Forza Horizon 6 Review
Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release Date: May 19, 2026
Main Story Length: 28 hours
Developer: Playground Games
Reviewed on PC
Racing games usually follow a pattern for me.
Jump in, unlock a few cars, do a handful of races, have fun for a while… and eventually things start feeling repetitive. That’s not necessarily a knock against the genre — it just tends to happen. Once the cycle settles in, I usually start drifting toward other games.
Forza Horizon 6 somehow kept pulling me back.
Not because I needed to finish another race or chase another unlock, but because I kept finding random reasons to stay in the world a little longer.
Some of my favorite moments had absolutely nothing to do with traditional racing.
I found myself taking food delivery jobs and unintentionally turning them into my own little story missions. Suddenly I wasn’t just driving from point A to point B — I was flying through Tokyo traffic like I had an impossible deadline hanging over me. Dodging cars, hitting corners a little too aggressively, trying not to miss turns.
It sounds dumb on paper.
Playing it? Weirdly fun.
That became the theme of my time with Forza Horizon 6. The game constantly gives you reasons to create your own fun.
The variety helps a lot.
There always felt like there was something else pulling my attention away: races, challenges, cinematic events, drifting, multiplayer activities, exploration, hidden vehicles, progression systems. Every time I planned to do one thing, I somehow ended up doing five others instead.
Finding hidden cars and barns remained one of my favorite parts too. There’s something satisfying about hearing rumors, hunting locations down, and uncovering something waiting to be discovered. It gives exploration purpose beyond just driving around.
Even driving around for no reason was fun enough.
That’s probably Horizon’s biggest strength.
I’d catch myself doing absolutely nothing important — just flying toward speed traps at absurd speeds because driving itself was the reward. More than once, I started heading somewhere specific and abandoned the plan entirely because a road off in the distance looked more interesting.
Whenever I picked a destination, Horizon 6 would somehow give me a reason to take the long way there.
That doesn’t happen unless your driving feels right.
And Forza Horizon 6 absolutely nails that feeling.
Everything feels smooth, responsive, and incredibly fluid. Drifting felt noticeably better too. The e-brake became dangerously addictive to mess around with, especially when flying into corners faster than I probably should’ve been. Half the fun became intentionally taking routes that let me slide through turns.
The actual act of driving never really got old.
Customization is also ridiculous in the best possible way.
The amount of options is insane, but what I appreciated most was how easy community-created tuning setups made everything. Want to raise your car class? Need a drift build? Need better grip? Somebody out there probably already created exactly what you need.
Instead of spending forever inside menus, you can get back on the road almost immediately.
And then there are wheel spins.
Wheel spins are dangerous.
I’m convinced they’re designed to trigger the exact same part of your brain that says “one more.” One turns into three. Three turns into five. Next thing you know you’re unlocking cars and convincing yourself you’re definitely done after the next spin.
You’re never done after the next spin.
The car selection itself is fantastic too. There always felt like there was something new to chase, unlock, tune, or experiment with.
Visually, Forza Horizon 6 can look ridiculous.
The detail on the vehicles, reflections, lighting, ray tracing, and overall presentation is insane at times. Pair that with Tokyo’s city streets and mountain roads and you end up with some genuinely beautiful drives. The contrast between dense city environments and larger scenic roads gave the world a lot of variety and made long sessions easy to get lost in.
The audio deserves love too.
Engines sound incredible. Controller haptics help sell the feeling of speed. Everything feels polished.
Multiplayer also ran smoothly during my time with it and offered a ton of options. Whether I wanted something competitive or just wanted to jump in casually, I never felt like I was struggling to find something to do.
The progression systems deserve credit too.
Skill points and rewards constantly feed you little incentives to keep moving forward. Unlocks actually felt rewarding rather than feeling like filler.
It wasn’t smooth riding the entire way, though.
The map can get pretty crowded. At times I had trouble immediately telling what I completed versus what still needed attention unless I started heavily filtering icons. I would’ve liked clearer indicators because there’s a lot happening on-screen.
And while Horizon does a great job giving players options, racing games still eventually run into a little repetition for me personally. That’s less of a Horizon issue and more of a genre thing, but it still popped up occasionally.
PC players should also keep expectations realistic if they’re playing on older hardware. Once you start pushing visual settings and ray tracing hard, aging systems are definitely going to feel it.
One thing that probably helped me personally: I played a ton of Forza Horizon 4, but barely touched 5.
Coming back for 6 made everything feel fresh again.
Maybe skipping a game accidentally worked in my favor.
Because now I’m already looking forward to jumping back in and seeing what gets added over time.
And if I were a diehard racing fan?
This score probably creeps even closer toward perfection.
