Forza Horizon 6 is finally here and so is Japan, the location that all fans have been screaming for since I was an actual child playing Horizon 1. Thankfully, it was worth the wait.
As I completed the first few races to even qualify for the Horizon Festival, it made me realize how much of an improvement this Horizon is over Horizon 5. It was almost 2 hours before I qualified for Horizon and another hour before I got my first wristband. This was after 8 or 9 races, side gigs, story stuff, and exploring. A big reason this is in Forza Horizon 6, you start off as a rookie, a tourist, a nobody. Heck, you don’t even have your own car. Pathetic. Thankfully some psychopaths happily give you a car to use in high speed races. You’ll start with slower cars and obtain faster ones as you level up your wristband. This is a great nod back to Horizon 1 where you also started as a nobody and worked your way up to supercar status.
Unlike Horizon 5, you do not start here with Mach 3 supercars. Progression is also fixed, thankfully. While in Horizon 5, you could level up every single thing on the map just by breathing, that’s been fixed here. And you have to place in top 3 for races to even fully count as beaten. However, if you are someone who enjoyed the progression of Forza Horizon 5, there is an option in the menu to switch back to that style of progression. But, if you’re in the camp of Horizon 5 was a little less awesome due to the progression, go buy this immediately.
Discover Japan
With Japan, brings so much to do. So many progression paths, systems, side activities, billboards to smash, races, you know the drill. These all link in and play on top of each other which goes a long way to making your experience feel rewarding, purposeful, and never a chore. They even give you a lil passport style book for collecting stamps.
The game does a great job of making you feel you’re always unlocking or progressing towards something, but done in a more purposeful or natural way than Forza Horizon 5. Compared to Forza Horizon 5, you aren’t unlocking 3 wheelspins per race or a super wheelspin every 30 minutes. For example, there aren’t 100,000 XP boards to smash. The boards that are there feel more naturally placed. And as far as I can tell, fast traveling is FREE. So no more smashing those boards either. Heck, I even had to start budgeting my money which is something I haven’t had to do in any Forza.
The list of side activities is rather long, but without being overwhelming – Stories, Photography, Car Meets, Mascots to run over, Barn Finds, Treasure Cars and Food Delivery. While there are numerous side activities, I think my favorite one was being a delivery driver. This is basically DoorDash, but if the DoorDash driver had a specially modified V8 Turbo engine in a delivery fan and could drift around corners. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this addition as I’m not someone who usually enjoys timed delivery events.
Treasure Cars are another nice welcome edition. These are Barn Finds but without the giant purple circle around them. A single image is given to you as a clue and it’s up to you to find out where that car is.
Many of the “Stories” I also enjoyed. A few of them feel like if you’ve ever been on a bike tour in a foreign country, but this time you’re in a car…obviously.
My previous favorite Horizon game was Forza Horizon 4. I’m happy to say that Horizon 6 surpasses it. In terms of how much I like the map and quality of racing routes. Not to be cliche, but it DOES feel like you’re Discovering Japan. There are 10 distinct regions that feel a whole lot better than the samey “desert” area of Horizon 5. Forza Horizon 6 also does a better job of making you “drive” the map as you can’t just drive offroad across the map like you were able to in Horizon 5.
I Got A Fresh New Coat of Paint Daddy
Cars. They’re everywhere. They look better. Feel Better. Sound better. For reference, I hate myself so I drive with manual + clutch. In past Horizon games, I typically have to adjust the wheel sensitivity, but I never had to here. It’s hard to fully explain why they feel better, but they respond better and feel more “grippy.” It felt a whole lot more fun and natural to downshift into a turn, drift a moment then shift up again to slingshot around a turn. Felt a whole lot more rewarding than previous Horizon games. My only complaint is the cosmetic feels the worst it’s ever been-but I know that’s not up to the devs.
Sound has also been fully overhauled as well. Gone are the angry buzzing bee sounds of previous Horizon Games. Now, you can really hear the engines starting up and spinning. I never once thought, “man these engine sounds are annoying,” like I did in 5.”
Car Cosmetic systems have been redone too so unfortunately you cannot import your old car designs. However you can import your livery designs.
No Place Like My Car’s Home
Remember player homes? Those buildings you buy once and just use as a fast travel point and that’s it? Well, they finally have a purpose here. And it’s a wild one. You essentially have Halo Infinite’s Forge style system to customize your garage and home. Outfit it to your liking. I didn’t spend a ton of time with this, but plan to after this review. However, I can see players spending hours customizing their homes and garages.
Overall
While most of the online portion was inaccessible during the review period, I can already tell this will be a Horizon game I’ll pour another couple hundred hours into!
Thanks Xbox for the Code!
Forza Horizon 6
$69.99
Pros
- Best Racing In The Series
- Car Overhaul Paid Off
- Japan Rules
Cons
- Meh Cosmetic Damage
- Voice Acting Is Still Hilariously Awful
