It’s here. After 14 years of fans demanding a Forza Horizon game set in Japan, it’s finally happening in Forza Horizon 6. The developers at Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios have poured everything they’ve learned from previous Horizon games into this. But, is it worth the wait, or does it fall short of expectations?
Before I dig in, I should say that I’m going to try to avoid re-treading what I covered in the preview from a few weeks ago. So, if you want to see my first impressions of Forza Horizon 6 and get a primer on some of the new features, check it out.
Welcome to Japan
Let’s start with the bullet train in the room. One of, if not the main draw of any Horizon game is the location, and Forza Horizon 6 puts players in the middle of an idealized version of Japan. Divided into regions, the massive Japanese map gives players a wide variety of biomes to explore. Everything from deep forests, sprawling farmlands, snowy mountains, idyllic beaches, and a densely packed, bustling urban landscape.
Even with all the events and races removed, I could spend hours roaming Playground Game’s version of Japan. Whether it’s finding shines, discovering temples, or cruising the bright streets of Tokyo City at night, there is no shortage of surprises to find and sights to see. Whenever I took the time to explore, I kept finding small roads and paths not marked on the map, and each one offered a different experience. If there is anything I could recommend you do if you pick up this game, it’s to explore. Drive your car wherever it can go, roads or not. You’ll never know what you’ll find. Also, always check the waterfall!
Whether it was a hidden XP sign or simply a nice place to take a photo, I felt like my curiosity was always rewarded. That’s all by design, as Forza Horizon 6’s loose story has you taking the role of a tourist in the country for the Horizon Festival. So you’re constantly being encouraged to take in the sights and learn more about the country. You’re even given a journal and a stamp book to document and track your exploration.
I’ve unfortunately never been to Japan in real life, but this game makes me feel like I’m getting a piece of an authentic experience. It makes me want to visit the country 1,000 times more than I already do.
To add your own touch to the map, there are several homes you can buy across Japan, with each one providing a unique perk, like giving you one wheel spin per day. All homes have customizable garages, which I covered a bit in the preview. What’s new in the full game is the Estate, which allocates a large plot of land for players to build out into whatever they want. You can build your own racetrack country club, and other players can visit it. Though just like in garage customization, each element or prop costs credits to place. However, if you delete a prop, you get the credits back.
The Horizon Festival
Functionally, the map also provides a great mix of driving experiences, with a variety of surfaces, obstacles, and challenges. The dynamic weather only increases the variability. Then there are the experiences that are uniquely Japanese, like drifting on the same Mount Haruna togue that inspired Initial D, or driving through the tight alleyways of Tokyo.
There’s also the awesomely absurd experiences, like a showcase that had me chasing a Giant Mech through the city in an Acura NSX Type-S.
Outside of that, many of the same experiences you’d expect from a Horizon game return here. There are road races, dirt races, and cross-country races. PR stunts like danger signs, drift zones, speed zones, speed traps, and trailblazers also return.
“Horizon Life” events from previous games, like Drag Meets and Time Attacks, return as well and work just as seamlessly.
One of my favorite returning features is the story drives. Keeping with the tourist theme, the story drives are portrayed as day trips with your host, Mei. Each trip is a curated drive through a different region on the map, while Mei provides historical facts about the locale and the vehicles you’re driving on the trip.
A new standout feature is the car meets, inspired by the real-life world-famous Daikoku Parking Area meets, which draw hundreds of people. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the full effect since car meets are live events that allow you to meet up with other players. Since the review period was before the game’s launch, there weren’t many people around to participate.
Jobs return, but this time you take on gigs as a food delivery driver behind one of the sickest JDM delivery vans I’ve ever seen. The job runs generally require you to stay above a certain mph or fail the mission, with the challenge of maintaining speed while navigating narrow streets and sharp turns.
It’s all part of your quest to earn wristbands that will unlock even more events, until you eventually get the golden wristband and reach the status of Legend.
Street racing also returns, but is now joined by the new Togue battles, which apply the street racing format to challenging mountain roads in 1 v 1 races.
I played exclusively with an Xbox controller, and I can say that, for the most part, the physics and vehicle handling feel largely the same as Forza Horizon 5. While tuning can change a car’s dynamics significantly. In their stock form, most cars are a bit slippery when it comes to oversteer and understeer, but it’s nothing I wasn’t used to by now after playing Horizon games for over a decade.
Fantastic Cars and Where to Find Them
To take on all these races and events, players will have a library of over 550 cars to choose from. If you’re a long-time Forza fan, you would have seen most of these cars before. However, there is a collection of new cars, including a few that speak directly to the hearts of JDM fans, like the Attack The Clock Racing Mitsubishi Minicab.
There are at least six ways to acquire new cars in Forza Horizon 6, including the Autoshow, and Auction House. Barn finds return as well, challenging players to look all over the map for 14 rare vehicles, including the Acura NSX-R GT, which returns from Forza Horizon 5.
