Forza Horizon 5’s second big DLC expansion, Rally Adventure, launches today and although I’ve only ever dabbled in Xbox and Turn 10’s popular open-world racer I managed to get in a fair few hours of Rally Adventure over the last weekend and it’s honestly the most fun I’ve had with the game to date.
And yes, I completely understand that I’m making that bold claim about an expansion where the core gameplay involves solo races against the clock with a co-drive barking turns at you every few seconds, in the face of the last expansion which transformed the game into a giant Hot Wheels playset complete with gravity-defying loops on life-sized plastic tracks. But despite my relative unfamiliarity with rally in general, I’m absolutely hooked on what FH5 brings to the idea.
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For starters, I found myself appreciating Rally Adventures’ much more structured progression in comparison to the base game, a fact that I realise may not extend to those who revel in FH5’s open-ended approach, but gave me comfort in not having to deal with a ton of choice paralysis. After completing the introduction to the expansion, naturally by way of a positively thrilling Exhibition event, you’ll pick from one of three teams to align with and go about steadily completely events and challenges to further your rank with that team.
Granted, I’m still fairly early in this process but I’m finding it much more enticing to jump back in every now and then when I know what I’m going to be working toward.
Of course, the big draw in Rally Adventure isn’t team politics – it’s rally – and that’s where this expansion really delivers. The Forza Horizon series naturally offers plenty of opportunity to test your driving skills on all manner of on and off-road surfaces, but it’s taken to the next level here. Most events in the expansion can be played in one of two ways, the traditional rally convention of driving solo and trying to beat your rivals’ split times through a series of gates, or in a standard race alongside other drivers.
The rally method is definitely the more exciting one, even if driving alone sounds less so. For starters, these tracks are designed with incredibly challenging turns and terrains to navigate, which is made more painful when sharing them with others. But mostly, going through them somewhat blind to your success with only the time readout at each new split gate to tell you how you’re faring has a wonderful back-and-forth tension where a poor section can break a run, or motivate you to do that much better on your way to the next split.
You’re not entirely alone either, with your co-driver spotting for you and calling each turn, straightaway or surface change as they come up. You’ll very quickly learn to appreciate this person immensely, especially as the game recommends players turn off Forza Horizon’s familiar driving line visual and instead rely on your collaborator’s barks and your own instincts to navigate each track. As someone with less skill in driving games that relies heavily on that driving line guidance, the idea of turning it off was incredibly intimidating, but I’m ecstatic that I did it – having nothing to separate me from total failure but my co-drive, my wits and my wheels became intoxicating and changed the feel of the game immensely.
Of course, it’s all helped along greatly by FH5’s superb audiovisual presentation which routinely saw me battling wild weather, dust and all manner of environmental conditions across Rally Adventure’s new map of Sierra Nueva. This new area occupies a separate space to the base game in much the same way as the Hot Wheels expansion, and though it’s a little more subtle and grounded than that fictional set of airborne islands, it’s full of diverse biomes and plenty of character in both what you can see and what you can drive on/across/through.
I’m sure serious rally-heads have had plenty of video game content to chew on that I’d never thought to dabble in, but I’m glad I got the chance to experience it in Forza Horizon 5, and I’m certain Rally Adventure will capture both diehards and newcomers like myself with the sheer exhilaration of its races and the franchise’s continued penchant for spectacle and accessibility.
Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure is out now for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC for $29.95 and requires the base game to play, either through ownership or via Xbox Game Pass. Get it here.
