I love the game but it's hard to get anything done in it.
I'm making progress. There are more than 100 cars in my garage. I have millions of dollars at my disposal to fund my hunger for more expensive rides and investments in Mexican properties that have been my virtual self's bases of operations. I've won enough races to open up all the key locations of the festival. And yet.
The problem is driving. The Mexican terrain of the game is filled with all the straightaways, jumps, drift-friendly curves, and winding city streets a speed-loving motorhead could ask for. It's open and free to explore from the beginning, and you can build up massive skill chains with the experience points you earn feeding a loop that leads to even more sweet, new rides.
The skill chains are important. A capable driver has the ability to choose when they want to stop, because a measly 100 points picked up from a drift maneuver is enough to keep a chain going. The longer you go, the more points you accumulate, which are displayed in the middle of the screen as you drive.
It's a feeling. It's easy to get a handle on the default difficulty and driver assist settings in the game. The options for things like manual transmission are there, but from the first moment you touch the controller, it's like an arcade racing game. It makes you feel like you're in total control of your ride at all times by conveying a sense of speed.
This combination of a fast rising score and an intuitive feel that's constantly sitting right in your field of view is addictive. When I get into the skill chain zone, I fall into a sort of trance. Watching someone pull one off is very addictive. Look at the genius who kept a chain going as they traveled around the map.
That's been my experience so far. I could theoretically travel to that next map marker in seconds, but I'll have to spend more than an hour getting there, wandering across the entirety of virtual Mexico in the process. Every time. Single. Time.
It helps that your score is related to your experience levels and Wheelspins. One of the more ingenious additions to the series is this relatively new entrant.
A Wheelspin is a slot machine where you can win cars and money, as well as wild car horns and attire for your driver's character. You're going to win something when you have a Wheelspin. You never know what will happen. There's a Super Wheelspin with three wheels in one, which means three prizes per spin.
I need more of the Wheelspins. They're not the whole reason I play, but it's like this passive bonus to all my lack of progress where I can count on seeing it pop up multiple times in a session. It usually takes a few spins of the wheel to get me a new car for the garage, and a new toy for me to play with while I'm not doing anything else.
'Forza Horizon 5' makes you feel like you're in total control of your ride at all times, and it's great at conveying a sense of speed.
It's a shame that the basic elements of the game are so enjoyable, because there's a lot of good stuff here. The games have always done cool blockbuster moments where you race against planes and trains.
At one point, I hopped behind the wheel of a parade float which I steered carefully around high elevation curves before the route took me over the edge of a cliff. At another point, a race that pit my car against a blimp turned into a race of motorcycles as the airship deposited a pair of growling motorbikes onto the road.
There are races. There are many races. The map is quickly overwhelmed by a flood of icons when you get the main event destinations unlocked. There are more rules around these affairs than there are in the previous ones.
As you wander around outside of races, I like to hear about passive events. Speed traps record your speed in one spot or along a stretch of road, with different speed levels nabbing you one, two, or three stars. You can see how much your preferred ride can double as an airplane if you jump Danger Signs.
The game is called Playground Games.
Events like these are great because they don't interfere with my work. They get me to slack off more. Whenever I see an icon on my mini map, I'll go to the Speed Trap. It gives me a bit of focus into my cruising, but without having to worry about load screens or anything else.
Some events are not a winner. A pink bubble on the map indicates that an event is about to start or has started. The public event gathering spaces show cars working toward a goal, such as billboards broken or total jump distance. Failure gets you no rewards because the goal doesn't scale to suit the number of cars. Unless most of the people in the lobby are involved, it's often a waste of time.
There are many reasons to like the game. The trademark feature of the series, "Rewind", which allows you to wind back the clock in small amounts of time, is always a winner, and of course you have it here. When you're in an online event, Rewind isn't always helpful, but for people who just want to win against artificial intelligence, or learn from their mistakes, it's always there.
The game's heady brand of driving is made available to all players through the accessibility menu. There are visual options for colorblind players, with sliders for adjusting the intensity of each option. The subtitles can be adjusted. You can slow down the game speed and play in slower motion.
I still play because of the chill vibes I get from cruising around.
This is a beautiful game. Mexico is an environment of rocky deserts, rolling and grassy plains, dense forests, winding mountain roads, and muck-filled swamps. Every time of day, stunning visual and lighting effects make the rain feel like it is real.
It doesn't work without the driving. I keep playing because of the chill vibes I get from cruising around and watching my point totals soar. Keeping a skill chain going while avoiding crashes is a kind of game. It's painful to break a six-figure chain with a 5x multiplier. The pain is fleeting. There is no penalty beyond the lost points. You just pick yourself up and start chasing your next skill chain.
I love the game. Not in spite of it not allowing me to do anything, but because of that basic fact. It's relaxing and satisfying to waste time in this game. I might finish all the main "story" races one day and see what else I'm missing. I'm content to never get to my next race because of all the wonderful things that distract me along the way.
