Forza Horizon 5

1. Summary

The praise for Forza Horizon 5 is mostly about how it looks and how it drives. Reviewers single out its version of Mexico, with its jungles, volcano and storms, cite a car list they put at over 900 models, and describe handling that sits between arcade and simulation, works on a controller and rewards tuning. Some treat it as a game to relax with: boot it up after work, put music on and cruise. A number of reviewers on modest PCs and handhelds say it runs better than they expected. Players who bring up the Hot Wheels and Rally Adventure expansions mostly like them, and long-time players credit EventLab and the weekly playlist with keeping them playing.

The complaints are mostly about what surrounds the driving. In negative reviews, no specific problem comes up more often than the mandatory Microsoft account sign-in, which locked some players out entirely. Other recurring complaints are unskippable cutscenes with festival dialogue that a number of players found grating, a steady push toward paid DLC (events on the map that end at a purchase screen, ads for Forza Horizon 6, a Premium Edition that does not include every car pack), crashes, and co-op that for some players never connects. Players are split on the generous progression, which hands out supercars from the first hour, and on the Mexico map, which some veterans rate below Forza Horizon 4's Britain.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Mexico looks beautifulHigh

Visuals come up more than any other subject: 9.5% of all reviews (947) talk about the graphics, the scenery or how beautiful the game looks, and some negative reviews concede it looks spectacular. Players single out the jungles, the volcano, beaches at sunset and the dust storms that roll in and change visibility. "Mexico looks amazing and driving around it never got old," one player wrote. Some reviewers who dislike the map's layout still praise how it looks, and a few single out photo mode.

A big car list and approachable handlingHigh

Reviewers also praise the size of the car list (they cite figures from 700 to over 900) and handling that newcomers and veterans both describe as a sweet spot between arcade and sim. They say cars with different drivetrains feel different, dirt racing feels right, and assists let a casual player win on a controller while purists switch them off. Collecting becomes a hobby of its own: "Somehow I own 800+ cars and still drive the same 5." A few disagree and call the physics floaty or too forgiving; the wheel and sim argument is covered below.

A relaxing sandbox to come back toHigh

Some reviewers treat the game less as a racer and more as a place to unwind: no destination, their own music, a favourite car and the map. "Some games are made to be finished. Forza Horizon 5 is made to be driven," one wrote. Others call it "my comfort game", and one recommends it for getting through rough times. Some name playing with friends as the best way to enjoy this side of the game, though the co-op tools behind it draw complaints (see below).

Runs well on modest PCs and handheldsMedium

A number of reviewers are surprised by how well it runs: "FH5 runs incredibly well even on modest hardware," as one put it. Reports range from GTX 1050-class cards at playable framerates to Steam Deck, ROG Ally and Legion Go owners calling it smooth. Others report stutter and crashes on strong hardware, covered under crashes below.

Tuning, liveries and EventLabMedium

Car customization, community liveries and shared tunes keep long-term players busy, and some credit EventLab, the track and mode editor, with much of the game's longevity. One returning player listed "Event Lab which is carrying this game imo" among its strengths. Players who do not want to learn tuning like being able to download someone else's setup. Some want deeper visual customization, with more body kits, and one points to Need for Speed Heat as the model; another objects that shared tunes are locked, so others cannot learn from them.

The Hot Wheels and Rally Adventure expansionsLow

Players who bring up the two map expansions mostly like them. "The Hot Wheels DLC is just magical!" wrote one player, and Rally Adventure gets credit for its co-driver calling out the route: "it might be one of the greatest rally experiences I've had," said another. A few found Hot Wheels boring or thin, one next to Forza Horizon 3's version, and a few achievement hunters object that both expansions are needed for 100% completion.

Where players are split

How it stacks up against Forza Horizon 4 and 6High

Comparisons with other Horizon games run through the reviews: Forza Horizon 6 comes up in 4.9% of reviews (491) and Forza Horizon 4 in 3.4% (338). Some Forza Horizon 4 veterans call this a weaker sequel, with a less memorable map, seasons that barely change anything and a "soulless" feel, and some note that with Forza Horizon 4 delisted, this was the only Horizon game they could buy on Steam. Forza Horizon 6's release, which reviewers place in May 2026, opened a second comparison. A few players returned and preferred this one ("Still vastly superior to Forza Horizon 6"), praising its road network and race tracks; more say the new game is better, some bluntly ("fh6 could be actual slop and it would still be better than fh5"). Others land in between: buy this one cheaply if the newer game costs too much or asks too much of your PC.

