Genre:
Racing
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Developer:
Playground Games
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Publisher:
Xbox Game Studios
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Platforms:
X-Box x/s, Steam, PS5 (2026 - TBA)
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Reviewer:
Captain Scarlett
Introduction:
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Forza Horizon 6 was my most anticipated game of 2026, and I’ve been desperate to get my hands on it since its announcement during the Xbox Tokyo Game Show broadcast in September 2025. I’m a gamer on a budget, however, my eagerness to play this game drove me to do two things I rarely do, pre-order the game and purchase the premium edition. Since then, I’ve accumulated well over 100 hours in this world and here is my verdict.
Narrative:
Simple but effective, Forza horizon 6 features a progression system that blends curated narrative with open-world freedom. You begin as a tourist aiming to join the Horizon Festival of Japan, this is done by unlocking and securing wristbands by participating in special events, Rush and Showcase. The game also features story missions/activities which explore different styles of driving, guided tours with a slower pace allows you to take in the surroundings of this stylized, fictionalized Japan. Yuri’s Auto, where players are sent off to collect a car, test drive it, and Yuri will talk through the mechanical engineering of the vehicle, he will then upgrade the car, tune it and your again sent out as the test driver.
Although the game features this structured progression system, at no point do you feel restricted to that structure, being open world, if you fancy a jaunt around the map in your latest modded creation, you can, and the perfected aspect of freedom in this game is one of the best qualities. You are governed by money (or credits) but they always seem easy to acquire, and I never felt like I needed to grind for a few hours to be able to afford my latest modifications or to be able to afford a different style of car for the next event. It almost feels organic or natural in a way, everything you do builds XP for unlocks and wheel spins to boost those credits. You are rewarded for just driving about, and that’s exactly the reason you buy a racing game to drive. The only thing that I’m not so keen on is the delivery missions, I’m attempting to 100% this game and one of the achievements is to ‘reach the highest level as a delivery driver’, oh boy! This is a grind. It’s fun at first, but it’s repetitive and quite boring after a short while, I would much rather use one of my (frankly ridiculous) collection of cars to perform these tasks however, this is an achievement and doesn’t block any progression in the game.
Gameplay:
This isn’t a simulation game; this is a driving experience. The game features many different adjustments to the difficulty, allowing every level of experience to progress. There is even an auto-drive feature allowing you to just sit back and enjoy the scenery, which a lot of people seem to be using to farm credits and XP. The open world map is once again tracked, allowing you to explore every inch of road available (671 roads total) again rewarding you for just driving. Barn and treasure (photo clue) finds are scattered across the map add to the exploration experience. A new feature is Estates and garages, you can now show off your creative interior design skills by building a custom garage set up to show off several of your most cherished vehicles. The estate even allows you to build your own track, and you go visit other estates too adding to the multiplayer aspect. The main event, however, is the cars. With over 550 real-world cars available at launch, they feel better, they sound better, they look better. Photo mode was created for games like this, the small detail of rain drops sitting on the car’s bodywork, or the condensation build up from the exhaust pipe, or the dirt slowly building up on the lower part of the car as your driving offroad at times is honestly beautiful. I implore you to turn your speakers up for that first driver through one of the numerous tunnels, that sound is just chef’s kiss. The cars handle, well, however you want them to handle really, with tuning available on every aspect of a modified car you would expect, if your car doesn’t handle corners well, enter the pause menu, tune the car on the go, as long as you have the modification parts to allow adjustments, set the downforce for cornering, push the caster up, boost the differential for acceleration and go give it a test drive. I’ve spent hours making small adjustments to my Nissan Skyline GT-R (R35) to make it handle just the way I want it to. I’ve even got several versions of the same car for Rally events, drag events and different specification grades A-700, S1-800, I’m sorry, okay! I really like this car. However, the point I’m making is this game is an absolute driving playground (excuse the pun) it’s just fun! And personally, that’s why I play games, to escape reality, to live in a fantasy world where I own 250 cars, I can modify them however I want, make them look however I feel, then drive them 200mph off a speed ramp. Flying for a physics defying distance!
Verdict:
​Graphics
Stunningly beautiful!
Sound
The important sound is spot on; the voice acting isn’t the best at times. I’d have preferred more Japanese sounding NPC’s
Gameplay
Unbeatable Racing enjoyment!
Story
It’s a racing game; it doesn’t need a story. What it does have in terms of story, does the job.
Performance
I’ve never had a game look so good run so smoothly on my PC (via Xbox app)
Final Score
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I believe a rating score is somewhat personal, does this game have anything in it that can be improved, yes, after the initial interest, the delivery missions become boring and repetitive, it contains a surprising lack of Japanese sounding NPC’s. So, some might say, I can’t possibly give it full fingers on a shaft (George I’m looking at you). However, i don't think there is ever been a game that is without anything that could be improved, however small, its relative to the time.
For me, the rating of a game, is about a feeling deep inside, it’s about the level of enjoyment it gives, and at the time of writing this review FH6 is the pinnacle of racing games, I haven’t had this much fun in a driving game since Forza Horizon 5. This game is a joy to the senses, and I rate it a perfect score.
