Forza Horizon 6 Reviews

The game is overrated. If you've played at least Forza Horizon 5 before this one, you can tell that. I'll admit that this one is more polished, I haven't had any issues with it, even in the pre-launch period (look back at when FH5 was released); the map and the Japan theme are awesome; the progression is slower now than before, but that's about it. I still play and enjoy the game, but I don't see what all the hype is about.

Showing recommended cars for races that I have to pay real money for does not feel good in a game I paid full price for.

Honestly, after sinking 200 hours into this, I can confidently say it’s easily the best Forza title yet. The Japan map is absolutely beautiful. I’ve had so much fun running co-op with friends, and the PvP is actually really solid this time around too. I’m down to just a few minor things left to do before I hit 100% completion, and honestly, it’s been an absolute blast the whole way through. If you love racing games, just get it.

the games alright but the glaze for it is insane, it is nowhere near as good as people make it out to be. the positives first, the map is mostly good, they FINALLY replaced some over a decade old car models and added some nice new ones. wheel support at least feels good to drive, performance is also pretty good. but thats where the praise ends, because literally everything else is copy pasted from the previous games as per usual, including all of the flaws. the ai is still the worst out of any racing series or game, you physically cannot take a corner without being rammed. people meme on bowie knife99 and if it was just certain drivatars that were agressive that might even be funny, but no, its all of them, in all events, unless your difficulty is set so low they dont race you at all. the livery system still sucks and is miles behind what GT sport has offered 9 years ago, same goes for the track editor, cumbersome, missing features, missing binds, no improvements whatsoever. the game throws hundreds of cars at you for doing nothing, requires constant car switching to progress, forces you to do terrible events to get more of the ones you actually like and still has awful scripted events that probably eat a lot of dev time but are unengaging and the surprise factor is gone after doing them a single time (no, just adding slomo to every jump does not make it cool) drifting events still require scores that arent really possible with normal drifting but instead require stupid setups on a controller that make the car behave like on ice to farm points, but it looks so terrible, i dont wanna drive like that its simply not fun, its just cheese the character models and cutscenes are also pretty bad about a lot of those things people are saying "oh just dont do this part" or "its not the focus of the game". ok, if character models and cutscenes are not the focus of the game, why does it not allow me to skip cutscenes, why does it interrupt whatevery im doing every 5 seconds? people are literally turning the dialogue volume to 0 to not have to endure it if i supposedly have the freedom to not do stuff awful cross country events, why am i borderline required to do them if i wanna progress? if i only wanna do street racing and drifting, too bad, i have to do a cross country A-Class SUV event, whether i like it or not. no, the game forces you to do all types of events and use all types of cars, so those things are not excused by just saying "Just dont do that". its simply a flawed progression system, which would be excusable, if they had made any strives to improve it for the last decade since horizon 3 came out, but no, its the same. other small problems include: custom control presets are saved, but every time the game starts it will default to a different one, so you always have to go in the settings and change to your preset interior wheel animations still dont line up with the actual steering (the animation will stop even though you can turn the steering wheel for another 180 degrees) mirroring stuff in the livery editor isnt actually symmetrical, all mirrored things will shift a bit in height if you set a group waypoint, you sometimes cannot remove it tons of buttons are not re-bindable AND not bound by default, some actions on the track editor have no controller nor wheel binding requiring a keyboard, so now i have to juggle three input devices for a single game class balancing is still quite bad so theres a cheese car/tune for every class that will just completely annihilate anything else netcode is still bad, most of the time cars will randomly teleport left/right making clean racing impossible group content is hard to do, theres no ready button and invites to started events only appear inconsistently so in a group, constantly someone is left out of an event because they were in a menu or cutscene and werent notified of an event to go to freeroam to accept it, though why that is even required is another question events are also way too short overall, you finally find an event you like, choose a car, tune the car to the event requirements, all this effort for a race that takes 2 minutes, you basically have to make custom events and tracks to have real enjoyable racing thats not over before you blink, shame the track editor is so awful... if i could id give the game neither a positive nor negative rating. its just the same as always and it can be fun, but its as derivative as fifa i considered giving it a negative to balance out the insane glaze its getting, but the game added my real life car, so ill cut it some slack dont buy this for full price though, its basically a ten year old game with a new map and thats it

