Forza Horizon 6: A Stunning Driving Game That’s Hard to Fully Enjoy

Forza Horizon 6 is one of those rare games that gets some things spectacularly right while simultaneously making other choices so frustrating that they actively get in the way of the fun. As the sixth entry in a wildly popular racing franchise, the game has already been picked apart by reviewers covering everything from car physics to GPU performance. So instead of rehashing the same talking points, let’s focus on what really stands out: one element that genuinely impresses, and another that’s so irritating it makes the game tough to spend long stretches with.

A Pleasant Surprise: Japan Done Right

Heading into this release, expectations around the Japanese setting were cautious at best. Many Western studios have tried to capture Japan and ended up leaning on the most cliché imagery imaginable, things like endless cherry blossoms, shamisen-laced background music, and questionable pronunciation of Japanese terms. Honestly, it would have been easy for Playground Games to fall into the same trap.

But that’s not what happened. Playground actually did the work. They researched, brought in the right help, and the result is one of the most visually authentic depictions of Japan in any non-Yakuza title. The world feels like a curated, postcard-sized version of Japan rather than a copy-paste version of it, but every region within it is full of character.

What really stands out is the willingness to portray Japan’s less postcard-friendly side, including:

• Massive concrete freeways and elevated highways
• Detailed recreations of Tokyo streets
• Iconic landmarks like Shibuya Crossing
• A sense of regional variety rather than one repeated visual theme

The visual presentation alone makes it one of the most immersive virtual road trips you can take through Japan, even if it’s stylized rather than perfectly realistic.

The Driving Itself Is Phenomenal

Underneath everything, Forza Horizon 6 is a phenomenal driving game. The handling, sound design, and overall feel of each vehicle are top-tier. There are moments behind the wheel that genuinely take your breath away, including:

• Sliding through dirt rally tracks while gravel pings off the side of your car
• Launching off the line in a supercar and feeling the camera lurch with the acceleration
• Flying off ramps and cliffs that send your car soaring across the track like a wingsuit jump

When the game lets you simply drive and soak in the world, it’s incredible. The visuals, the sound, the physics, all of it combines into something that feels like a love letter to driving culture.

The Big Problem: The Horizon Festival

Unfortunately, none of these strengths exist in isolation. Forza Horizon 6, like the games before it, isn’t satisfied with just letting players drive. It surrounds you with the “Horizon Festival,” a constant, over-the-top fictional event that frames everything from cutscenes to in-game radio chatter to event introductions.

And it is exhausting.

Imagine Glastonbury being sponsored by Disney Plus. Picture a LinkedIn-style summary of the Fast & Furious franchise. Think of Tokyo Drift if it were rewritten as an insurance commercial. That’s the vibe. The Horizon Festival feels like an AI-generated approximation of what a “cool” culture looks like, completely soaked in energy-drink-style enthusiasm.

Everywhere you turn, you’re bombarded by:

• Radio DJs who deliver painful attempts at banter
• Cutscenes that treat Japan like a cultural theme park instead of a country
• Player character friends who serve no purpose other than to spout lines
• Constant, forced enthusiasm that never lets up

To borrow a sentiment expressed by other critics, this series doesn’t really have characters. It has delivery mechanisms for surface-level chatter.

A Game Players Are Actively Muting

It’s telling when entire articles exist solely to teach players how to mute the in-game dialogue. Players have caught on, and many are searching for ways to disable the radio chatter and cutscene banter just to enjoy the actual driving without interruption.

The good news is that you can toggle off a fair amount of it. The bad news is that you shouldn’t have to.

It’s genuinely surprising how something so universally distracting could be considered essential to the experience by the development team. A driving game packed with this level of polish, featuring real-world luxury automakers, and offering some of the best visuals in the genre, simply doesn’t need to be packaged with so much filler.

Compare It With Gran Turismo 7

Funny enough, even Gran Turismo 7, a game often criticized for being dry, comes out ahead in this comparison. Gran Turismo 7 keeps its presentation minimal. Its characters are static portraits. Its world is essentially a series of menus. And yet, paradoxically, that restraint allows the actual driving to speak for itself.

Forza Horizon 6, on the other hand, constantly interrupts the driving experience to remind you that you’re at a “festival,” which is the exact opposite of what most players actually want.

A Frustrating Disconnect Between Quality and Tone

What’s most disappointing is the realization that so much talent went into this game. The car handling is incredible. The audio design is rich and immersive. The world of Japan is rendered with genuine respect and craftsmanship. And yet all of it gets paired with a wrapper that feels like it was greenlit by a marketing team chasing trends rather than serving the player.

It’s not really about whether games are “for adults” or not. It’s that so many people clearly worked hard on this game, and yet collectively signed off on a presentation style that constantly undercuts their best work. Driving through stunning recreations of Japan should feel like a dream. Instead, it often feels like attending a track day hosted by an influencer.

Final Thoughts

Forza Horizon 6 is a strange contradiction. It contains some of the best driving moments in the series, a beautifully realized version of Japan, and world-class audio and visual design. But it also drowns those strengths in a layer of festival-themed noise that’s hard to ignore.

Thankfully, players have the option to mute much of the dialogue and tone down the in-game chatter. And when they do, what’s left is genuinely fantastic. There’s a phenomenal driving game tucked away inside Forza Horizon 6, as long as you’re allowed to enjoy it on your own terms.