PS5

Published on May 8th, 2025 | by Nathan Misa

Forza Horizon 5 PS5 Review

Playing Forza Horizon 5, one of Xbox’s formerly exclusive killer apps, on a PS5 still feels like a cheat code, but it’s real – and it’s crazy to think what PlayStation fans were missing to this point.

Playground Games’ Forza Horizon series has been consistently rated as some of the best racing games on the market for good reason, combining top-of-the-line visuals with a dense open-world filled with activities, as well lots of customization, tuning and cars, to indulge in.

The fifth entry’s simpler, arcade-style approach offers a fun experience for casual and hardcore racing fans alike even four years after its original launch –  and for PS5 Pro fans in particular, one of the best looking racers, in terms of graphical fidelity and performance, out right now.

ImpulseGamer’s original Forza Horizon 5 review concisely covered how and why the game was a must-play for Xbox fans back in 2021, and none of that reasoning has changed in 2025 for PlayStation fans picking up the game for the first time. This is the same content-rich racing game with the same crazily high assortment of circuit races, tours, drag and drift challenges, speed traps, travel boards, light story-based missions and multiplayer shenanigans as Xbox fans got to enjoy four years ago. Best of all, the PS5 version is cross-play, meaning you can play with PC and Xbox fans and race across the game’s fictionalized Mexico and its eleven biomes (cities, deserts, beaches, jungles, dunes, and even a volcano) together.

The biggest advantage PS5 owners get is that the entire package of Forza Horizon 5 is on offer to purchase from day one. That means the base game and its many free content updates and numerous bug fixes, its 20+ car packs, and its two major expansion add-ons, Rally Adventure and Hot Wheels, are all already out and available to enjoy without having to wait. Hot Wheels’ twisty orange highways and surreal high-speed circuit events are a particular must-play (as a great follow up to Forza Horizon 3’s preceding Hot Wheels expansion). Both expansions are also playable almost immediately after the game’s tutorial, which is great for PS players who have already dipped into FH5 on Xbox or PC, and want to get to some of the newer stuff quickly.

Curiously, Forza Horizon 5 on PlayStation 5 is only purchasable as one of three separate digital versions rather than a single definitive or GOTY edition. This means PS5 players must choose between the standard full game ($99 AUD) or shelling out extra for the car pass ($129) and DLC expansions included ($149). With no physical retail version of Forza Horizon 5 available for PS5, players are essentially at the mercy of the PlayStation Store’s pricing, which is admittedly not cheap for a four-year-old game. The main question, then, is whether the game is worth the premium upfront cost, or the novelty of playing one of Xbox’s finest franchises on a PlayStation.

As someone who admires sim racing stalwarts like Gran Turismo from afar but vibes more with arcade style racers, I’d say in this particular case, Forza Horizon 5 really is the kind of game that is unmatched by anything else in its genre – at this time. The sheer amount of detail put into the handling, customization, breadth of racing events, and especially its expansive map and visuals is astounding, especially now with over 900+ cars to tune and test (or, in my case, destroy). Sure, the ray-tracing, car detail and reflections on Gran Turismo 7 outclasses FH5 by a year or so in terms of graphical leaps (owing to FH5’s extended release lifecycle), but the love and visual fidelity put into its open-world environment is fairly unique to this series bar more recent competitors (such as Ubisoft’s The Crew: Motorfest). The only downer in my experience is that some of the city environments feel a bit lifeless without animated pedestrians and spectators on walking and waving on the side-lines like in in older games such as Forza Horizon 3 – a trade-off for further graphical leaps and bounds had to come from somewhere, I suppose, which is fair.

Playing Forza Horizon 5 on a PlayStation 5 Pro, I’m sure many other owners will feel the extended wait time was well worth it, as we get the best possible version of the game available (on consoles) to-date in terms of visual fidelity. Like on Xbox, there is a choice of either a 30fps Quality Mode or a 60fps Performance Mode, with the trade-off between the two being higher texture and foliage quality and ray-traced vehicle reflections, or smoother motion for gameplay. I’m always an advocate for 60fps or higher whenever it’s available, and Performance Mode on PS5 Pro looks so good and runs close to 1800p/4K most of the time that only the purest of graphics fanatics will get more enjoyment out of the Quality Mode and its (limited) RT features.

Forza Horizon 5 does have a few weak points that are worth mentioning to contrast against its overall excellent package. I couldn’t tell you what most of the base game’s Horizon Story missions were about due to lacklustre dialogue and overly peppy voice-acting that comes across like every character and scenario was designed to be as inoffensive and as appropriate for all ages as possible, resulting in what feels like relatively juvenile writing that appeals to nobody (particularly the Vocho story missions). Many of these missions and other miscellaneous events also throw cars at you like candy, which does reduce the excitement of earning better vehicles through standard career progression somewhat. Unskippable cutscenes, particularly in-game promotions for the car pass (which I already owned) also aren’t the best in terms of user experience, acting as a grim reminder of the MTX-heavy reality of gaming today.

The Final Verdict

None of these minor issues, which are fairly subjective, significantly detract from the core package of Forza Horizon 5. This is a content-dense, highly polished, visually impressive racing game that once headlined Xbox’s flagship exclusive line-up  – and it’s damn fun. PS players no longer have to miss out, and if you’re craving an arcade-style, open-world racing game, there are very few other options that compare to what Playground Games have achieved with the latest entry. Once a spin-off series, Forza Horizon has eclipsed Motorsport for good reason – if you can nab this when the PS Store next has a sale, it’s a definitive must-buy for PS5 owners.

Game Details

Primary Format – Games – PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X | S
Game Genre – Racing game
Rating – G
Game Developer – Playground Games
Game Publisher – Xbox Game Studios

About the Author

Nathan Misa A senior writer for ImpulseGamer.com and former writer for MMGN and Ninemsn, Nathan has been reviewing video games and interviewing talented developers since 2012. As a nostalgia tragic eternally tied to the glorious 1990s, he's always playing retro gaming classics whenever he's not entrenched in the latest RPG, or talking your ear off about why The First Law book series is better than Game of Thrones - to anyone who dares listen.

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