Extreme Racing Horizon 5 Review: A Textbook for Perfect Continuation

Generally speaking, creating a sequel to a successful game is a tricky task. How to bring enough changes and new experiences while retaining mature and stable successful designs without making new players feel that the threshold is too high?

And when this game belongs to the "Extreme Racing Horizon" series, which has already inherited four games and has become a classic legend in the racing game Hall of Fame, how to evolve such a seamless machine seems to become a bigger challenge. Industry guru Playground Games, however, dismissively presented a nearly perfect textbook level answer sheet on how to make a sequel with "Extreme Racing: Horizon 5".

*To cater to the reading experience, the following versions of Extreme Racing Horizon 5 are abbreviated as Horizon 5

Xbox's technological masterpiece

Horizon 5 is the first time Playground Games has produced a cross generational console version of the game since the creation of this series (the Xbox 360 version of Horizon 2 was independently produced by Sumo Digital and cannot be considered the same game). The huge performance gap between Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and high-end gaming PCs does not impose any limitations on the technical specifications of this game.

Farewell to the rainy and cold British islands, Mexico's diverse climate brings more diverse landforms than Horizon 4. The Baha Desert, which connects Baja California on the west coast, the charming town of Guadalcanal in the central region, the tropical rainforest in the south, and even the highest peak in the entire region, Mount Orizaba, are all included.

Horizon 3 and Horizon 4 are both among the best graphics and technology games of the previous generation, and this game has taken it to the next level with the support of the performance and innovative real-time graphics technology of the current generation console. The brand new advanced computing based global lighting system endows the entire game with a richer and deeper texture. Whether it's sprinting down from the top of Mount Orisaba in the morning mist at dawn, or witnessing the sky change from light to dark in the setting sun of the Baha Desert, until the moonlight illuminates the magical light and shadow of the desert highway, these are the most stunning scenery in racing games and even open world games.

The seasonal climate system remains, but there have been some changes in its operation. Mexico, located near the Tropic of Cancer, naturally does not experience heavy rain and snow like in the UK, but is divided into hot, rainy, stormy, and dry seasons. During the rainy season, the originally smooth road surface may be covered by rivers, and during the hot season, a series of unprecedented severe sandstorms may occur in desert areas. Combined with Mexico's more diverse landforms, this seasonal system that aligns with the local climate complements each other.

This miniature version of the map of Mexico carries an astonishing wealth of details for racing games. The soil covered by fallen leaves and branches in the rainforest soaked in rainwater, the bright colors of houses in the small town, and the exquisite wall carvings, even the road surface presents a more exquisite texture than the previous work by adding parallel parallax mapping technology.

More than 500 models from around the world are also presented with extremely high modeling and object quality, and in the ForzaVista mode, PC and Xbox Series consoles also add ray tracing support.

The two generations of Xbox console versions of Horizon 5 have both inherited the excellent performance of the series, and even the relatively old initial Xbox One has achieved a resolution of 1080p. Both new generation consoles offer a performance mode with slightly reduced rendering details but doubled frame rates, providing different choices for players who prefer the best picture quality and responsive handling.

The PC version maintains the excellent optimization and rich option settings of its predecessor, supporting optional resolution and unlimited frame rate. It should be noted that the CPU requirements of this game have skyrocketed compared to the 4th generation. Players who are still using the 4-threaded old i5 CPU (before the 8th generation) may encounter relatively unstable frame rates. Therefore, it is recommended to meet at least the CPU requirements of 6 threads or more.

Another small but crucial improvement for the gaming experience is a significant increase in the overall game reading speed. Even if the previous installment was installed on NVME solid-state drives, it couldn't escape the lengthy initial disk reading and the reading interface during each fast travel and restart of the game. However, this installment has significantly improved the reading speed of both high-speed SSDs and mechanical hard drives on old consoles.

On a 3.5GB/s NVME solid-state drive, the PC version only takes about 10 seconds to read the game, and returning from drone mode, fast travel, and restarting the game all take only 1-2 seconds to read, greatly improving the gaming experience.

Mexican tour guide

In Horizon 5, the player takes on the role of a top driver from the previous Horizon event in the UK, participating in the Horizon event in Mexico as a superstar. The structure of the previous single player mode was extremely free, to a degree of aimlessness/scattered sand. In response to player feedback in this regard, the plot mode of this game has undergone significant changes.

After completing a brilliant opening that maintained its usual level, Horizon 5 did not throw players directly onto the vast map to freely roam. Instead, through the new Horizon adventure system, the game's vast content was gradually presented to players, and the choice of how to carry out this adventure remained in their hands.

The unfolding style of Horizon Adventure is similar to the upgraded wristband color unlocking event in the first installment Horizon, and the structure of expanding holiday activity venues by acquiring fans (experience points) in Horizon 3. Players can earn appreciation points by completing the event and various Horizon activities throughout Mexico. After reaching each appreciation level, they can unlock a new activity in the Horizon Adventure map.