The Mexico map: varied or emptyMedium

The map divides players. Critics describe large stretches of flat desert, a small main town, very little traffic and roads too wide to feel fast; 6.5% of negative reviews (92) criticise the map in these terms, and some positive reviews name it as their one real complaint, one calling the game "a genuinely good game held back by a pretty terrible map." Defenders answer that the biomes are varied and the volcano and canyon roads are good, and one says "The world of Mexico is over hated." Several reviewers blame the emptiness on a layout built around the Eliminator battle royale mode.

Generous rewards versus no sense of progressionMedium

The game hands out cars, credits and wheelspins from the first hour, and players read that in opposite ways. Some enjoy driving dream cars at once ("Progression is a non issue game constantly gives you stuff"), while others, some of them raised on Need for Speed or the first Horizon, say nothing feels earned. Two different reviewers used the same line: "there is so much to do in the world and no reason to do any of it." Some also dislike the casino-style wheelspin animations and the "superstar" framing that treats a brand-new player as a champion. A few report the opposite problem late in the game, where buying rare cars on the auction house takes a long grind.

Racing wheels and sim expectationsMedium

Wheel owners are divided. Some call the game excellent on a wheel ("The force feedback makes every corner, drift, and bump feel incredibly immersive," wrote one Thrustmaster owner), while others could not get their wheel recognised, Thrustmaster and Logitech models among them, fought dead zones and a limited steering animation, or concluded "This game is impossible on wheel and pedals." Moza owners report both experiences: one says it works out of the box, another that the game crashes whenever the wheel base is switched on. A few players with sim experience find the handling too forgiving or floaty.

The weekly Festival Playlist and limited-time carsLow

The weekly playlist keeps long-term players returning, and some praise how it rotates events and cars. Others found it a chore and resented cars that were only available for a limited time: "the fomo on missing an event and missing rare cars killed the game for me." That same reviewer and some later ones say Backstage Passes softened this, and one mentions a newer option to vote for reruns of old playlists.

Car soundsLow

Some players say the engine audio is a big step up from Forza Horizon 4 ("The sound engine is a massive step up from FH4"). A few complain that many cars sound alike, one writing that "all of the cars sound the same except most track cars."

What frustrates players

The mandatory Microsoft sign-in locks people outHigh

No specific complaint comes up more often in negative reviews: 17% of them (238 of 1,412) describe the Microsoft or Xbox account sign-in. The stories are similar. The game demands a sign-in before it will start, even for solo play; the login window is too small, will not accept typing, or shows "half a QR code I cant enlarge"; newer passkey, Windows Hello or USB security-key prompts loop without end; or a player returning after months is told to sign in and cannot. Steam Deck and Linux players describe the sign-in failing outright ("So the game is UNPLAYABLE on steam deck"). Some of these reviewers liked the driving and say so but could not reach it. Others posted workarounds (clearing Xbox entries from Windows Credential Manager, signing in with an emailed code), which worked for some and not for others. These complaints turn up in every month of the reviews.

Unskippable cutscenes and grating festival dialogueHigh

New players in particular complain about the time spent watching instead of driving. Reviewers describe an intro that runs a long time before free roam, story scenes that cannot be skipped, and characters who talk over races; 64 negative reviews call out unskippable scenes directly. "unskippable and unbearable cutscenes, just let me race," as one put it. The writing draws criticism too: constant "superstar" praise, relentlessly upbeat dialogue and Spanish words dropped into English lines, which a few reviewers found especially grating. Some positive reviews make the same point: "It's so annoying that I had to mute the terrible dialogue, some of which happens WHILST you're trying to race."

DLC upsells, Forza Horizon 6 ads and an incomplete Premium EditionHigh

Roughly 10% of negative reviews (134) bring up the DLC, and three complaints about how it is sold recur. New players drive across the map to an event, sit through a promotional cutscene, and reach a purchase screen for Hot Wheels or Rally Adventure, with nothing on the map, one says, marking it as paid. Fullscreen prompts to buy DLC or pre-order Forza Horizon 6 interrupt play; one player described a chain of them and concluded "I played for about an hour and all of this happened to me." And Premium or Ultimate Edition buyers, some of whom bought it years ago expecting every car pack, found later packs sold separately: "if you're planning to buy the Premium Edition, a reminder that it is not a full package, you will be missing 12 DLCs."

Crashes, long loads and stutterMedium

About 9% of negative reviews (129) report crashes. The most specific pattern is a crash to desktop every 20 to 60 minutes on capable hardware ("Nonstop crashing. Every 30 minutes guaranteed."), with a couple of players tying it to Nvidia drivers newer than 561.09 and a couple to overlay or recording software. Others hit crashes during the opening race, in photo mode, the auction house or co-op tours, along with long loads, repeated shader optimization on launch, and frame drops after an hour of play. A few players who returned later report the crashes went away.

