What you need to know
- Playground Games recently teased a new Hide & Seek game mode for Forza Horizon 5, and it’s coming very soon.
- The next update, arriving early next week, includes the interesting new way to play with fellow racers as well as four new cars.
- Three of the four new cars come from Japanese manufacturers, which is a popular category for many players.
- The Stadium is also enjoying a fresh round of Evolving World goodness, and is becoming a maze for the duration of the next Festival Playlist.
During Gamescom 2024, one of the smaller announcements stashed alongside the deluge of major reveals and updates was a short teaser for Forza Horizon 5’s newest game mode: Hide & Seek. Exactly as the name suggests, this pits five Seekers against one player who has to hide and elude their hunters for the duration of the match. It’s an interesting addition to the Forza Horizon 5 formula, and it’s coming alongside the next major content update.
I’m not alone in that I already tend to do my fair share of hiding from the world in real life, and now I can do it as a car.
You can check out the latest Let’s Go! stream above for all the information, but I’ll summarize for those who don’t have time to sit through an hour-long stream. The next content update is known as Forza Horizon 5: Hidden Horizons, and brings four new reward cars to the refreshed and thematic Festival Playlist, the Hide & Seek game mode, and more.
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Survive long enough to reach the End Zone, if you can
The ‘Hidden Horizons’ update is definitely on the modest size, largely riding on the back of the new Hide & Seek mode. It’s still an exciting addition, though, giving players a completely new way to enjoy FH5’s multiplayer. There are also a couple of other changes and new features, too, so let’s dive in.
- Hide & Seek mode. In Forza Horizon 5’s new game mode, five players will spread across an area as Seekers, while one player will do their best to avoid the Seekers as the Hider. The Seekers win by filling up their detection meters by staying close to the Hider, while the Hider wins by evading the Seekers until the End Zone is revealed and making it to that End Zone.
- The Hide & Seek mode has its own progression system with unique Accolades for players to earn
- Seekers and hiders will have different pools of cars from which to pull, giving seekers distinct performance advantages if they should discover where the hider is
- Four new cars. As always, the Forza Horizon 5 car list is expanding once again with four new cars, which will be exclusively rewarded through the new Hidden Horizons Festival Playlist.
- 1991 Toyota Chaser GT Twin Turbo
- 1995 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III GSR
- 2013 Volvo C30 Polestar
- 2022 Subaru WRX
- Exclusive gift car. All players who sign into Forza Horizon 5 following the release of the Hidden Horizons update will also receive an exclusive car through the Message Center, being the custom 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Jordan Luka 3 Motorsport Edition.
- Horizon Stadium Maze. Forza Horizon 5’s Evolving World is affecting the Stadium in a brand-new way, this time transforming it into a vertical maze with plenty of hiding places, ramps and platforms, and awesome photo opps.
- A new Festival Playlist. It should come as no surprise that the Festival Playlist is getting updated with an all-new series of themed challenges, races, and events, this time centered around the new Hide & Seek game mode or Maze. Players will also have the chance to hunt for the new Detective Tank Collectible (which is being added to the EventLab) and earn a new outfit.
These new features are accompanied by a fresh batch of car model fixes and bug squashing, but there’s nothing particularly exciting in the changelog. The Forza Horizon 5: Hidden Horizons update officially releases for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, Xbox and PC Game Pass, and Xbox Cloud Gaming on Sept. 10, 2024, with the Hidden Horizons Festival Playlist kicking off on Sept. 12, 2024.
Playground Games also teased the next FH5 update, which will be dubbed “Back to the 90s” and feature new cars, Badges, Accolades, and more. We’ll have to wait until next month to know what the future holds for Xbox’s best racing game, although the new Hide & Seek game mode may keep you busy until then.
