Forza Horizon 6 continues the franchise’s tradition of delivering a massive automotive playground packed with content, variety, and freedom. While it may not reinvent the open-world racing formula, it refines it enough to remain one of the most enjoyable racing experiences available today.
The first thing that stands out is the sheer scale of the world. The map is enormous, offering a wide variety of environments that constantly encourage exploration. From winding mountain roads and scenic countryside drives to bustling urban areas and hidden shortcuts, the world feels alive and worth exploring. More importantly, it never feels like a collection of disconnected roads. The map is designed in a way that naturally encourages players to drive, discover, and simply enjoy being behind the wheel.
One of the biggest achievements of Forza Horizon 6 is its recreation of Japan. Playground Games has clearly put significant effort into capturing both the atmosphere and visual identity of the country. Tokyo is especially impressive, featuring dense urban districts, elevated expressways, recognizable architecture, and an incredible sense of scale that makes the city feel alive.
Beyond Tokyo, the surrounding countryside, mountain roads, rural villages, and coastal routes help create a world that feels distinctly Japanese rather than simply serving as a backdrop for races. Whether you’re carving through technical mountain passes, cruising through city traffic, or exploring quieter regions of the map, the setting is one of the game’s strongest features.
Visually, Forza Horizon 6 is gorgeous. The environmental detail, lighting, weather effects, and vehicle models are consistently impressive. Whether you’re racing through a thunderstorm at sunset, driving along mountain roads at dawn, or cruising through Tokyo at night, the game delivers countless moments that make you stop and appreciate the scenery.
Performance is another highlight. Despite the size of the world and the amount of activity happening around the player, the game runs remarkably well. Frame rates remain stable, loading times are quick, and technical issues are few and far between. It is a polished experience from start to finish.
The car roster is equally impressive. With hundreds of vehicles available across virtually every automotive category imaginable, there is something for every type of enthusiast. Whether you prefer classic muscle cars, modern exotics, rally legends, off-road trucks, or dedicated track machines, you will never run out of new vehicles to try.
The racing itself is fun, competitive, and often challenging. Events offer enough variety to prevent things from becoming repetitive, and the greater difficulty settings provide a rewarding challenge for experienced drivers. That said, progression is absolutely built around grinding. Unlocking certain rewards, vehicles, and upgrades requires a significant time investment. Thankfully, the core gameplay loop is enjoyable enough that the grind rarely feels like a chore.
One area where the game stumbles is its dialogue. Much of the writing feels overly cheerful, forced, and occasionally downright cringeworthy. Characters constantly deliver awkward jokes and unrealistic enthusiasm that often feel disconnected from the tone of the racing itself. It is easily one of the weakest parts of the experience.
Another area that could use improvement is the AI behavior. While the Drivatars provide a decent challenge, they often behave erratically and unrealistically during races. Rather than racing naturally, AI drivers frequently become hyper-focused on maintaining the ideal racing line at all costs. This can result in situations where they aggressively force their way through corners, make questionable contact, or even cause major accidents simply to remain on their predetermined paths.
Their behavior often feels robotic rather than competitive, breaking immersion and occasionally turning otherwise enjoyable races into frustrating experiences. It is no surprise that the community has embraced memes surrounding “Bowie Knife 99” and other infamous Drivatars, as these moments perfectly highlight some of the AI’s more bizarre tendencies. The racing remains fun overall, but the Drivatar system feels overdue for refinement and could benefit from more natural, situational decision-making.
Multiplayer remains one of the strongest aspects of the game. Racing against other players is exciting, and Playground Games has implemented systems designed to reduce griefing and intentional wrecking. While no online racing environment is perfect, these safeguards do a solid job of keeping races competitive and enjoyable.
The game is especially fun when played with friends. Organizing races, cruising around the world, competing in challenges, or simply exploring together creates some of the most memorable moments the game has to offer. However, players who prefer to play solo should not feel left out. The single-player experience is packed with content, AI races remain engaging, and there are enough activities, challenges, collectibles, and progression systems to keep solo drivers entertained for hundreds of hours.
Wheel support is another area that deserves recognition. During my playthrough, I used a MOZA R5, and the experience was significantly improved compared with Forza Horizon 5. Force feedback feels more natural, vehicles are easier to control, and driving with a wheel is genuinely enjoyable. It is clear that wheel users received much more attention this time around.
That said, while wheel support is finally excellent, controller users still maintain a competitive advantage. The handling model and assist systems remain heavily optimized for controllers, making them the preferred input method for players focused purely on winning online races. A wheel provides a more immersive and rewarding driving experience, but if your goal is to consistently post the fastest lap times and maximize your competitiveness, a controller is still likely the better choice.
Forza Horizon 6 is not a revolutionary racing game, nor does it need to be. It succeeds by delivering a massive and beautiful world, a fantastic recreation of Japan, an enormous collection of vehicles, enjoyable racing, improved wheel support, and enough content to keep players occupied for months. The grind-heavy progression, cringeworthy dialogue, and questionable AI behavior occasionally get in the way, but they are not enough to overshadow what is ultimately a very strong open-world racer.
Forza Horizon 6 is a great racer that combines a stunning recreation of Japan, an enormous world, outstanding vehicle variety, fun multiplayer, and meaningful improvements to wheel support. While the dialogue can be painful, the progression grind is real, and the Drivatars can sometimes seem more determined to follow the racing line than preserve their own cars, the driving experience remains consistently entertaining whether you are racing solo, online, or alongside friends.