Forza Horizon 5 Review: Mexico's Open World Is Still One of the Best Games on Xbox

There is a specific kind of moment in open-world gaming when a map loads for the first time and the world just opens. You crest a ridge and the entire landscape spreads out in front of you — not a loading screen, not a cutscene, but the actual game world, enormous and alive and going in every direction. Forza Horizon 5 produced that moment better than any racing game before it. The first view from the Horizon Festival grounds in Mexico — jungle to the left, volcanic highlands ahead, the Pacific coast glinting in the far right corner of the screen — was, at the time of release, the most impressive single moment I had experienced in an open-world game.

Ad

Forza Horizon 5 – Xbox Series X|S / PC (opens in a new tab)

The Mexico open world at its best. Also available day one on Game Pass — but if you want the disc or a permanent licence, this is the one.

That was late 2021. Playground Games has since released Forza Horizon 6 and taken the series to Japan, which is better in almost every measurable way. But Horizon 5 retains something Horizon 6 doesn’t have: the specific warmth and diversity of Mexico’s geography, and the particular atmosphere of a Horizon festival set in the shadow of an active volcano. These are not small things. This is a 9.5/10 — a game that was briefly the best in its genre and remains essential Xbox playing.

🗺️ The Map: Mexico’s Five Worlds in One

The Horizon 5 map is, from a pure geographic diversity standpoint, the most varied open world Playground Games had ever built at the time. Five distinct biomes, each with its own visual identity and driving character, compressed into a map you can cross in under five minutes at speed but spend dozens of hours exploring at pace.

The jungle canopy in the map’s north is dense, narrow, and technically demanding — overgrown roads that emerge suddenly from tree cover, streams that cross the path without warning, the constant green shade that makes your car’s colour look completely different from how it appeared on the showroom floor. The colonial town of Guanajuato — the map’s setpiece urban environment — is a cascade of coloured buildings, cobbled streets, and underground tunnel routes that function as a natural rally stage. The Gran Desierto salt flats in the southwest are the antithesis: flat, pale, endless, where the only limitation on your speed is the size of the space bar on a keyboard. The volcanic highlands around Sierra Nueva give you the elevation the jungle doesn’t — long switchback climbs, mountain lake reflections, and the distant presence of the volcano itself as a permanent landmark. And the Riviera Maya coast puts you on beachside roads with the Caribbean visible through the palm trees, a texture the northern biomes completely lack.

None of this feels arbitrary. The map coheres as a version of Mexico — not a documentary representation, but a love letter to a country’s geographic range. Driving from the coast to the volcano in a single run is a genuinely different experience depending on the car, the time of day, and which season the weekly rotation has applied. Horizon 5 was, until Horizon 6, the gold standard for open-world design in a racing game.

🚗 The Car Roster: 500+ with Latin Soul

The launch roster exceeded 500 cars, and the curation for the Mexico setting is immediately apparent. The Latin American and American muscle content is exceptional — the Mexican marque VUHL 05RR is a genuine highlight, the classic Chevrolet muscle cars feel at home in this setting in a way they don’t in, say, Britain, and the off-road category is deeper than any previous Horizon game owing to the Baja-style terrain that the map naturally supports.

Ad

Xbox Series S Console (opens in a new tab)

The budget Xbox entry — Forza Horizon 5 runs beautifully on the Series S and is a great first game for the platform.

The JDM content, by contrast, is solid but not the headline — that distinction belongs to Horizon 6. If your car preferences skew towards American V8s, desert runners, and classic Mexican motorsport machines, Horizon 5’s roster is curated specifically for you. If your first love is the JDM catalogue, Horizon 6’s Japan map was built precisely to address that.

The Car Mastery system introduced in Horizon 5 — a skill tree per vehicle that unlocks unique abilities, cosmetics, and bonus spins — adds genuine long-term engagement with individual cars that the previous games lacked. Completing mastery on a favourite car feels like completing a relationship with it, not just grinding a checklist.

🎮 The Driving Model: The Best It Was, Before It Was Better

Let’s be honest about where Horizon 5 sits relative to its successor. The driving model here was, at release, the most refined in the series — tire physics that communicated grip levels more clearly than Horizon 4, surface texture feedback through the controller that made the transition from tarmac to gravel genuinely informative, and force feedback through a wheel that was a clear generational improvement over previous entries.

Forza Horizon 6 improved it further — the tire physics overhaul in the newer game is perceptible to any attentive driver — but Horizon 5’s model is not a lesser experience in isolation. It’s very good. The difference is the kind you notice in direct comparison, not the kind that makes Horizon 5 feel deficient on its own terms.

