Not much! My first few hours with the game prove that the anticipation we had for this game is met, and if you’ve enjoyed the series so far, this one will not disappoint. After a whopping 135GB+ download on my Xbox Series X, I was blown away.
Big in Japan
Let me start by saying that Japan is beautifully translated to the game, and Playground Games is not shy about it. The developer pulls out all the stops to show the beauty of the racing game. The opening races take you to places like snowy mountains, Tokyo City, and rural areas (where especially the Wisteria paints a beautiful picture), after which you have to qualify for the Horizon Festival. During the prologue, everything is thrown at you: a bullet train, neon lights in the city area, a helicopter, a plane, jets, and even a satellite that is rocketed into the air to capture the festival. The upbeat J-pop music lifts it all a bit over the top, but I must say it's impressive.
As is common in the genre, you get to drive top-notch cars in the prologue, only to be stripped of them when you’re let loose in the open world. This time around, you’re not a big shot, but a tourist who is visiting Japan with two friends, which feels much more natural in my opinion. Your guide Mei is nice enough to share three cars with you to begin with, and in no time you will be taking on challenges and races to get your next wristband.
Break stuff
From the first mile, you will get all sorts of indicators that track your progress and show the points you earn. You will get points for nearly everything, like almost hitting traffic when driving through the open world, breaking stuff, drifting, finding new locations, and clean racing. You will also be measured against your friends, to boost your ego - or the opposite (in my case). Forza Horizon 6 lets you do things at your own pace, but does suggest what to do next. The AI in the game is even a bit too much of a busybody in my opinion, but of course, you can ignore everything and just do as you please.
The racing itself is a nice sweet spot between the realism of Forza Motorsport and games such as Burnout Paradise. So it’s not extremely unforgiving during the races, but you do have to take basic racing principles into account. As a big fan of Burnout Paradise (which you can pretty much play with your eyes closed half the time), it took some getting used to, but it definitely has a good balance.
Sweet spot
Which car you drive and how you customize it is very important during racing events. You can just buy the preferred choice before each event, but the smarter thing to do is to check the nearby environment. Forza Horizon 6 has scattered discounted cars around which usually are perfect for the event that is close by. It motivated me to explore the surroundings a bit more.
Japan is a big focus of the game, of course, and the developer has thought of every detail, from the design of the menu to the Collector Journal. You fill this journal with stamps by just driving around, doing events, photographing certain items, smashing mascots, collecting cars, and even collecting meals in Tokyo (which I haven’t done yet, but I’m very intrigued). You can also go on day trips with Mei, during which I drove classic Honda and Mitsubishi cars, which is a nice touch.
Isn’t it neurotic
To be honest: everything you unlock is a bit overwhelming for me. Every time I visit the menu I have a new reward, or I have earned a badge, or I can spin the wheel of fortune. It is not a bad thing, but being as neurotic as I am, I get a bit nervous seeing a '1' here and a '3' there when just pausing the game for a quick coffee. This probably won’t be a problem once I have spent a few more hours with Forza Horizon.
I certainly will, because there is still a lot to do before I reach the status I deserve and the map is still very foggy (this installment introduces the 'fog of war', which is well-known to strategy and RPG players). Forza Horizon 6 does a good job of balancing campaign progression and just driving around Japan. There are still a lot of icons on my map that I haven’t visited, a lot of stamps to be collected, and a lot of cars to be unlocked. Playground Games has done a great job with Forza Horizon 6 and is almost touching perfection with this one.
This article was written by a human and edited by Gemini 1.5 Flash.
Disclaimer: All content is created with the help of AI. Be aware of possible hallucinations or factual errors. When in doubt, always check with official sources.
