Forza Horizon 5’s second expansion Rally Adventure arrives in March

Forza Horizon 5 will shortly be heading north for a different kind of driving experience with its newly announced Rally Adventure, which comes to Xbox and PC on 29th March.

Rally Adventure, if you hadn’t already guessed, is all about bringing what developer Playground Games calls the “rally experience” to Forza Horizon 5, and that will take players to a rugged new map (nominally located north of the existing one) known as Sierra Nueva.

Here, racers will experience’s the expansion new deformable terrain and kick-up effects system, and enjoy new landmarks including new towns, a quarry (complete with overhead conveyor belts to drive on), and Forza Horizon 5’s first completely smash-able forest.

To match the expansion’s new rally focus, Sierra Nueva introduces significantly more extreme terrain compared to the base game, with a focus on undulating, tightly packed tracks both on and off the asphalt. That makes for more perilous navigation, and Rally Adventure adds a new rally callout/pace note system to keep drivers alert to the obstacles that lie ahead on the road. These are both voiced by your co-driver (situated in the helicopter that flies alongside you) and as icons flashed up on-screen during a race.

Playground Games calls the new tracks – which will be featured across 27 new races – “more challenging” than the base game, but it’s offering new assists, including launch control and a blue rally specific racing line, to make things more approachable.

Despite the shift in focus, the studio says there’s still a lot of flexibility in how you approach the expansion, with players able to choose between two modes – Horizon Race and Horizon Rally – for all races, and even take any car they want, rally or otherwise, onto the track.

Progression in the new expansion will see players taking on challenges for three new teams represented by some familiar faces from Forza Horizon 5’s base game. Alex, for instance, heads up the asphalt-focused Horizon Raptors, Alejandra’s Apex Predators are based around mixed surface racing, and Rami’s Grit Reapers are all about the challenge, focusing on the likes of night and bad weather races.

As you’d hope, Rally Adventure introduces new cars, 10 in total including the Ford Focus, and there’s even a new drone show feature to give the expansion’s festival an identity of its own. Additionally, players will find new parts and new customisation options including antilag which will also be made available to base game players and new music from Epitaph Records, last seen in Forza Horizon 3, will also come to all players.

Playground Games’ expansion reveal livestream has a load more information, but racers will be able to try it for themselves when Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure launches for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on 29th March.