Forza Horizon games have a pattern. You boot one up, get hit with an opening sequence that makes your jaw drop, and spend the next hundred hours wondering why you ever played anything else. Forza Horizon 6 follows that pattern almost to the letter, and yet somehow it still manages to feel like the most complete version of this formula the series has ever produced. Japan was the location fans had been asking for since forever, and Playground Games has delivered something that justifies every year of waiting. Let's dive deeper into our Forza Horizon review and see what makes this the greatest racing game ever.

The Map Is the Star

Japan gives Forza Horizon 6 something that Mexico never quite managed to sustain, which is visual variety that holds up over hundreds of hours. Within a single session, you can blast down coastal highways, go through narrow mountain passes, cruise alpine roads with Mount Fuji sitting on the horizon, and tunnel through snowdrifts at a ski resort before dropping back down into the neon-lit expressways of Tokyo City.

The map covers various regions, each with its own character and personality. Tokyo City takes up an entire region and is five times the size of Forza Horizon 5's Guanajuato. It is genuinely impressive in scale, with narrow back alleys, wide elevated highways, and dense pedestrian areas that make it feel lived in. The criticism that other reviewers have raised about the city lacking atmosphere is fair to a degree. It does not quite capture the texture of real Tokyo, and some of the cultural details feel surface-level. But as a playground for driving, it is the best urban environment the series has ever offered.

Outside the city, the map is simply stunning. Rice paddies, mountain forests, coastal cliffs, snowy ski trails, rural hamlets, a giant stadium. The diversity never really lets up, and after dozens of hours, the map still manages to surprise you. This is something Forza Horizon 5 never quite achieved once the initial wow factor of Mexico wore off.

Gameplay and Events

The core loop is unchanged. You drive, you earn credits and XP, you unlock new events, you buy cars. What Forza Horizon 6 adds to this foundation are new event types that genuinely freshen up the experience.

  • Touge battles are the most interesting addition. One-on-one mountain races on winding night roads, with no barriers and live traffic to avoid. On higher difficulty levels, they are genuinely tense in a way that most Horizon events are not, requiring precise braking points and clean lines through corners rather than just having the fastest car. They are the closest this series has come to something with real edge, and they are better for it.
  • Time attack events blend seamlessly into the open world, appearing as marked zones on the map where you just drive through and set a time without loading into a separate screen. Drag meets reward proper tuning rather than just raw speed. Food delivery jobs based in Tokyo City are really engaging, combining time pressure with customer requests that ask you to drift or hit speed targets mid-delivery.
  • The showcase events remain the series highlight. Racing a giant stomping mech that crushes everything around it, these are the moments that remind you why Forza Horizon exists. They are spectacular in a way that no other racing game attempts.

The two progression tracks, Horizon Festival and Discover Japan, split the game's content neatly. The festival covers the structured racing side. Discover Japan handles exploration, street races, touge battles, and story missions.

Touge Battles Forza Horizon 6

Graphics and Visual Performance

Forza Horizon 6 is the best-looking entry in the series, and it is not particularly close. For the first time, the game makes full use of ray tracing throughout the open world rather than limiting it to the car viewer. The results are visible in wet road reflections, lighting at sunset through mountain gaps, and the way Tokyo City looks at night with neon bouncing off rain-soaked tarmac.

Forza Horizon 6 Photography Locations

On PC at 1440p with high to ultra settings, the game runs at a comfortable 100 to 120 frames per second on mid-range hardware. Cranking everything to extreme with full ray tracing will push that down significantly, but AMD FSR and NVIDIA multi-frame generation support mean most modern cards can hit 60 frames per second even at maximum settings with upscaling enabled. The game is well optimised and feels noticeably smoother than Forza Horizon 5 at launch.

On Xbox Series X, the performance mode targets 4K 60 frames per second with dynamic scaling. Xbox Series S runs at 1080p 60 frames per second in performance mode. Both console versions look excellent for their respective hardware, though PC has a clear edge in fidelity potential.

