Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5 is the fifth part of the series from Playground Games: an open rally festival in Mexico with the largest map in the series by area at the time of release. As the predecessor of FH6 (Japan, May 2026), it has been on the market for 4.5 years, is proven, polished and considerably cheaper. If FH6 is a compact vertical map of Honshu with JDM culture and touge mountain passes, FH5 offers something different: Latin American car aesthetics, tropics, desert, a volcano and wide horizontal space.

The FH5 map is split into 11 distinct biomes, more than in any previous Horizon game. It has the living San Juan desert with sandstorms, tropical jungle with downpours and the highest point in the series, the Gran Caldera volcano with snow on its summit. Weather works locally: each biome has its own climate, and the seasons change once a real-world week, at the same time for all players around the world.

The FH5 garage holds 500+ cars: from classic muscle cars to modern hypercars. The modes cover drift, rally, street races on roads, and off-road driving through jungle and desert. EventLab, a built-in editor for events and tracks, lets the community create custom routes, and tens of thousands have already been made.

The social core is Horizon Open: an open world for up to 72 players with PC and Xbox cross-play, convoys with friends and the cooperative arcade events of Horizon Arcade. The Eliminator is a battle royale on wheels, where participants race to be the last car remaining.

Critics and players agree: Metacritic 92 and Very Positive on Steam (88% of ~252 thousand reviews, 89% recently). There were no review-bombing stories or launch problems: the game simply works. For those choosing between FH5 and FH6: FH5 is a working option right now without overpaying for a fresh release.

Localization: the interface and subtitles are officially translated; there is no full Russian voice-over. A fan-made neural network voice-over, SynthVoiceRu (September 2025), exists: dialogue and navigator, without the radio DJs. Use it at your own risk.

Activation: a Steam key, standard activation through the Steam client. For Horizon Open and progress sync, the first launch requires linking an Xbox / Microsoft account. Buying directly through the Microsoft Store has been difficult for Russian accounts since 2022.

Forza Horizon 5 is a rally festival from Playground Games set in Mexico: 11 biomes from the Gran Caldera volcano to tropical jungle, 500+ cars, dynamic weather and Horizon Open with cross-play. Russian interface and subtitles, Steam key.