Here's my ranking of the main game maps and DLC:Oh man FH5 being up that high feels almost criminal.I've only played 1, 4, 5 and 6 but even I can tell that 5's base map is 'eh'.
My map tierlist, purely based on vibes in the case of the maps I haven't played but have seen, is as follows:
S: Horizon Britain, Sierra Nueva
A: Horizon Europe, Horizon Japan
B: Horizon Colorado, FH5 Hot Wheels Park
C: Horizon Australia
D: Horizon Mexico
Haven't Played/No Opinion: Blizzard Mountain, Storm Island, Fortune Island, FH3 Hot Wheels Park, FH2 Fast and Furious, Lego Expansion
I've played basically every Horizon up to this point, especially since FH3, though I've played FH1 for a bit, but I've never dabbled in FH2.My personal ranking is somewhere along;
PG, in my eyes, has never been interested in or never allowed to really explore the possibilities of their own open worlds. Other than very modest additions and content, the game is nearly the same, at its core, as the first title. Compare that to how Rockstar has massively expanded what players can do in their open worlds in the same time frame. For me, they have yet to deliver an open world that feels genuinely believable because there is only basic world logic and only superficial interaction (Smash board with car, cut-scene transition to mission or discoverable, robotic NPC behavior, etc). It's never immersive in a way that GTA or RDR or even the NFS open world games are. If the purpose of a game is to inhabit a character that inhabits a world with some degree of freedom, it has to be immersive or players disengage quickly, even if they are not fully conscious as to why. FH4 was the closest to an immersive experience thanks to the setting & seasons - you could squint and kind of almost pretend like you were there in England in the fall.
I think immersive Horizon Stories and narrative experiences are... not something Horizon's core audience wants. What they want is a map that fits their fantasy of that region and its car culture, with quirky experiences to match, something that would stand up against the test of 'I can't get out and walk around' that Horizon is shoehorned into because it's a Forza game. Introducing more advanced world interaction mechanics might compromise the core gameplay loop and harm pacing of the narrative Stories.
