Why FH5's casual approach was actually perfect timing for the franchise

Been thinking about this lately and wanted to share my perspective on something

Everyone always complains that FH5 throws supercars at you right from the start. Easy money everywhere minimal effort needed pretty much zero challenge in the campaign. At first glance that seems bad right? But I think it was exactly what the series needed

As someone who works long days doing physical labor I dont always want to grind for hours just to unlock something decent to drive. Sometimes you just want to hop in cruise around and forget about everything else for a bit. FH5 nailed that feeling perfectly

What's interesting is that when you remove all those barriers suddenly you start making your own challenges. I found myself doing weird stuff like building slow cars just for fun or spending way too much time on custom paint jobs. Started pushing myself on higher difficulties because why not. The freedom actually made me more invested not less

This approach definitely pulled in tons of new players who might have bounced off the older more restrictive games. Now we've got this massive player base that really gets what Horizon is about

But here's the thing - now that we're all hooked and understand the formula bringing back some of that progression and structure for FH6 makes total sense. The upcoming game looks like it's mixing the best parts of the old school approach with what worked in 5

Pretty smart move if you ask me. Use one game to cast a wide net then give the established audience something with more depth