, compete in races, or challenge each other in free roam. Competitive options include ranked and unranked racing, team-based Playground Games such as Capture the Flag and Infected, and cooperative Horizon Arcade events that scale to groups of players. The Eliminator, a battle royale mode first introduced in Forza Horizon 4, returns with players upgrading cars as they knock out opponents.

The game was expanded in 2025 with new content packs, cars, and festival playlists, continuing the live-service model established in prior entries. Seasonal updates introduce new weather effects, biomes, and long-term challenges, ensuring ongoing variety beyond the base campaign.