Here are the official PC requirements:

SpecMinimumRecommendedExtremeExtreme RT
CPUIntel i5-8400 / Ryzen 5 1600Intel i5-12400F / Ryzen 5 5600XIntel i7-12700K / Ryzen 7 7700XIntel i7-12700K / Ryzen 7 7700K
GPUGTX 1650 / RX 6500 XTRTX 3060 Ti / RX 6700 XTRTX 4070 Ti / RX 7900 XTRTX 5070 Ti / RX 9070 XT
RAM16GB24GB32GB32GB
Storage160GB SSD160GB SSD160GB NVMe SSD160GB NVMe SSD
Target1080p Low 60fps1440p High 60fps4K Extreme 60fps4K RT 60fps

Controls and Driving Feel

The driving in Forza Horizon 6 is the best it has ever been. The gap between arcade accessibility and genuine mechanical depth has widened in the best possible way. With all assists on (all controls for PC and console), anyone can pick this up and have a good time. With assists off, simulation steering enabled, and drivatar difficulty cranked up, you get something that rewards real skill and precise car knowledge.

The proximity radar is a new addition that deserves a specific mention. Fully customisable in placement, it lets you track opponents without taking your eyes off the road. In touge battles, especially, it is invaluable. The new Auto Drive feature lets Anna, the game's assistant, take the wheel entirely. It is mainly an accessibility and AFK tool, but it is implemented cleanly and does not get in the way if you have no interest in it.

Difficulty settings directly affect credit payouts, which creates a genuine incentive to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Turning off stability control, switching to manual, and raising the drivatar difficulty all stack percentage bonuses that add up meaningfully over time. It is a smart system that rewards players for getting better without punishing those who prefer a more relaxed experience.

Audio

The music is among the best in the series. Nine radio stations cover an impressive range, and for the first time, there is a station dedicated entirely to Japanese artists, hosted by a DJ who speaks only in Japanese. YOASOBI, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Hikaru Utada, and BAND-MAID sit alongside international acts across other stations in a tracklist that genuinely fits the setting.

The one weakness is car audio. Engine sounds, while not bad, still feel a little muted compared to what the genre is capable of. Crash sounds in particular lack the weight you would expect from vehicles this powerful. It is a consistent weakness across the Forza Horizon series, and Horizon 6 does not fix it. For a game that is so deeply about cars, this continues to be a missed opportunity.

What It Lacks

Forza Horizon 6 is a very good game, but it is not without frustration.

  • The progression system still showers you with cars and credits faster than they can feel meaningful. Within a few hours, you are a multi-millionaire with a garage full of supercars, which dulls the satisfaction of earning something specific.
  • You still cannot upgrade your car's performance class before starting an event without going to a garage first. When you are retrying a difficult race and need a quick tune adjustment, this means loading screens and menus instead of a simple pre-race option. It is a minor but persistent annoyance.
  • Tokyo City, for all its scale, lacks genuine atmosphere. The cultural details are present but surface-level, and the city never quite captures the texture of the real thing. It is a great driving environment that happens to look like Tokyo rather than a place that genuinely feels like Tokyo.

Pros and Cons

  • Best map in series history
  • Genuine visual variety across all regions
  • New event types add real freshness
  • Touge battles are tense and rewarding
  • Best graphics the series has produced
  • Excellent music and radio stations
  • Deep driving assists range
  • Car audio still feels muted
  • Progression showers you with cars too quickly
  • Tokyo City lacks a genuine cultural atmosphere
  • 160 GB storage requirement is significant

Value for Money

At £59.99 / $69.99, the standard edition is priced in line with what you would expect from a major first-party release. The content volume justifies it. Between the main progression tracks, seasonal playlists, barn finds, treasure cars, touge battles, showcase events, and the sheer size of the map, there is well over 100 hours of content before you factor in online play and future DLC.

The Premium Edition, which includes early access and additional car packs, has reportedly generated over $140 million before the game even officially launched, which tells you everything about the appetite for this entry. The game is also available on Xbox Game Pass, which makes it one of the strongest arguments for that subscription.

Final Verdict (Score: 9/10)

Forza Horizon 6 is the best the series has ever been. Japan provides the kind of visual and geographical variety that keeps the game feeling fresh long after the initial excitement fades, and the new event types add genuine depth to a formula that could easily have coasted on familiarity. The driving feels better than ever, the world is spectacular, and the soundtrack is among the finest the series has produced.

Its weaknesses are real but familiar. Progression that moves too fast, car audio that does not match the visual ambition, and a garage customisation system that needed more time in the oven. None of these are dealbreakers, and none of them stop Forza Horizon 6 from being the definitive open-world racing game on any platform right now. If you like racing games, you will love this. If you have never played a Forza Horizon game, this is the best possible place to start. For more guides, you can check out our Forza Horizon 6 wiki.