There’s something special about the Forza Horizon games. It’s a rare series that’s trying to be almost all things to almost all people and actually pulls it off. Forza Horizon has always been a place where people who like playing video games with cars would have a good time, whether they wanted to be playing a sim racer, a multiplayer adventure, photography mode vehicle, or just drive off a cliff simply to feel alive for a moment. However, after five games and more than a decade of doing basically the same thing in different settings, I was nervous that Forza Horizon 6 would feel stale.
But then, playing through the first hour, I realised that Horizon 6 is something the previous games weren’t: A love letter to Japan.
Each of the Forzas, Horizon has shown a deep respect and affection for its setting, with the possible exception of the USA’s state of Colorado in the first game, which I understand might be hard to love. But there’s a different, deeper energy in Horizon 6’s version of Japan. I think a lot of that shift is down to just how much more this game focusses on discovery. The fast travel bonus boards have been replaced by adorable regional mascots, which can be broken for XP, and are another way to give the different regions a unique feel. Fast travel is, helpfully, now free, but I’ll get to that in a sec.
Stories, which were bolstered in Horizon 5, are back in Horizon 6 and have even stronger cultural connections, taking players on day trips with fun facts about the country, and photography expeditions which gave me more insight into the history of Japan’s car culture.
There’s also now two different ways players will need to progress their character. There’s the traditional wristbands, which unlock new races and events, and then eventually Legend’s Island, and Discovery Stamps, which keep track of how much of Japan you’ve discovered. Having this split means that things that are in the festival, like races and PR stunts, contribute to your festival score, but things outside the festival, like stories, food delivery work, and unsanctioned street races, still give you progress towards something.
That’s not to say that every single moment of the game is an opportunity to drool over Japan. This map is absolutely bedevilled with races, events, collectables, stories, PR Stunts, and whatever else. Towards the end of my review period (where I got so close to Legendary before running out of time due to an inconvenient bout of gastro), the map looked like my daughter’s playroom floor – carpeted in every possible toy, including some I don’t even recognise anymore. It’s understandable that a few races might feel a bit familiar, almost copied from Horizons 4 and 5. Not in a bad way, there are only so many ways you can configure racing in a hilly paddock surrounded by miscellaneous trees.
But then I’d do a race that took me past Mt Fuji, through Shibuya Crossing and past Tokyo Tower and remember that this game couldn’t be anywhere but Japan, and I fell in love with the map all over again.
That crowded map with so many different activities shows that this is a game that has (presumably) been designed by and for you, the people with ADHD, as a serotonin drip. It’s what Horizon has always been, and Forza Horizon 6 exemplifies that.
That crowded map is also really impressive, because this is the biggest Horizon map ever. It’s just massive. You can get lost in it and I’ll be spending the next month trying to complete every single road and collectable, because 20ish hours was nowhere near enough. It’s why I’m extra grateful that fast travel is finally free, because in previous games you had to pay credits until you finished all the fast travel bonus boards. Now there’s a better compromise – you can only fast travel to sections of road you’ve already driven on before. It strikes the perfect balance of being player friendly, and still encouraging exploration.
One change that I found really took the pressure off, and made the game more fun, was something that took me a while to identify: The story is no longer trying to kiss my arse as vigorously, even when I do well.
Previous games have been set at a festival with many attendees, but then somehow become all about you! Wonderful you! A super star! The greatest racer to have ever lived! You’re what would happen if Jesus, Neo, Frodo and Buffy were all rolled into one and could drive a car!
And that’s nice and all, everyone deserves to feel a little special. But this is the Horizon Festival, there are a lot of racers. This isn’t Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift where one misogynistic white boy who’s never drifted before is somehow the only person who can drift to end the Yakuza and get the girl. It had just gotten too ridiculous. Now, players are back to entering the festival as a newcomer challenger, albeit one with extremely generous and helpful friends.
It sells a version of the fantasy that’s easier to buy into, for me at least, and gives the game some (admittedly very low) stakes. If you’re already the greatest racer to have ever lived with no real competition, what are you racing for? There’s still no way to fail in Horizon 6, even losing a race will give you the points you need to progress to Legend status, but at least you’re working towards something.
The tag line for Forza Horizon 6 is “Faster Together,” and that comes across, not just in how the radio presenters and characters now remember that there’s heaps of other people competing at the festival, but in how you can do almost everything in the game in multiplayer and still move the story along. Players have always been able to race with friends, but before you had to choose whether to progress your wristband, or race for fun. Now you can do both, and it goes even further to cementing the game as being one that almost anyone can play in almost any way they want, have a good time, and get rewarded for the thing that makes them happy.
There are a few things that aren’t perfect, and they’re so nit-picky. But why is it still so annoying to change cars when you restart a race? If I’ve lost a race, I’ll restart to go again, and sometimes people lose because they chose the wrong car. Why is there no easy way to pick a new car from the race start menu? Why must I jump out of the race, and then jump back in? It adds unnecessary friction to an already annoying moment.
My other complaint is about one of Horizon 6’s big new features: The Estate. The whole thing with The Estate is that it’s your player’s house where you can build whatever you want to race or display. But the building experience on console is still just awkward, and there aren’t enough options of props, accessories or structural items if you’re not wanting to build yet another race track. And, I get it, this is a racing game, but there are already so many race tracks. Of all the things Forza Horizon has, it’s places to race. What I want to build is a little model village to explore, or a farm. The best I could do was a little Jurassic Park theme park with dinosaur statues, which is nice enough, but not exactly thrilling.
But those things aside, Forza Horizon 6 is the series at its best. As always, the magic of Horizon isn’t in the impeccable racing, but in everything else. What makes Horizon special is that it’s a game that just wants you to have a good time doing basically anything you can do while driving a car and keeping it PG. it’s a love letter to Japan, but it also holds so much obvious affection for the player and their friends. It’s a game that wants nothing more of the player than for them to have a good time. And that’s just the spirit of Horizon, isn’t it?
Reviewed on Xbox | Review copy supplied by publisher
Great
- The game looks beautiful
- You'll never run out of things to do
- Plays surprisingly well on the Xbox Ally X handheld
- A larger selection of music than previous games
- Fast travel is free now
Not great
- The Estate isn't all it was cracked up to be
- It's still difficult to pick a new car when restarting a race
- Doesn't try to do anything especially bold or novel