{"id":245,"date":"2026-08-14T08:53:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T07:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/?p=245"},"modified":"2026-08-14T08:53:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T07:53:45","slug":"forza-horizon-6-review-dopamine-highway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/index.php\/2026\/08\/14\/forza-horizon-6-review-dopamine-highway\/","title":{"rendered":"Forza Horizon 6 Review \u2013 Dopamine Highway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Once imagined as an open-world spin-off of the Forza Motorsport series, Forza Horizon has grown into the main event. Across the last five games, the globe-trotting, open-world racing series has taken players from the Australian Outback to the beaches of Mexico and beyond. But one location has been on the community\u2019s wishlist for years and years. In Forza Horizon 6, we finally head to Japan, and it\u2019s the pairing of this huge, diverse racing playground with best-in-class gameplay that makes Forza Horizon 6<\/a> so hard to put down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Forza Horizon 6, the Horizon Festival has descended on Tokyo and the surrounding region, taking its brightly colored decor and cheerfully car-obsessed people to a map that feels larger and more interesting than any before it. The last few entries of the series had been chasing the high of Forza Horizon 3\u2019s Australian map, but here, the team has finally raised the bar. Drifting through Shibuya Crossing, barreling down snowy roads in the Alps, and cutting stylishly through bamboo forests or past the country\u2019s iconic cherry blossoms are among the many thrills the open world offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like its predecessors, Forza Horizon 6 reimagines Japan, taking artistic license to condense its many different settings into one drivable area, and it\u2019s done so thoughtfully that arriving in a new region often feels like a cinematic event. The enormous roadside snowbanks in the northern part of the map are intimidating, blanketing the streets in shadow, while speeding past the bullet train in the opening set-piece proves right away that developer Playground Games still understands what makes this series memorable. Simply put, it is the exploration of the game\u2019s map that is its best feature, even more than racing through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the game\u2019s appeal comes from its incredible flexibility in difficulty settings and its driving model, bringing back a lengthy list of options that previous games have also enjoyed. Fine-tuning your experience is entirely up to you, and while the default settings masterfully walk the line between sim and arcade racing, you can lean more toward one or the other with a huge selection of customization options. This gives each player the flexibility to experience Forza Horizon 6 on their own terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want driving controls that demand precision and punish you with a more realistic damage model, you can have them. If you want more assists, like having the game gently aid you in braking, you can have that, too. There\u2019s even an auto-drive function, where your vehicle will head to the destination marked on your map, or even race for you, if you really want it to, leaving you to focus on other joys as you define them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The series\u2019 popular rewind function also means that, whatever you decide, you\u2019ll have a proverbial eraser on-hand to quickly fix any mistakes. It\u2019s all as challenging as you want it to be, and Playground doesn\u2019t care what your preferences are\u2013it\u2019ll accommodate. With its sunny disposition, Forza Horizon 6 makes it clear once more: This is your festival, and what fun looks like is entirely up to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Each race type, from neon-soaked street races and slippery dirt circuits, to elaborate cross-country excursions\u2013my favorite racing event in the game\u2013succeeds because of how fundamentally sound and flexible Forza Horizon 6\u2019s driving mechanics are. There are around 600 cars in the game at launch, and no two seem exactly the same. For those who want an experience you could call more sim than arcade, mastering one of your favorite vehicles becomes like learning the kit for your favorite hero in Overwatch or Marvel Rivals. That\u2019s especially true when you take them online, where other players can often challenge you even more than the CPU racers, and where user-generated content might have goals in mind that Playground Games hadn\u2019t implemented or even considered. There, players can create custom races with their own stipulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of seasons, first seen in Forza Horizon 4, returns and demands that players account for variables such as changing weather patterns and limited-time events meant to highlight those conditions. Races can unfold differently depending on which car you\u2019ve chosen and the season at that time. If you\u2019re a real gearhead, you can spend a lot of time tweaking a car\u2019s performance to your liking, effectively making every vehicle a nearly blank slate for those who want to pop the hood, and the moving target of seasonal events means you can practically live in this game if you want to, tweaking cars endlessly to best take on each one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much as Forza Horizon is a racing game, it\u2019s also simply a driving game, and the difference is more interesting than that may sound at first. Much of what there is to do on the sprawling Forza Horizon 6 map isn\u2019t interested in speeding ahead of the pack to claim victory. Instead, you\u2019ll take tours with sightseers, help a photographer find the perfect cover photos, and perform food deliveries, among other events. I didn\u2019t particularly care for the delivery jobs, which play out sort of like Crazy Taxi, but less fun. Still, most of the time, I loved these non-racing events as they introduced each region on a different level, and literally at a different pace. In these moments, Horizon 6 is more about appreciating what is in front of you, rather than zooming past it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favorite activity, which I actually wish there was more of, is finding all nine treasure cars. With one in each region of the map and only a photo of its location to use as a clue, I needed to track down these hidden gems, and the light detective work of matching visual markers in the photo to real life was a lovely change of pace. This string of side missions returns unchanged from the last game, but is a big part of why I didn\u2019t see the game\u2019s opening credits until I was several hours deep. Horizon 6 leaves you to your devices for a while, and what that meant for me was an early obsession with these secret cars that overtook the more intended introduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As fantastic as the map is this time around, I think one aspect that works in its favor is just how many cars are made in Japan. More than Australia, the UK, or Mexico, the series\u2019 other most recent destinations, Japan is a hub of car manufacturers. Forza Horizon 6 seems to revel in this fact, going deep on Japanese auto and racing history, specifically, and spanning all the makes and models