Co-op and convoys that won't connectMedium

Some friends and couples who bought the game to play together could not. Reviewers describe convoy invites that only work through the Xbox app or Game Bar, endless loading when joining, disconnections mid-race, convoy members who do not show on the map, and, in one report, a Hot Wheels "home" setting that knocks players offline. "Great game if you want to play singleplayer. Literally doesn't work at all for playing with friends." A few reviewers also miss having any text or voice chat.

AI drivers that rubber-band and ramMedium

Some single-player racers describe Drivatars that either crawl or pull away impossibly, take corners faster than the player can, and push the player into walls. "The skilled Drivitars are not more skilled, they are just given magic cars." One reviewer adds that the AI gets much harder to beat when the player runs a high framerate, whatever the difficulty setting.

Lost saves and no cross-save with XboxLow

A smaller group lost progress: profiles wiped after a reinstall or a long break, and cloud saves that overwrote local ones ("Installing Horizon 5 on a new machine wiped all my save data by overwriting the cloud one"). Players moving from Xbox or Game Pass were also surprised that progress, cars and even DLC bought on Xbox did not carry over to the Steam version.

Online ramming, cheated leaderboards and the EliminatorLow

Some online racers complain that there is no penalty for running people off the road while wall contact triggers slowdowns, that rivals leaderboards are topped by impossible times, and that bots snipe cars on the auction house. The Eliminator battle royale frustrates a few achievement hunters, since the Chicken Dinner achievement requires winning a mode they describe as largely luck.

A 150GB-plus installLow

Some reviewers note an install of 150 to 200GB, and a few uninstalled the game to free the space.

3. The player conversation

The conversation is warm and mostly brief. A large share of positive reviews are one-liners ("car go vroom", "best car game ever"), while many of the long, detailed reviews come from series veterans who weigh this entry against Forza Horizon 4. The short reviews often just call it the best car game the writer has played; the long ones more often list reservations about the map, progression and monetization.

Who raises what depends on how long they have played. Negative reviews written within the first couple of hours, some of them refund decisions, most often raise the long unskippable intro, the sign-in wall and early DLC prompts. Negative reviews from players with long playtimes are more often about the map, online behaviour, car packs and comparisons with earlier games. Wheel owners and Linux or Steam Deck users form their own smaller threads, mostly about setup problems.

Most of these reviews were written from late November 2025 onward, and some mention buying the game in a sale. The positive share stayed in a narrow band of roughly 82% to 92% month by month, dipping lowest in August 2026. Around Forza Horizon 6's release, which reviewers place in May 2026, mentions of the sequel peaked and the reviews turned into farewells and comparisons; afterwards, returning players split over whether the older game still deserved their time. Sign-in complaints turned up in negative reviews every month, with several reviewers saying newer passkey and security-key prompts made the login harder than it had been.

4. What the developers could do

1. Make the Microsoft sign-in optional for offline play and fix the sign-in loop. It is the most common specific complaint in negative reviews, and some of those players liked the game but could not get past an undersized login window, passkey and security-key prompts, or a "sign in needed" loop, especially on Steam Deck and Linux.
2. Label paid content on the map and in the autoshow, and drop fullscreen ads. New players describe driving to an event only to hit a DLC purchase screen, and interruptions selling DLC or Forza Horizon 6, complaints that recur in negative reviews.
3. Fix the recurring crash to desktop and the long load and shader times. About 9% of negative reviews report crashes, some on strong hardware every 20 to 60 minutes, with a couple pointing to newer Nvidia drivers and others to overlay software.
4. Let players skip cutscenes and silence festival dialogue from the first launch. The unskippable intro and story scenes come up often in early negative reviews, and some positive reviews say they muted the characters.
5. Make convoys and co-op invites work from inside the game and through Steam friends. Some friends and couples who bought the game to play together describe failed joins, disconnects and invites that only work through the Xbox app.
6. Rebalance Drivatars so higher difficulty means better driving. Some single-player reviewers describe AI with impossible grip and speed that rams them.
7. Make common wheels work out of the box and fix steering rotation and dead zones. Some wheel owners, Logitech and Thrustmaster users among them, could not get their hardware recognised or found it uncontrollable, while others with working setups loved the experience.
8. Protect saves and allow progress to move between Xbox and Steam. Some players lost cars and progress to wiped profiles and cloud overwrites, and players moving from Game Pass had to start over.