The Rewind system is as generous as ever — our standard recommendation for families with young players. Full assists, rewind on demand, auto-braking: Horizon 5 is as accessible as Horizon 6 for young players, which means the family argument is essentially identical.

🌦️ Seasons: Mexico’s Climate Is the Game’s Best Feature

The Seasons system — weekly rotation through dry, wet, storm, and sand seasons in Mexico — is where Horizon 5 spent most of its post-launch creative energy, and it shows. Each season doesn’t just change the weather; it changes the map. The storm season floods the Riviera Maya coastal roads and turns the Gran Desierto into a sand-drift event with genuinely challenging visibility. The wet season makes the jungle roads treacherous and turns the cobblestones of Guanajuato into a drift circuit. The dry season opens up the salt flats and makes the mountain passes feel brisk and clear.

Ad

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – 3 Month (opens in a new tab)

Forza Horizon 5 is included in Game Pass — subscribe and it's yours at zero extra cost alongside hundreds of other games.

For dads with limited gaming windows, the Season system is the right design. You don’t need to play for six hours to feel the week’s content. An hour in any Season delivers enough Horizon Festival Playlist events to feel productive, unlock a new car, and return next week to something visually different. It is, still, one of the best ongoing engagement systems in gaming.

👨‍👧 Family Gaming: The Warm Climate Works

Mexico’s climate — sun-drenched, warm, saturated colour palette — gives Horizon 5 a family atmosphere that Horizon 6’s Japan partially trades for spectacle. The colours are brighter and more immediately welcoming. The beachside roads in particular, with their turquoise water and scattered palm trees, have a holiday energy that makes handing the controller to a six-year-old feel natural in a way that Tokyo’s expressways at midnight do not.

The free-roam mode remains the family gateway. No objectives, no timers, just the map and whatever car you’ve put your child in. We spent an afternoon following the jungle road north until it opened onto a mountain vista, then turned around and followed the coast south. The game accommodated this without complaint or friction. That is, quietly, one of Horizon 5’s greatest strengths.

⚖️ Horizon 5 vs Horizon 6: Should You Play Both?

If you own an Xbox and have Game Pass: yes, play both. The Mexico and Japan maps are complementary, not competitive. Mexico is warmer, broader, and more accessible in its geography. Japan is more technically demanding, more visually refined, and the driving physics overhaul in Horizon 6 is perceptible. Neither replaces the other.

If you’re buying for the first time and can only choose one: Forza Horizon 6 is the better game. But Horizon 5 on Game Pass costs you nothing additional, runs on the same hardware, and offers a genuinely different experience. There is no good reason not to have both installed.

If budget is the constraint and you’re not on Game Pass: Forza Horizon 5 at its current retail price is exceptional value — the game has been out long enough that disc prices have dropped significantly, and the full experience including all post-launch seasonal content is still live and active.

One final note on the live service side: Horizon 5 continues to receive weekly festival playlists and seasonal events years after launch. Buying in 2025 or 2026 means you’re joining an active community with rotating car rewards, themed events, and regular challenges — not a finished game with the lights off. That long tail of weekly engagement is unusual for a single-player title and adds genuine value to a late purchase. Even during stretches when you don’t have time for a long session, a 20-minute seasonal challenge keeps the game present in your rotation.

Is Forza Horizon 5 still worth playing after Forza Horizon 6 came out?

Yes — the Mexico map has a completely different character from Horizon 6’s Japan. Warmer, more diverse in biome terms, with the colonial town of Guanajuato as a setpiece that Horizon 6 doesn’t replicate. Both are worth playing, and Horizon 5 is significantly cheaper or free on Game Pass.

Is Forza Horizon 5 on Xbox Game Pass?

Yes, Forza Horizon 5 is available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. It is one of the best arguments for the subscription — a game that cost full price at launch is now included at zero extra cost alongside Forza Horizon 6.

How does Forza Horizon 5 run on Xbox Series S?

Very well — at 1080p/60fps in performance mode. The visual gap between Series S and Series X is less pronounced in Horizon 5 than in Horizon 6, making the Series S an excellent pairing for this particular game.

Should I play Forza Horizon 5 or Forza Horizon 6?

If you’re on Game Pass: play both. If you can only choose one: Forza Horizon 6 is the better game mechanically and visually. But Horizon 5 on Game Pass costs nothing extra and offers a genuinely different Mexico experience worth having alongside Japan.

Is Forza Horizon 5 suitable for children?

Yes, from around age 6. Full driving assists, rewind on demand, and the open-world free-roam mode make it very accessible for younger players. The content is entirely family-appropriate and the warm Mexico setting is particularly welcoming for younger audiences.