you\u2019d expect to find in a series with such a sincere appreciation for car culture. In a way, despite this being the sixth game in a series that spans the globe and is developed in the UK, Forza Horizon 6 feels like it\u2019s the series coming home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the series\u2019 special sauce is how often it doles out rewards and how varied they can be. It feels like anything you do in this game earns you a virtual high five. If you compete in a race, you\u2019ll get a bunch of points for your campaign progress, which unlocks more events around the world, including what you could call the game\u2019s boss missions, the Showcase events. You don\u2019t even need to win races, though you\u2019ll get a bit more progress if you do. If you drive without crashing into anything for a bit, you\u2019ll get a clean driving bonus and earn some experience points. If you crash into lots of objects, that\u2019s fine too; you\u2019ll earn XP for wreckage. XP will grant you more skill points to spend on your car, so that you can, in turn, perform even greater feats and earn more XP in the game\u2019s cycle of rewards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll frequently unlock wheelspins, too, which will randomly award you money, cars, or other rewards such as custom car horns. You\u2019ll routinely unlock new mission types, such as the series\u2019 popular Barn Finds, hidden fixer-upper vehicles stashed off the beaten path. It feels like you can\u2019t drive for 30 seconds without amassing some new reward, and it\u2019s rare that you won\u2019t have enough money to buy whatever it is that\u2019s attracted your attention. Every time I went into the menus, I had more stuff to claim. It was overwhelming, but not in a bad way. It\u2019s almost comical how much the game cheers you on and showers you with gifts in the form of customization options for your car and character, cash, and new events. It\u2019s like a less insidious social media scroll, sending you down a dopamine highway. It\u2019s a formula Forza Horizon nailed years ago, and though it hasn\u2019t changed, it remains difficult to put the game down because the next cool thing to see or do is forever just around the corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continuing a tradition for the series, Forza Horizon 6 is a visual and technical showpiece for Xbox. Whether on my Series X or PC, the game looks stunning, with car exteriors and interiors meticulously crafted with a keen attention to detail. Transitioning from car to car also seems to be quicker than in past entries, with hardly a pause when I\u2019d swap out one car for another. Jumping to a first-person perspective so I could listen to each car or truck from the driver\u2019s seat was a persistent point of interest for me, too, as they\u2019re each given their true-to-life engine roars, or\u2013in the case of the electric cars\u2013their faint hums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like before, you can buy properties around the map to use as fast travel points. In past games, they haven\u2019t done much else and didn\u2019t seem to serve much purpose, since you can also fast travel to any piece of road you\u2019ve previously visited. But now these properties have been equipped with full customization tools akin to those in Fallout 4, where you can drop in assets and create your own spaces as a means of self-expression and let other players visit them. This does make them more interesting than before, but the idea of others visiting your space doesn\u2019t seem to mean much. Sure, they can check out which cars you\u2019ve displayed, and maybe you\u2019ve reshaped your garage into some absurd art project, but the fun seems to stop there. I have a lot more fun in this game on the road than in the garage, and without walkable spaces for avatars to explore others\u2019 creations in a hands-on way, I don\u2019t see that changing. I\u2019d get as much enjoyment from seeing my friends\u2019 projects if I merely saw images of them in a text message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All of this attention to detail amounts to a massive playground full of real-life landmarks, thrilling courses, and surprising side jobs, and it\u2019s certainly a great time, though occasionally\u2013and more so early on\u2013I couldn\u2019t shake the feeling that I knew the formula too well. I\u2019ve played all the games in this series, so things like the boss-style Showcase events didn\u2019t do as much to dazzle me as they did a decade ago, or even as much as they did in the previous game. Sure, I\u2019ve not raced a Gundam-like mech before, so the details have changed, but the way it unfolds was all too familiar. I know by now that, so long as I stay roughly on the pace the game expects me to be on, it\u2019s going to let me win in the end, and so these boss races feel like a lot of style without much substance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two-pronged campaign, one being the Festival proper and the other being the Discover Japan sightseeing tour, means you can focus on one or the other for a long time, or switch between them if you prefer. But eventually the game\u2019s admirable flexibility becomes more rigid, demanding you nearly perfect all of its races and PR stunts to unlock its final Showcase and see everything it has to offer. I understand wanting this final Showcase to feel well-earned, but for about 30 hours, Forza Horizon 6 reassured me that I was in total control of my experience, only to switch it up in the final stretch and demand I play by its rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In these ways, Forza Horizon 6 suffers, though I suspect that\u2019s only true if you\u2019ve spent a lot of time in each of these games. If you\u2019re coming to it with fresh eyes, you\u2019ll likely find yourself completely enamored of everything it has to offer. If you have a lot of miles on your Forza career, you may find, like I did, that diminishing returns have begun to set in, and the inevitable Forza Horizon 7 ought to figure out how to shake up the formula in a big way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Forza Horizon 6 is a gorgeous open-world game that is as much about racing as it is about taking a virtual vacation. Moving the series to Japan is an overdue high note, giving players the best map to date, while the hundreds of cars once again look and feel incredible, no matter the type or terrain. The customization options and an obsession with showering you in positive stimuli make every mile feel worthwhile, but if you\u2019re very familiar with the series, you might agree that some of the formula has become predictable by now. There\u2019s still lots of tread on these tires, though, and it\u2019s enough to make Forza Horizon 6 another joy ride in the most adaptable and enjoyable racing series out there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once imagined as an open-world spin-off of the Forza Motorsport series, Forza Horizon has grown into the main event. Across the last five games, the globe-trotting, open-world racing series has taken players from the Australian Outback to the beaches of Mexico and beyond. But one location has been on the community\u2019s wishlist for years and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247,"href":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reviewgamestoplay.xyz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}