TEST Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels, a stunning extension!

Forza Horizon 5 has already been delighting racing game fans since the end of last year, and the developers offer weekly challenges in-game to unlock new cars, but something a bit more noticeable, like an extension, was missing. And justly, Playground Games launched the Hot Wheels DLC from Forza Horizon 5 recentlytaking up a lot of ideas from the one proposed in the third opus.

If you’ve ever flipped Forza Horizon 5 all over the place, the Hot Wheels expansion is a must.


We therefore obviously took the track to discover this extension … stunning. the Hot Wheels DLC of Forza Horizon 5 adds a new map, completely separate from the one in Mexico, located in the air and accessible via a loading time. We find three biomes, namely a snow-capped volcano, a lush forest and a mountainous desert, connected by more than 150 orange and blue routes. Yes, the slightly wacky atmosphere of the cars of Mattel is present, it’s a festival of colors and logic is put aside for a time to offer stunning new circuits with huge curves, long straights with accelerators to reach 500 km / h, loops, icy surfaces, areas magnetizing the car to the track to do spins and even water slides to slide down at high speed, if you can control your car. The decorations are eye-catching, Forza Horizon 5 is of course still as pretty, and the player can enjoy magnificent panoramas sometimes staged with slow motion, between two curves.

Playground Games also took over the progression system from DLCs of FH3the player starts this expansion by only being able to drive category cars B. You have to earn points by passing events (races, but also challenges) in order to unlock the category HASthen S1, S2 and finally X. An old-fashioned progression, but finally well adapted to the content of the extension and especially to its layouts. The tracks made up of orange and blue blocks are indeed quite narrow, you need a little skill to avoid going into the wall (which is not punitive in the race, but much more in mode Rival) and especially to control the car during loops or in large curves, which greatly lean the vehicle. Moreover, it is possible here to achieve feats Forza-G when the car is tilted, as indicated by a new reticle rotating like a gyroscope, but very obtrusive on screen (you can remove it in the accessibility options). The progression system is well thought out, the difficulty increases as the player progresses, and the player unlocks increasingly faster cars, exclusive to this expansioneven if it is obviously possible to drive the cars in your garage, provided you have access to the appropriate category.

In addition to these road layouts, the player can also get off the track to ride on the sand, snow and grass of the three biomessmall areas that are much less fun than the map in Mexico because of a very vertical environment, which you still have to explore during some races on land and especially to find the signs XP to break. Yes, the player finds these small additional activities, also with mascots to hit in the air, jumps, danger zones, sectors of driftingin short, the usual challenges, as well as a Horizon History unpublished (but very short). All this gives us a good lifespan for an extensioncount about five hours to complete all the races and unlock the category X, but as many hours, or even more, to pass all the challenges and collect all the bonuses. Of course, you can do and redo the races, but also get two more weekly challenges with this DLCsand even launch yourself on paths created in Event Lab by other players. A circuit editor is present, with dozens of different colored blocks to assemble to create the layout of your dreams and share it with the whole community.

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So, should we fall for this extension Hot Wheels of Forza Horizon 5 ? Well yes, of course, the content is there, Playground Games offers us a new playground very different from Mexico, the opportunity to spend hours behind the wheel to complete all the challenges. But all this lacks a few surprisesthe developers took over the codes of the DLCs of FH3, it’s very good, but fairly conventional. Still, the marriage between the two franchises still works just as well, and if you’ve ever flipped Forza Horizon 5 all over the place, the expansion Hot Wheels is unavoidable.

Read also: TEST Forza Horizon 5: Mexico, land of perfection

Forza Horizon 5 is available on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. The Hot Wheels expansion is included in the Premium Edition version or in the Expansion Bundle, which will combine the game’s two major DLCs. The DLC is also available on its own for €19.99, to be combined with the base game in the Game Pass, the subscription costs €29.99 for three months.

Most

  • The meeting between Forza Horizon and Hot Wheels still successful
  • Clever and stunning layouts
  • It’s still so beautiful!
  • An old-school, but well-adapted progression system
  • Three small biomes to explore with new cars

The lessers

  • Fairly agreed if you’ve ever played Forza Horizon 3’s DLC
  • The Horizon Story Too Short

thumbnail editorClint008
Writer – Tester

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