[b]Could have been the best version of Itself - but here we are.[/b] I genuinely love this game, and I'll definitely keep playing it. That's exactly why I'm leaving a negative review. It has countless pros that make it worth loving, and everyone already knows about them, so let's talk about something else. I'm leaving a negative review to draw the attention of the developers and publisher to the game's obvious issues that need to be fixed as soon as possible. [list] [*]First of all, [b]the critical bug that can wipe your entire account progress.[/b] Man seriously? This should be your number one priority. Players were reporting similar issues back in the FH3 days, and here we are again, years later. That's simply unacceptable. [*]And what about [b]localization?[/b] I can't speak for every language, but the cyrillic UI is in a terrible state. I mean eye bleed level of bad. Text overlaps everywhere, and many translations feel completely detached from the context. Did your LLM run out of tokens halfway through translating and forget what it had translated one sentence earlier? Hire some translators who actually understand the subject matter please. I can totally understand why chinese players are unhappy with their localization. Honestly, it would have been better not to localize the game at all than to ship it in this state. And for the love of god, please just add an in-game option to change the interface language independently of the voiceover language already. Why do I have to dig into the game files and do it manually? It's 2026, really shouldn't be that hard. [*]And finally, the biggest disappointment. We're supposed to be playing Forza in Japan, so [b]where's the Japanese tuning culture?[/b] Why was such an important part of Japan's automotive heritage left out? The only thing reminding us that we're in Japan is the map itself. Iconic regional body kits, bosozoku culture, and other unique elements are almost nowhere to be found. And again that's simply inexcusable. Really sad. At least the community has done an amazing job recreating itasha designs. [/list] Make this game the best version of itself. Fix the rough edges, address the obvious issues, and don't throw away your reputation over problems that should never have made it into the final release. [i]Crybaby - out. See yall on the road.[/i]

[h1]Forza Horizon 6: Japan as a backdrop, not as real car culture[/h1] Forza Horizon 6 is not a terrible game, but for its price it feels shallow, safe, and disappointing. Japan is one of the best possible settings for a car game, yet the game barely uses its full potential. [h2]Paid Treasure Map[/h2] The Treasure Map being sold separately still feels ridiculous. I understand that not every player wants all activities and collectibles revealed immediately, but that should be a simple toggle in the settings. When the game already costs this much, selling basic map convenience as extra paid content feels greedy. [h2]Weak car audio[/h2] The game does have audio settings, but they are too broad. You can adjust general car volume, tire volume, dialogue, and other categories, but that is not enough. Many cars sound weak, flat, and underwhelming. Engines, exhausts, and turbos often feel too clean, too soft, or even toy-like. The exhaust often sounds like a weak “pop-pop-pop” instead of something aggressive and mechanical. For a car game, sound is extremely important. I want to properly hear engine details, turbo flutter, exhaust, intake, transmission whine, and other mechanical sounds. Instead, everything often blends together, and the sounds I actually want to hear get buried under tire noise or the general car mix. If perfect sound for 550+ cars is difficult, then give players a deeper audio mixer: separate sliders for engine, turbo, exhaust, transmission, tires, and environment. [h2]Japan is underused[/h2] The game has Japanese content: Drift Club Japan, Touge Battles, car meets, garages, Japanese music, photo activities, and visual references. So I am not saying the theme is completely absent. The problem is that it feels surface-level. Japan is not just cherry blossoms, rice fields, temples, and pretty houses. In car culture, Japan also means drift culture, touge, Wangan-style highway runs, Daikoku-like parking meets, small tuning shops, time attack, JDM legends, night racing, garage culture, visual tuning, and underground street scenes. Some of this exists in the game, but rarely with real depth. Most of it feels like small references placed inside the usual Horizon formula. [h2]Drift and touge should have been bigger[/h2] Yes, drift and touge exist in the game. But for a Forza Horizon set in Japan, they should have been much more important. There should be more night mountain-pass battles, more drift events, more rivalries, more tuning-based progression, and more stories focused on local car culture. A “cat and mouse” style touge mode would have been perfect: one driver leads, the other follows, then they switch positions, and the winner is decided by distance, pressure, and clean driving. That would fit Japanese mountain racing much better than another standard checkpoint race. Instead, the game too often falls back into regular Horizon events: wide roads, standard races, and familiar structure. [h2]The map feels like theme park Japan[/h2] The map can look beautiful, and some locations are impressive. But too often it feels like a theme park version of Japan rather than a world built around Japanese car culture. The mountain roads are a good example. Touge should feel narrow, tense, and risky. Every corner should matter. In Forza Horizon 6, many roads feel too wide and too safe. I understand this is probably done for accessibility, online play, and arcade driving, but it removes a lot of the character that Japanese mountain roads should have. The game does not need to be a perfect 1:1 simulation of Japan. But if the setting is Japan, the roads should feel more like Japan. [h2]Not enough fan service[/h2] There is some fan service: JDM cars, car meets, touge, Drift Club, Japanese music, and visual references. But for a game set in Japan, there is still surprisingly little of it. They did not need to use real brands, real teams, or copyrighted names. They could have created original content inspired by Japanese car culture: more parking-area meets, tuning shop stories, garage teams, touge rivalries, time attack events, unique JDM parts, more interior customization, and more atmospheric night racing. Japan was a dream setting for many Forza fans. The game feels too cautious with it. [h2]Customization is still too limited[/h2] The game has upgrades, performance tuning, liveries, body kits, and customizable garages. But for a Japanese car culture setting, customization still feels too limited. Why can’t we properly customize interiors? Why can’t we change steering wheels? Why can’t we add interior decorations? Why can’t we visually choose the exact exhaust we want? Why do so many iconic Japanese cars still have limited part options? Japanese car culture is deeply connected to customization, so this lack of depth feels especially disappointing here. [h2]Class restrictions are more annoying than fun[/h2] Restrictions based on power and class could have been a good idea. They force players to try different cars. But because the event structure feels limited, it often becomes annoying. If I want to drive my favorite car, I cannot simply build it for one class and enjoy the game. I constantly have to prepare different cars for different restrictions, sometimes for only a small number of events. When there is a lot of content, this adds variety. When there is not enough content, it gets in the way. [h2]Graphics are inconsistent[/h2] The cars may look better, and I can give the game credit for that. Models, lights, materials, and reflections can look very good. But the world around the cars feels inconsistent. Asphalt, buildings, dirt roads, ground textures, and some environmental materials often look strange. I play on maximum settings, but the image can still feel blurry, flat, or lacking detail. Sometimes the game looks expensive and beautiful. Other times, it feels like the cars received much more attention than the world around them. [h2]Final thoughts[/h2] Forza Horizon 6 has beautiful cars, a large car list, Japan, car meets, garages, drift, touge, and the familiar Horizon formula. But that is also the problem: it is still mostly the same Horizon formula. For a regular arcade racing sandbox, that might be enough. But for a game finally set in Japan, I expected much more: deeper tuning, stronger car audio, more drift, more touge, more street culture, more fan service, and a world that feels more connected to Japanese car culture. Instead, the game often feels like an expensive tourist postcard: beautiful, polished, and safe, but missing the depth and personality I expected. For this price, I expected much more.

