The latest Forza Horizon 5 “Let’s ¡Go!” dev stream shared some new stuff coming to the open-world racing game.
The first order of business on the stream is showing off character customisation. There are more options than previous games to create your character, like pronouns, voice, prosthetics and hairstyles, but don’t expect it fully customisable. Your character is still picked from a preset of faces (taken via photogrammetry), and you can change facial or body features.
But character customisation should be more accessible. There will be a clothing store to buy clothes, rather than having to rely on the spin wheel (read: gacha) or event rewards to get new drip.
The dev stream also showcases Horizon Stories, the story missions you can partake in. A mission thread where you play as a stunt driver for an actor that looks exactly like you returns, and there’s a new story where you face against a bunch of up-and-coming street racers.
Some of these stories will have different branches, which let you complete one activity instead of the other, allowing players to engage in mission types they like. The example shown on stream is that you get to race against the opponent straight, or go take a detour and listen in a deal where one of the characters ask you if you can let that opponent win the race. Or not.
The broadcast also shows the Horizon Playlist, your weekly and monthly list of activities you can do to unlock rewards. It’s mostly the same, but with some tweaks to the UI to make it all clearer to read (the strong contrast in the font helps), and changes to how scores are calculated. You also see how much progress you need to unlock the car rewards for the season (which lasts a week) or series (4 weeks, comprising all the 4 weather seasons) thanks to a progress bar.
Also, a nice change is that The Trial challenge, that hardcore one where you co-op race against a team of AI opponents at max difficulty, will now be locked until you reach the Hall Of Fame. Reaching the Hall Of Fame is your primary goal in Forza Horizon 5, which marks that you’ve played enough of the game. Think of reaching the Hall Of Fame as completing the guided seasons of Horizon 4, or reaching the endgame.
Eliminator, the battle royale game mode, will also contribute to the Horizon Playlist progress.
Forza Horizon 5 will begin in Spring when the game releases on November 5 (for those that pay the extra-expensive versions), though the full launch on November 9 will still be in the same season.
Lastly, the stream ended with the confirmation that Mazda cars are coming (adding 9 more cars into the 400+ car list), plus the addition of the DeLorean DMC-12. The car famous for being in Back To The Future and infamous for being the one and only car for the short-lived DeLorean marque will be available in Forza Horizon 5. The car last appeared in Forza Motorsport 5, so this is the first time it will be available in the Forza Horizon series. It will be available as a reward in Series 1 of the Horizon Playlist.
Forza Horizon 5 releases on November 9 for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam, Microsoft Store).