Playground Games never seems to miss with its Forza Horizon games. Forza Horizon 5, for instance, was one of the best games of 2021, not to mention flat out one of the greatest racing games ever made, and its first expansion, Hot Wheels, was an excellent addition to an already amazing package. Now, Playground Games is returning with a second expansion, and though some had feared that it’d be returning to LEGO, the developer has actually turned its attention to rally racing for this one. The expansion, titled Rally Adventure, is out later this month, and ahead of its imminent release, here, we’ll be going over all the key details that you should know about it.
PREMISE
Where the Hot Wheels expansion was about loops and vibrant and colourful tracks flying high up in the air, Rally Adventure, as its name suggests, will turn its attention first and foremost to rally racing events. Players will be participating in a new Horizon Festival that will see you taking your roster of vehicles through a variety of races across dirt and dust and off-roading romps, with a co-driver guiding you through to the finish line.
OPEN WORLD DETAILS
As you’d expect Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure will also add a completely new open world map for players to drive through, as tends to be the case with every large scale Forza Horizon DLC. This time, we’ll be headed to Sierra Nueva, a land that Playground Games has crafted for the sole purpose of off-road racing. As is expected from the series at this point, Sierra Nueva is also going to have plenty of variety in the environments that it encapsulates, with the developer promising “rich vegetation, incredible vistas, and a great mix of asphalt, dirt and deformable sand roads.” The full map has also been revealed, and while we don’t know exactly what its size will be, it does seem like there’s going to be plenty of real estate for players to race through- though obviously, this being an expansion, you shouldn’t expect anything on the same level as the base game’s Mexico, where size is concerned. How large Sierra Nueva is in comparison to the Hot Wheels map remains to be seen.
LOCATIONS
Details have also been revealed on a few of the main locations that will be found in the open world of Sierra Nueva, and again, it looks like there’s going to be plenty of variety on offer here. There’s Pueblo Artza, a quaint town surrounded by rock formations and surrounded by tall, lush hills. Then there’s Desert Gorge, a canyon characterized by technical, swirling roads, a wood bridge, and more. The area known as Green Hills, meanwhile has plenty of untamed open spaces with a mixture of vibrant plant life and water features, making for some pretty muddy driving. Then there’s Palm Forest, which is exactly what its name suggests, and has a stream, a waterfall, and a multitude of palm trees, every single one of which can be smashed through. There’s the Abandoned Quarry, where players will get plenty of opportunities to perform some high flying stunts. Finally, there are the Rugged Dunes, a desert area with fully deformable sand roads, pre-deformed tire tracks, a large crater, and, as per Playground Games, some “hidden” surprises.
CAMPAIGN STRUCTURE
Those who have experience with Forza Horizon 5 will find the Rally Adventure campaign’s structure pretty familiar. To start things off, players will sign up with one of three teams- the Horizon Raptors, focused on dirt racing and off-road events, led by Alex; the Apex Predators, who are all about technical and high speed asphalt rally races and are led by Alejandra; and the Grit Reapers, who are led by Ramiro and focus primarily on street style night races. Players will compete in eight races and some PR stunts in each team, before taking on each of their team leaders, which will ultimately unlock a special Goliath route.
EVENTS
Forza Horizon games and expansions are pretty much always guaranteed to come with a bevy of content, and it seems like Playground Games is intent on one-upping itself with Rally Adventure, which, according to the developer, has more racing events than any other Forza Horizon expansion to date (though the exact number hasn’t been confirmed). These will span dirt races, night races, asphalt races, point to point Horizon Rally races, multi-car Horizon events, and more. For each event, you’ll receive support from a co-driver who’ll follow the action from a helicopter that’ll be following you. At nighttime, the helicopter will also use a massive flashlight to light the road ahead for you.
VEHICLES
Including the base game, all of the DLC, and the Hot Wheels expansion, Forza Horizon 5 currently boasts a massive roster of over over 650 vehicles, and Rally Adventure will be adding another ten cars to that list, all of which, as you might expect, will be catered to the style of racing that is featured most prominently in this expansion. The ten cars being added to the roster with Rally Adventure are the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum, the 1973 Hoonigan Volkswagen Baja Beetle Class 5/1600 ‘Scumbug’, the 2001 Ford #4 Ford Focus RS, the 2022 Alumicraft #6165 Trick Truck, the 2021 Polaris RZR Pro XP Factory Racing Limited Edition, the 2020 Jimco #179 Hammerhead Class 1, the 2019 Jimco #240 Fastball Racing Spec Trophy Truck, the 2019 Casey Currie Motorsports #4402 Ultra 4 ‘Trophy Jeep’, the 2021 RJ Anderson #37 Polaris RZR Pro 4 Truck, and the 2021 Alumicraft #122 Class 1 Buggy.
CUSTOMIZATION
Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure will, of course, also allow players to customize and finetune their vehicles in a number of ways, including some new features, some of which Playground Games has briefly detailed. You can expect new rally parts and an anti-lag system with flame effects and audio effects, while launch control has also been added as a new assist for all cars to help you get a better start to your races.
HUD
New HUD elements will also be visible on the screen in Rally Adventure during events, including a pop-up at each timed splitgate to let you know if you have improved, lost, or maintained positions, new on-screen icons for notes called out by your co-driver, and a mini leaderboard where you’ll be able to see your and your competitors’ positions in the race. Those who want to turn these HUD elements off will have the option to do so, while the expansion will also let players turn off the driving line in Horizon Rally events for a more authentic rally racing experience.
EVENTLAB
EventLab is a part of the Forza Horizon experience that players often pour a massive amount of time into, and it’s an area where, as you’d expect, Rally Adventure is bringing some new things to the table. A new collection of EventLab props will be included in the expansion, including flags, civilian vehicles, branded barriers, and more. All of these new props and objects will be available to all Forza Horizon players, regardless of whether or not you have the expansion.
PRICE
And how much exactly will Rally Adventure cost? Like the Hot Wheels expansion, Rally Adventure is priced at a price of $19.99- and also like Hot Wheels, it’s not included with Game Pass. In addition to being available as a standalone purchase, it’s also included in the Forza Horizon 5 Premium Add-ons Bundle, the Premium Edition, and the Expansions Bundle.