Forza Horizon 6

Japan sat at the top of Forza Horizon wish lists for the better part of a decade, and after a five-year wait since Horizon 5, Playground Games has finally delivered it. Forza Horizon 6 is the best-looking, best-driving entry the series has ever produced — and also the most cautious. Both of those things are true at once, and how you weigh them decides whether this is a 10/10 dream or “just” another superb Horizon.

A world worth the wait

The map is the star. Horizon’s take on Japan runs from neon-drenched Tokyo — the largest city the series has ever built — through sleepy mountain villages, twisting touge passes, coastal roads, and dense forest, and it’s varied in a way Horizon 5’s Mexico only hinted at. This isn’t just a prettier backdrop; the environments genuinely change how you drive. One minute you’re threading a hushed residential grid, the next you’re chaining hairpins down a fog-wrapped mountain with an anime opening blasting on the radio.

It’s the rare open world where “just cruising” is a legitimate way to spend an evening.

Driving that lives up to the scenery

With over 550 cars — including a deep bench of beloved JDM classics — the handling model feels sharper than ever, with updated steering animation and up to 540 degrees of wheel rotation for anyone on a rig. Touge Battles and authentic car-culture stories give the campaign a strong sense of place, and the tourist-to-Legend progression gives you a clear ladder to climb. On the creative side, the buildable Estate lets you construct freely in an open mountain valley, and CoLab finally brings multiplayer to the EventLab toolset, so you and friends can build events anywhere in the world.

Where it plays it safe

The catch is the one every long-running series eventually hits: this is iteration, not reinvention. If you’ve played a Horizon, the loop of races, speed traps, drift zones, and collectibles is exactly what you remember. The reworked progression has split players, the festival characters have all the personality of a theme-park mascot, and cross-country racing remains the sorry weak link it’s always been. Reviews have leaned “best Horizon yet” while quietly noting the franchise is drifting ever further from its scrappier roots — and the slight dip in recent Steam sentiment (from the mid-80s to around 80% positive) suggests some of that formula fatigue is landing.

Performance

The technical side is a highlight: it runs impressively well across hardware, and it’s genuinely enjoyable on Steam Deck, with only occasional drops in the densest city areas. Five years of development clearly went somewhere.

Verdict

Forza Horizon 6 is a superbly polished racing machine wrapped around the most compelling setting the series has ever had. It won’t change your mind if you’d grown tired of the formula — this is Fast & Mild, not a bold leap — but as a place to drive, explore, and lose weekends, nothing else on PC comes close right now. For racing and open-world fans it’s an easy buy; for everyone else, it’s still one of the most effortlessly enjoyable games of the year.