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Forza Horizon 5 Rally Adventure Review

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It is finally here – the much anticipated second expansion to Playground Games’ all-conquering racing behemoth that is Forza Horizon 5.

When you think of Rally Adventure, I’m immediately taken right back to the first Forza Horizon game on the Xbox 360; mostly as that also had a rally themed adventure. However, we are some years on from that so as you’d expect, everything here is turned up to 11. So come with me to Sierra Nueva and Forza Horizon 5’s Rally Adventure. You might want to bring some wellies – it’s a bit muddy!

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Story? Who needs a story in a racing game? Well, it seems like we do as there is a loose kind of narrative tied to this Rally Adventure, focusing on the three people we interact with most – Rami, Alejandra and that Scottish fella, Alex. Each person heads a team, the Grit Reapers, Apex Predators and Horizon Raptors, with each of those teams following a different discipline – Alejandra is all about tarmac, Alex is all about the dirt, and Rami is all about racing at night, in the rain. Rami is a bit bonkers. 

What follows is a series of trials that aim to prove whether or not you are worthy, and once each team leader is beaten, you can then challenge them all to become the Horizon Badlands champion. Achieving this gives you access to another pair of challenges in the weekly playlist, which is fun. 

As you’d suspect with a Forza Horizon 5 expansion, the presentation is brilliant. The new map is great, with a lot of verticality and new features thrown in (breakable palm trees, anyone?) and while it isn’t the biggest map in the game, the sheer amount of things to do ensures it is always very interesting. Every team has a series of events and PR Stunts to try out, and completing them all, alongside the optional challenges as you go through, will take a lot of time. But it’s not just visually that it looks great and the audio hasn’t been forgotten either. There is now the addition of Anti Lag turbo systems on the cars, ensuring that the races sound epic. Epitaph Radio has returned as well, playing lots of cool songs, and so I’m very pleased with the presentation as a whole. And that’s without even mentioning the new cars. 

So, the new cars, let’s have a chat about those, shall we? The hero car for the Rally Adventure expansion, the one you are given for driving out to Sierra Nueva, is an absolute classic – the Ford Focus that Colin McRae and Nicky Grist used to drive about in. And I have to say that it is a pleasure to drive, handling tarmac and dirt equally well. 

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However, the rest of the cars are pretty much of a muchness, being trophy trucks of some kind and off-road focussed buggies. Thankfully there is one that stands out – the Hoonigan Scumbug, which was built specifically to go rallying in Mexico, and so sits in the mix nicely. It isn’t the fastest thing I’ve ever driven, but part of the fun of this car is taking it out and wringing its neck until it is howling, and then holding it there on the raggedy edge throughout a stage. 

But for the good, one quibble I do have is the lack of proper rally cars from back in the day. Yes, we get the classic Quattro, but why no sign of a Lancia? Rallying without an 037 or a Delta Integrale feels wrong. 

Moving onto the gameplay and here the news is as good as always. Forza Horizon 5 is an awesome racing game, there can be no doubt about it, and while this expansion sticks more to the real world instead of the Hot Wheels weirdness that came about in the previous expansion, the feel is bang on this time. Dirt racing is always fun, and especially in Rami’s races where the craziness is turned right up – racing at night, in the rain with a helicopter hovering just above your head does make for a spectacle. As for Alejandra’s events, the challenge of tarmac racing is again different, but feels more like the rest of Forza Horizon 5. By comparison, Alex’s races are pretty tame. 

Every race event in the Rally Adventure expansion has two ways to play it too – Rally or Race. Race mode is pretty much the same as any of the dirt races back in good old Mexico – you rock up on the start line with a bunch of AI controlled Driverbots, then attempt to beat them to the finish line. Some of the course layouts are very tricky, and this is doubly so for the Grit Reapers events, as in addition to it being dark and rainy, the helicopter insists on trying to light up the road in front of you, making it seem like you are driving through mist. I don’t know why the helicopter features in the race events, as it just isn’t needed. 

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The Rally-style races are much more interesting, being a series of time trials where you are the only one on the stage, and the team leader of the particular event type is in a helicopter, shouting out pace notes. These could be better timed, being brutally honest, as the game seems to just lag behind a bit and the instructions arrive at pretty much the same time as the corner. This is an issue when you are screaming through the desert, barely hanging on, and the next instruction is “hairpin left”, just when it is too late to brake for the corner. My favourite instruction however has to be “Chickens!” as you burst through a flock of hens that are stood in the middle of the road…

With Forza Horizon 5 staples in the form of PR Stunts like danger signs, speed cameras and drift zones to enjoy, there is a lot of content shoehorned into the small Rally Adventure map. Even more so when you consider each team also has a series of challenges to perform, such as driving from one place to another in a certain time, attempting two drift zones in under three minutes, and the like. Even when you have beaten the expansion, there are still a host of things to try for. Add in a whole raft of new achievements tied to the expansion and the package is complete. 

What this means is that Forza Horizon 5 Rally Adventure is a lot of fun, but there are just minor annoyances that stop it being a stone cold classic. If you are still fully immersed in Forza Horizon 5 on a daily basis, this will be a hugely enjoyable accompaniment – a no-brainer. Just don’t expect perfection. 

Forza Horizon 5 Rally Adventure is on the Xbox Store

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