Forza Horizon 6 – Review

I wonder if you know…

I propose a thought experiment. Think of any game, on any subject, from any genre. It could be a demon RPG, a farm animal strategy game, or a lead-allergic alien action-adventure. Cool, right? Now slap Japan over whatever formula you imagined. How much does the cool factor increase? 1000 times? 10000?

Japan is lucky enough not to be Mexico, something Forza Horizon 6 understood from the start. Because Mexico, in the automotive world, has the same charm as a broken tibia for a footballer. If there's one country where all Horizon festival participants would be dressed in orange jumpsuits and featured in ransom videos, that would be Mexico. With all due respect to our Corona-making and drinking friends, a Porsche driven by a hipster with pink sunglasses would survive at most 8 seconds in Sonora.

On the other hand, Japan immediately brings to mind Tokyo Drift, JDM culture, car tuning, multi-storey car park gatherings, drifting, sushi, samurai, cherry blossoms. Oriental civilisation from the place where the sun rises over some of the most beautiful landscapes imaginable — and exactly as expected, the new Forza Horizon delivered in spades. Over-delivered, even.

Liberty Walk

Don't expect radical changes, because Forza Horizon 6 doesn't aim to reinvent the series. In reality, it's an extremely predictable game, firmly built on an established formula, and does nothing but deliver consecutive dopamine hits.

Still, it's part of a series that's very dear to me, so I spent some time with the 1000 cars it shoves into your garage within the first 5 minutes, and I managed to put up with the secondary characters, who possess the charisma of Japanese corporate drones under a deadline.

I find FH6's obsession with rewarding ANY action a bit too synchronised with modern audience demands. Turned right? Here are 15 legendary cars. Farted, but were a good boy and opened the car window? Spin this wheel and you could instantly win a car worth more than all the countries in central Africa. We're in Japan, at a Horizon festival, we're having fun, we're not thinking about consequences at all!

But the consequences did come, eventually: it managed to bore me with too much care. In Forza Horizon 6 it's so easy to get everything you want, squared, that I simply feel I'm not stimulated enough to finish the game. Essentially, I've seen everything there is to see in the first 15 hours, and the rest of the races and missions on the map will do nothing but unlock new cars in my garage and a ridiculous amount of credits. I know what I'm going to do in the summer. I know what I'll be driving in the autumn. FH6 does exactly that thing Peter from Family Guy described: "it insists upon itself."

How does this furiously fast, hand-holding structure translate? There's no next challenge. You no longer have a clear goal, a precise purpose, a battle to fight against the game's rules. Basically, you have so much freedom that freedom means nothing anymore. This worked in 5 other Horizon games, but now I was expecting maturity. Finally, FH is growing, understanding what it wants to be, listening to fans and delivering proper content, I told myself.

Don't get me wrong: everything that happens in FH6 is perfect at an arcade car gameplay level, with a lot of style, appealing and visually delicious — it's just that the dopamine overdose is starting to produce tolerance in my gamer body.

DiRT Test Drive

Japan in Forza Horizon 6 looks incredible. No exaggeration. From the first cherry blossom to famous locations — such as Tokyo Tower, Shibuya Station, Torii gates, mountains, forests, rice paddies, or rural settlements. Absolute cinema! Much better on PC than on Series S, which is what I'm playing on, but you won't find anything cooler in another open-world car game.

And over this glorious visual spectacle is juxtaposed impeccable gameplay, with precise control and probably the most intense sensation of speed in a car game. Problems arise when you crank up the difficulty and realise the AI has only one directive: "rocket, go!". It doesn't matter how hard you press the pedal — it'll breathe down your neck with rubberbanding and ram into you at the first corner as if you'd sworn at its mother.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but FH6 feels best on medium difficulty and with cars that don't go beyond B or A class, because otherwise, you're just artificially boosting relatively balanced mechanics. Sure, you can rewind time if you make a mistake, but where's the fun if you abuse that feature?

I prefer to feel it as a combination of Test Drive Unlimited and DiRT 2, from driving to attitude, especially since there are so many things to see and collect that I decided to park my arse behind the wheel of a Mitsuba made to thoroughly explore the map, on asphalt and gravel. Nothing mechanically pretentious, but visually decorated with a body kit and aftermarket aerodynamic elements, on Horizon tyres.

On the Vulcan I received as a bonus, I did an engine swap and, after a few other upgrades, I got X999 out of it and a cruising speed of 420 km/h, which I find fun, but not at all practical in races. Somehow, all this moderation stuff comes across as completely out of place when the game encourages you to customise like crazy, then you come to the conclusion that the last Touge challenge was more enjoyable with a factory Ford Focus. You know what I mean?

About the garage and the house, which comes with a garden large enough to accommodate the Nürburgring, for those who have the patience to build it, I don't have much to say. I imagine they're delicious for anyone who wants to take advantage of the in-game asset building feature, but it would have taken me too much time, and the process is cumbersome with a controller (aka joystick).

Mecha Han-tastic!

Still, FH6 keeps me glued to the TV. It won't leave me alone. It doesn't want to approve my departure from Japan. Now it bores me, but as soon as I leave it, it calls me back. It's a PERFECT sandbox, where car experiments are the cherry on top. It makes you addicted to the next skill chain and the next insane race prepared by the festival, for which you have to unlock access bracelets like a groupie on a Doors tour.

Damn it, I raced a gigantic mecha, just for show. How was it? What do you expect? My heart was pumping like the first time. Then I delivered pizza in Tokyo and did missions for a drift federation. All in a single hour of playtime.

Speaking of drifts, they're punishing if you miss the optimal line and involve juggling speed, car configuration (preferably drift-specialised), and corner attack angles. But once you get the hang of it, it runs perfectly. That's how you find yourself collecting 20 thousand cars just to break another speed record on the motorway, preferably with friends, online.

Forza Horizon 6 has the music, graphics, and gameplay needed to receive the GOTY title. Its demonstrated success before and after launch confirms this status. That it's not *my* GOTY is another kettle of fish and has nothing to do with the intrinsic value of the game, which stands out within the series. Currently, you can't find a better arcade racer. It simply has no rival.

I'll leave you to it. I'm going back to exploring the colossal map with my very Evo Mitsuba. Teriyaki Boyz is playing in my head and I promised Han we'd have a beer by the ocean before the next drift championship. I'm almost done unlocking the last bracelet. Life is beautiful in Japan, and Forza Horizon 6 is a game we all deserved. Sayonara!

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Played on: Xbox Series S
Release date: 19 May 2026
Developer: Playground Games
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios