Forza Horizon 6 Review

All racing games have their own charms; some are more campaign-driven, some provide in-depth car customization, some provide great exploration, and some have a mix of everything. Forza Horizon has been one of the most popular racing games for many years, due to its great flexibility of exploration with racing thrills. Playground Games might have just fulfilled so many fans’ wishes to explore Japan and race in it with the new Forza Horizon 6, the latest installment to the franchise. Right from the moment when I pressed the play button in the main menu, I knew I was in for a treat, and it went over my expectations. Forza Horizon 6 feels more like a love letter to fans, and this is our review of it.

NOTE: The devs provided the review code for Forza Horizon 6.

World and Setting

The Horizon Event is back, and this time it is in Japan, the highly requested map location from millions of fans in the racing series. The world map of Japan in Forza Horizon 6 is big and includes 9 distinct regions with a dynamic weather system. You get to drive through Tokyo City to Mt. Haruna, Minamino, Hokubo, and many more regions seamlessly. There are no loading screens between entering any region, except your personal decorative home. Playground Games has introduced many new things in Forza Horizon 6, and decorating one of your houses in the game is one of them. You get to unlock this home pretty early in the game, introduced to you by Mel, an NPC. From here, you can purchase the place and visit it at any time to decorate it to your liking.

Let’s get back to the world, you can drift through Shibuya Crossing, race through lush green bamboo forests, punch through the iconic cherry blossoms, and go down the icy roads. There is so much to explore and do in Forza Horizon 6, and it does not hide anything. Right from the get-go, the game makes you realize that it is your adventure and your world to explore. Although you might want to jump straight to Horizon events to progress, you can chill out exploring the regions at your own pace.

Gameplay

Forza Horizon 6 is a racing game with a proud best-in-class gameplay mechanics. With this new installment, there are even more options to make the gameplay either a cinematic or a simulation. You can choose to keep the classic controls or turn on the assist to help you slow down on turns. Moreover, you can even turn on auto-drive to head to a marked waypoint while you enjoy the view of your surroundings. Not only that, you can even let your car race for you. There is something for everyone, and the developers do not hide anything from you, but they encourage you to fine-tune the experience the way you want.

The control scheme of driving the car is the same as in the previous titles. Moreover, the infamous Rewind feature is available at all times, allowing you to rewind the time to cover up your mistakes. The overall game system encourages you to try out various events. An AI assistant, which speaks your name, literally, will ask you to set a route for an event from time to time. However, if you find it annoying, you can turn it off and pursue the events at your own pace.

Speaking of pursuing events, the Horizon Festival remains the main goal. For every horizon event, you have to earn a specific number of points to qualify. After that, you can pursue the event to checkmark it and unlock the next event. Every horizon event is crafted thoughtfully, making you race against a mech, planes, drive down icy mountains, and much more. As you complete each horizon event, you earn a Wristband, allowing you to qualify for the next. You get yellow as the first one, then green, then blue, then pink, then orange, then purple, and then golden.

Customization, Events, and Rewards

Forza Horizon 6 includes various customization options both for your car and your character. You can enhance the performance of the vehicles by putting custom parts or using the “Auto Upgrades” feature to max it out in a tier. There are nearly 600 cars at launch in Forza Horizon 6, and you can customize and upgrade every one of them. Moreover, you can tune the cars for specific races to have better handling and control. However, the races of different kinds limit you to using the appropriate cars, despite having cars of the same tier. It is not a serious issue, as the game rewards you constantly for completing races, events, and earning XP.

Apart from the main horizon events, there are several events that come under Exploring Japan. You can deliver food, go on a road trip, do a car meet-up, and so on. Every event is there to enhance your experience in the lively world of Japan. As you explore more and complete more events, you earn precious rewards. Not only that, the wheelspin system hands you various rewards, including credits, cars, clothing items, horns, and more.

Sound, Visuals, and Optimization

The visual design in Forza Horizon 6 is, without any doubt, the best one yet. From the detailing of changing gears to splashing water during rainy weather, everything feels authentic. Driving the car in the dirt and snow coats the car accordingly, enhancing the overall experience. Moreover, the car gets damaged if you hit into other cars or barriers on the side of the roads. The sound design in Forza Horizon 6 is immaculate. Cheering of the crowd, pushing your car through the edges, the sound of the turbo, screeching wheels, everything sounds so crisp.

Forza Horizon 6 is very well optimized and runs great on mid-tier PCs. I got to experience an average of 240 fps on 1440p with every setting maxed out on Ryzen 5600x and RTX 5070.

Verdict – Score 10/10

Forza Horizon 6 is like the best racing game of the current time, with immaculate gameplay options to define your experience, breathtaking exploration, and rewarding systems. The exploration is the best feature that Forza Horizon 6 offers, and it even rewards you for casually driving through the regions of Tokyo, Japan. There is everything for all types of players in FH6; you get the thrill of the racing, a ton of customization options, carefree exploration, and so on. I highly recommend any racing game fan to try out Forza Horizon 6, as I am confident that they will have a difficult time putting it down.

Forza Horizon 6 releases on May 19, 2026, on Xbox Series X|S and PC, with a release for PlayStation 5 later this year.