There are also 9 treasure cars. Unlike barn finds, treasure cars aren’t marked on the map. Instead, Mei will give you a rough idea of where a car is, along with a photo clue that generally has a landmark in the background. It makes for a great reason to check out areas of the map you may not have visited yet, and the cars you get are well worth the effort, especially considering that they’re free.
The newest way to add cars to your collection are the aftermarket cars spread throughout the map. These are cars that are already modified and are being sold at a discounted rate. Usually, you’ll find them parked near events that they are particularly suited for. You might even find some rare Forza Editions up for sale. While these cars are always discounted, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re cheap. Fortunately, you can test drive aftermarket cars for two minutes to decide if you want to spend the credits.
If you’d rather upgrade cars yourself, Forza Horizon 6 retains the robust customization system we’ve come to appreciate with an increased library of wheels and body kits to choose from. However, now with a major, fan-requested feature: adding decals to windows. Players can also finally rock mismatched wheels on their cars with a completely different design on the front versus the back.
Graphics and Visuals
I played Forza Horizon 6 exclusively on an Xbox Series X in Performance mode, which locks the frame rate to 60 fps by rendering at 1620p and using dynamic resolution to scale the visuals to 4k.
There is a quality mode available that will set the resolution to 4k natively but reduce the frame rate to 30 fps. The preview build was locked in quality mode, so once I had the full game, I immediately switched to performance mode because I prefer the higher frame rate.
After playing for hours in both graphic modes, I can honestly say that the performance mode didn’t leave me wanting for anything visually. The lighting system works wonders to keep cars and environments looking great, and I didn’t experience any frame drops. There were some moments of very slight pop-in with some of the environmental elements, but it was rare and not so bad that it pulled me out of the experience.
A Few Flaws
In case you couldn’t already tell, I had an incredible time with this game. However, this is a review, and this game isn’t perfect. As incredible as this game is, it has some issues. In fact, most of the issues have been consistent throughout the last few Horizon games.
For the most part, these flaws are small, and it may have been nitpicky to mention them in the past, but now we’re in the sixth entry in the franchise, so it’s more than fair game to call them out.
First, while Forza Horizon games tend to have an overwhelming amount of things to do, the actual racing options are fairly limited and haven’t changed much. It’s still a mix of the same three events: road racing, dirt racing, and cross country. There is street racing, togue and drag racing to freshen things up, but I think there should’ve been more of those event formats to balance things out.
Second, the Drivatar AI racers haven’t seemed to have evolved much since Forza Horizon 4. Even in this new game, their behavior seems all too familiar. They stick to the driving line, rarely make mistakes, and depending on the difficulty I can either plow through them in a corner and then run away from them completely, or if the difficulty is turned up just a notch higher, they all seem to have hidden nitrous kits because cars that are supposed to have parity with mine will completely ditch me on a straight even if I’m in a car that’s supposed to have more power.
The third and final bit is more of a minor annoyance, but one that has been consistent over the last few games in the series. I’m tired of having to go back to a garage to change parts on my cars. I can tune my car before a race, but I can’t change my tire compound without exiting the race, driving, or fast-traveling to an event hub or house, going through the load cutscenes, going to the garage, and then selecting different tires?
It’s just a bit too much. Even if it’s limited to just a few things like tires and a few other parts like brakes and exhaust, I’d love to be able to swap those things at the pre-race screen rather than taking all those other steps.
Final Thoughts
If, for some reason, you’ve been holding out on jumping into the Forza Horizon franchise, now is the time to jump in. The developers at Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios have had 14 years to perfect the Horizon formula. This game reflects all of that learning and craftsmanship.
It isn’t perfect and has some issues. The AI drivers need work, and the game needs some quality-of-life improvements when it comes to changing car parts. However, Forza Horizon 6 met or exceeded everything I’ve expected from a Horizon game set in Japan. The crazy thing is that this is just the start. Look, this is a review, and I’ll never review something based on what it could be. Only what it is now, and Forza Horizon 6 is an amazing game. But I can’t help but be excited for what’s in the future. The car packs, the events, and most of all the expansions. What will Playground Games do with this amazing canvas of Japan? An important question for a later day.
As it is now, Forza Horizon 6 gives me everything I ever wanted from an open-world racing game, and I think it will do the same for you, too. Pick this game up and don’t look back.
Thanks to Xbox for providing me with an early copy for review. If you found this helpful, please share this review, and feel free to leave feedback in the comments.
Pros and Cons
| PROS | CONS |
| A massive Japan map that fans have always wanted. | AI drivers need to evolve. |
| Masterful gameplay design that encourages exploration. | Quality of life improvements needed for changing parts before races. |
| Intrinsically engaging progression. | |
| Winning Horizon Formula | |
| Welcomed Improvements to customization (Stickers on windows and mismatched wheels, finally!) |
VERDICT: Forza Horizon 6 is the ultimate expression of an open-world racing game. This is the Horizon game to play if you’ve been holding out. Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios just gave us a masterpiece.
Forza Horizon 6 Gallery