This is the first ever driving game I've owned, and I am low key addicted. 7 days ago, I took a punt and bought the premium version, purely because my favourite person loves driving games, and I wanted to make the effort because he's always trying dumb stuff I like, and puts up with my flighty self getting bored and abandoning our co-op games. I've tried many driving demos in the past to no avail. My smooth brained-ness appears the second I pick up a controller, combine that with my complete lack of skill when behind the wheel in game, I've been a standing joke with all my friends for years, I mean so bad, I couldn't stay on a straight road, let alone take corners. This was no different for the first few days, and I got myself in a right tizz. Full of buyers regret, I was getting ready to shelve it, then my friend gave me a few tips, fast forward to today, not only have I won a few races, I'm actually loving it! My friends are all asking "What happened to not being able to drive?" hahahahahaa. I think its really well balanced with all the different events, love that we can decorate our garages, and I just love the mascot hunting, really breaks things up well. If I was to be super critical, the character creation is pretty basic and leaves a lot to be desired, and I really wish we had better tools for designing livery. I could do that all day long. Quite the turnaround for me, my friend even gifted me FH5 because I'm so hooked! P.S If I rammed you, I'm sorry, I'm still a terrible driver!

[b]Yes, I recommend it. No, I am not happy about it.[/b] Four and a half hours in and I have already been pushed to buy a bundle, a DLC pack, and a VIP Membership. Let that sink in. A VIP Membership. In a $76 racing game that I just bought. Not a free to play title, not a live service MMO, a racing game. It is offensive and I am tired of pretending it is not. Japan is a great map. It is genuinely fun and it was worth the hype, but it got old quicker than I wanted it to. Outside of that and finally getting real drag racing trees, this is Horizon 5 with a new outfit on. I wanted to feel something fresh. I felt it for a little while. Then I got another popup. The cars still sound like rice cookers. I have felt this way for years and I will keep saying it. A studio with this budget should not be serving up engine audio this flat. Play Gran Turismo and then come back and tell me that is acceptable. Someone at Turn 10 needs to make a phone call. I am on Steam Deck so I am not out here taking beauty screenshots or running flawless frame rates. I am just playing the game as it is, and as it is, it is still Forza Horizon. Open world, loads of cars, fun events, good times if you can tune everything else out. [b]Verdict: The game is fine and I still recommend it. The way it is being sold to you is not fine and I do not recommend that at all.[/b]

By agreeing to the terms and conditions on this game you are agreeing to have ALL of your personal information data mined by Microsoft. If you try to block the data traffic (not game related) you will ruin your ability to play the game. There's no reason to allow Microsoft to have access to my work documents to be able to play this game.

This game REQUIRES Microsoft Data Collection to be ENABLED to be able to play. If like me you have used a debloater, or are using a PiHole to block this spyware from harvesting every scrap of data on your PC, you won't be able to play the game. I was able to verify this by temporarily unblocking the program and the game miraculously worked. Whether you care or don't care what Microsoft does with your data, it's INSANE to force people to enable this spyware in order to play your game. If you have settings-win(dot)data(dot)microsoft(dot)com blocked, you can turn this on if you're ok with what it does. If not, keep it turned off and refund the game Edit: They removed the link