“Forza Horizon 5” is an open-world racing game that runs through a vast map set in Mexico. Not only paved roads, but also “roads without roads” unique to the open world, there are many racers who have been captivated by the exhilaration and photorealistic graphics.
About a year and a half has passed since this work was released in November 2021, but the second large-scale DLC “Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure” was finally released today on March 30. As the name suggests, the content focuses on the “rally”, which is a time attack on public roads among automobile races, and the race will be harder than you can imagine.
“Rally Adventure” will be available on Xbox One/Xbox Series X | S/PC, and the price is 2,090 yen. The main game is required to play, and if you want to play using the subscription service “Xbox Game Pass”, you need to purchase it additionally.
In this article, we play the build before completion and deliver an impression of the large DLC “Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure”. Set in the new region “Sierra Nueva”, we will tell you about the appeal of this content where you can enjoy a full-fledged rally experience.
[“Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure” announcement trailer]
Rally-specific modes and UI! “Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure” that can do more than real action
First of all, I would like to briefly introduce “Forza Horizon 5 (FH5)”. This work is an open world racing game released in 2021, and it is a sequel released for the first time in two years since the previous work “Forza Horizon 4”. In this article, I will tell you about the charm of the additional DLC “Rally Adventure”, but I would like to know more about the main part of the game! For those who say, please refer to the review article in our magazine.
“Rally Adventure” is the second content following the first large-scale DLC “Hot Wheels Expansion” delivered in July 2022. Users who have purchased “Forza Horizon 5 Premium Edition” or “Premium Add-on Bundle” already include DLC, so please be careful of duplicate purchases. I played the Xbox Series X version this time.
Once installed, an icon called “Rally Adventure” will appear on the world map, so if you drive your car to the point of the icon, “Rally Adventure” will begin. “Sierra Nueva”, which will be the stage of this time, is a new map, a different map from the campaign mode. When you select the start of the event, a movie will start playing, and you will be able to “flip” the car that the player will drive. This is Ford’s first electric pickup truck, the 2022 F-150 Lightning Platinum, which serves as the cover car.
Although it is a DLC, the first car is an EV, which feels old, but this F-150 boasts amazing performance, with a maximum of 563 horsepower and acceleration to 60 miles per hour (about 96 km) in 4 seconds at the fastest. record age. It’s impossible not to get excited because you’ll drive through the unseen stage of “Sierra Nueva” in such a car. When you actually drive, the speed increases steadily with the acceleration sound that is unique to EVs.
In the tutorial event “Horizon Badlands Expedition”, you can “ignore the road that should be there” and jump big, cross the river in the “F-150 Lightning Platinum” which costs about 100,000 dollars, and runway. It’s a parade of actions that can only be done in “FH5”, such as jumping on top and straddling airplanes. The charm of the “FH5”, which allows you to drive in a way that cannot be done in the real world, is still alive in “Rally Adventure”.
Once the first event is over, you can freely drive around the map like a regular FH5 and participate in the races you want to challenge. In “Rally Adventure”, a new mode has appeared in this race, and in addition to the “Horizon Race” where multiple cars race as usual and aim for first place, a new race mode called “Horizon Rally” has been added.
“Horizon Rally” is a time attack mode in which drivers compete for time while running on a predetermined course, similar to the world rally championship “World Rally Championship (WRC)”. Only one car runs on the course, and there are checkpoints and “split gates” in the middle of the course, so you can’t “cheat” such as shortcuts. It is a mode in which pure driving skills are competed.
If you are used to “FH5” and racing games, you may feel lonely that there are no other cars, but when you play it, you can see that your brain is “serious”. Just like real-world races such as WRC, this mode competes in milliseconds, so even the slightest mistake can lead to time loss. “Horizon Rally” raises all elements related to driving to the limit, such as acceleration, deceleration, handling, and eyes to assess road conditions.
In addition, Sierra Nueva, the stage of “Rally Adventure”, has many unpaved roads and many winding roads. Therefore, in the rally in the real world, in addition to the driver in charge of driving, there is a “co-driver” who informs the road conditions such as curves and slopes ahead, but this co-driver role is “Horizon”. Rally HUD” is also a point of interest for this DLC.
“Horizon Rally HUD” is a UI that displays the course status in audio and visual form. For example, even on the same right curve, it will tell you according to the stage of “easy light”, “medium light”, “hard light”, “crest” which means an uneven road, and “hairpin” which requires sudden deceleration in a U-shaped curve. ” and other information about the course ahead while running. In particular, the sharp curve after “Crest” is often invisible, so driving along the UI can sometimes create a few seconds of advantage. It is one of the indispensable functions for rally.
Uneven roads are also a daily occurrence in rally.In such a scene, a “crest” mark is displayed at the top center of the screen.
The U-curve “Hairpin” requires driving skills.I want to drive carefully
Of course, “Rally Adventure” also includes additional car models. In addition to the electric pickup truck “F-150 Lightning Platinum” driven in the tutorial, the rally car “2001 Ford #4 Ford Focus RS” equipped with a 2-liter turbo engine, and the custom vehicle “1973 Hoonigan Volkswagen Baja Beetle Class 5/1600 Scumbug” A total of 10 new models will appear.
There’s also a new radio station to get you in the mood while driving and racing the Sierra Nueva. I would like you to listen to the punk music that is perfect for rally driving.
2001 Ford #4 Ford Focus RS
The Volkswagen Beetle, which has become a popular car in many countries, was also customized by Hoonigan. Cool retro look!
Enjoy the ultimate rally experience with the FH5!Expectations are high for the “Forza” series, which is about to release the latest “Motorsport”
So far, we have delivered impressions of the second additional DLC “Rally Adventure” for “Forza Horizon 5”. As the title suggests, the race mode specializing in “rally” and the “Horizon Rally HUD”, which plays the role of a co-driver, made it possible for the “FH5” to have such a full-fledged rally experience. In addition, one of the features of “Rally Adventure” is that it is a unique racing game that combines open world and rally.
In addition, this year we plan to release a new “Forza Motorsport” series for the first time in six years. The previous work “Forza Motorsport 7” has already been discontinued, and at the moment, the “Forza” series is the only one in the series, so while warming the engine of the body with “FH5”, the coming “Forza I want to prepare for Motorsport!