Never played a Forza Horizon game, play this or 4 first

Tl;dr title is Q.

Hi y’all! I’ve never played any of the previous titles, I was a broke college student in the 360 era and went PlayStation for the following generations. But I always saw folks like Jeff playing these games and it has sounded so fun. I just built myself a new and fairly capable PC so I wanna finally try one of these. Would Horizon 5 fill the desire to play this? Does it hit the classic Horizon game stuff? Or should I go back to 4? I think 4 sounded like it was beloved.

I’m Chicano and my family’s from Guanajuato so it would actually be kinda neat to see Mexico represented in a game.

Definitely 5.

I love 4, and as a brit living abroad, it was great to tear around the British countryside. It was a great game, but I'm about 5 hours into FH5 and it is similar, but better in every way.

Also, with your family link, the games location alone should make playing 5 an easy choice.

Assuming you have GamePass, just give it a shot. There's no "story" from 4 you'll be missing out on.

If you have Gamepass you don't need to choose, just download both and tool around with them to your hearts content. I also believe since they are Microsoft published games they will never leave.

If you don't have Gamepass, you should totally consider it!

5 is just better imo, unless you specifically want the setting of 4 I wouldn't bother. Whichever one you don't play, if you like the other, you will like that one too. They're basically the same game

Putting my vote in for 5. There's nothing wrong with 4 and there isn't any lore you need to soak up before touching FH5. They're all an awesome time though. You can't go wrong with any of them.

@physicalscience: This is wrong. Forza Horizon 4 will likely leave in about a year due to licensing issues. Forza games generally last 4 years before they get sunsetted (though they go on sale before that happens and if you buy a digital copy you can re download and play whenever you want.)

Everyone in this thread is crazy. You NEED to start with the original Forza Motorsport so you know all the cars backstories. How will you know the emotional arc of the Nissan Altima without playing the earlier games? That would be like starting the Cars franchise with the third movie! The Forza lore is deep and intricate. Did you know that all of the cars in the game have round wheels and are powered by internal combustion energy or batteries? That's very important for understanding their motivations but they don't really go into it if you start with 5.

@bigsocrates: Lame, thanks for the correction though!

Play Horizon 5 if you're on Game Pass. So far it feels like a more complete game in pretty much all aspects. If for whatever reason you don't want to subscribe to Game Pass, then picking up Horizon 4 for cheap somewhere is a decent option too.

If you prefer UK landscape, then go for 4 or if you prefer Mexico landscape, then go for 5.

Either one. Kinda doesn't matter.

They're all very similar in terms of gameplay especially 3, 4 and 5, i'm currently playing 4 but i'd say play 5, Mexico looks more impressive than the UK unless you really love cottages and stone walls.

I'd play the latest one especially if your not a big racing fan, their very samey outside the location changes. I struggled to finish 3 after trying to catch up playing through the series.

Like others have said, the formula behind the games is the same, and many people are claiming that this latest one is the best version of that formula yet. The games don't have a continues story line that carry over or anything, so you're not missing any thing there either.

Ok cool sounds like I’ll be ok playing the new one. I was hoping the developer didn’t leave something out or change a big thing. You know how sometimes a new game comes out and folks are like “this one is missing a key feature and a big chunk of the spirit and feel that people love from earlier releases?” That kind of thing.

Thanks for the help yall!

Honestly, I'm really not a fan of the direction they went with the Subaru Impreza's character arc in later games. Some real inconsistent character motivations, it just feels like a totally different character compared to the earlier entries.

Having played a handful of hours of each via Game Pass, I've found I prefer 4. Somehow I've run into a bunch of bugs in 5 (console version). Also the AI drivers in 5 are insanely aggressive and defy physics a lot whereas in 4 they seem a lot calmer, if a lot easier.

I am, however, disappointed with multiplayer in both games. Or perhaps just how they surface it. I have no idea how to play races that I want. I understand how to join one of those random free roam lobbies and that's about it. How do I play class B off road races? I am absolutely clueless and I haven't encountered a single tutorial so far on how to do that.