These activities span five major categories: the Horizon Main Stage, which includes new storyline missions and performance races, the Horizon Summit, which represents road races, the Horizon Baha, which represents off-road races, the Horizon Wilderness, which unlocks new public stunts, and the Horizon Street Race, which covers tasks related to street races.

The way to obtain appreciation points should not be unfamiliar to players who have played the Lego expansion of Horizon 4. All the content of the game is linked to one or more small challenges that reward appreciation points. Completing the competition, winning the competition, and obtaining star ratings in public stunts can all earn appreciation points. The acquisition of appreciation points is also linked to the difficulty or importance of these activities, encouraging players to play carefully crafted content such as adventure, storyline tasks, or through high difficulty challenges.

The new unlocking structure adds a stronger sense of advancement and hierarchy to the single player game section of Horizon 5, and these 21 unlocking contents are special events that are different from open map exploration and regular competition modes, and have their unique Mexican style.

The unlocked Vocho continuous missions on the main stage of Horizon are the best example: when it comes to Mexico, people who are not familiar with the country may have the impression of wide brimmed straw hats, dynamic street bands, and vast deserts, but in the country's automotive culture, the Volkswagen Beetle, which entered Mexico in 1954, is its unique legendary symbol.

represents the "Vocho" Volkswagen Beetle of Mexico's automotive industry and automotive culture

Until its discontinuation in 2019, this legendary sedan, which runs through the entire history of Mexico's modern automotive industry, has produced over 1.7 million vehicles in Mexico, delving into the daily lives of every Mexican. In the Vocho series of missions, players will start from the dilapidated frame in the abandoned garage, restoring and experiencing the various postures of a Volkswagen Beetle flying on the land of Mexico.

The adventure storyline missions unlocked by also have richer gameplay

As a sequel, Horizon 5 did not overturn the familiar content of the previous game just because it was a new one. The track creation function, Super 7 challenge card mode, Horizon game list, and Escape mode "King of Elimination" added in the subsequent updates of Horizon 4 have all returned.

The blueprint mode of independently setting competition rules and routes for the competition has been comprehensively upgraded, becoming the new EventLab. In EventLab, players can not only set their own weather, lap times, and route choices, just like in the previous two games, but also add a very deep "game rules" system. Players can add their own style and characteristics to their game blueprint by setting event triggers and conditions, and share them with players around the world.

Racing King

We cannot forget that the Horizon series has achieved what it is today, relying on the vehicle physics of the Extreme Racing series and making exquisite adjustments for more casual driving gameplay on its foundation. Horizon 5 has not fallen behind in improving other aspects of the game in this regard.

The physics of the vehicle in this work leans slightly towards realism, mainly reflected in the weight transfer during acceleration, braking, and steering, suspension, and the interaction between the tires and the road surface. The road surface characteristics have also shown more significant differences compared to previous works in different seasons and weather conditions. When driving on rainy days, the difference in grip between wet and slippery asphalt roads and gravel roads is even more pronounced, and even the water layer effect of sudden loss of grip when the wheels press over the water surface is added.

But these changes do not mean that this game suddenly becomes a realistic racing game. The driving and racing experience of Horizon 5 is still unmatched by similar games, as it can easily complete the reckless drifting of a four-wheel drive rally car on gravel roads with strong braking when cornering and full throttle when exiting. Coupled with the strong sense of speed supported by powerful visuals, the driving and racing experience of Horizon 5 is still unparalleled.

I believe that among the audience of the Horizon series, the majority of players use the controller. In addition to maintaining the consistently excellent gameplay experience of the controller, this game has also made significant improvements to the driving experience using the steering wheel. This is directly reflected in the greatly improved force feedback effect and steering wheel steering response.

The driving feedback of vehicles on different road surfaces, changes in grip in corners, and force feedback on extreme edges are more obvious and accurate than the 4th generation. Although Horizon 5 uses an entertainment oriented physical model, good steering wheel support can still bring a more immersive gaming experience to eligible players.

However, the steering wheel support in this game is still not perfect. The default steering wheel tuning settings are too hard, and players need to manually make more adjustments based on their driving hardware and habits.

can also refer to the settings used on my T300 RS steering wheel

The player's steering animation within the cockpit perspective is still only 180 degrees (90 degrees on each side), and the game has supported a steering angle of 900 degrees since the 3rd generation. If you want to use the cockpit perspective for the game, it would be better to hide the dashboard perspective of the steering wheel.

epilogue

Extreme Racing Horizon 5 continues the powerful journey of Playground Games as Microsoft's first party gaming studio. This is a great work that builds on the already outstanding series, evolves and deepens all the elements loved by players, improves feedback actively, and never abandons the series's strong automotive and regional cultural characteristics, strong technological heritage, and top-notch core gameplay.

In an era where a sequel sometimes implies conservatism and unpredictable risks, this work presents all the qualities that an excellent sequel that constantly drives the series forward should carry, and this is only the first appearance of Playground Games on the hardware of this generation. It is difficult to get a higher standard answer than it.

Welfare TIME

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