There are occasions in life when I enjoy a good car game. Take, for example, Gran Turismo 7; it’s a pleasant experience with a sense of panache entangled with it. It’s meant to be sipped for a while, but not gulped all at once. It challenges the player, but doesn’t infuriate them. It contains enough to be constantly engaging and enthralling, but not intense to make it frustrating or seem built for specific racing fans. There’s so much to love about GT7, as the series set the standard for racing games in the industry, and its last iteration continued to carry that torch.
Of course, there is also another side of racing fun with games like The Crew. It’s a bit more intense in competition than GT7, offers some insane avenues to go down for racers, and tries some interesting concepts out, such as racing older cars, which can be hit or miss. It brings a less-than-deep racing experience in comparison to a GT7, while at the same time delivering a larger variety of fun that goes in more directions than GT7.
Now, considering both sides of those racing coins, has there ever been a game that has successfully used both racing structures, GT7 and The Crew, in one single game? Well, if there hasn’t been, then there is now with Forza Horizon 6. It takes all the elegance of a Gran Turismo title, then adds some kicking flavor of The Crew to the pot. The meal that comes out of that is delicious, fun, easy-going, and possibly the most explorable racing game that you have experienced to date. In my opinion, there has never been a racing game this deep to date. All while using the beautiful country of Japan as the backdrop. A lot is going on in this latest edition of Forza Horizon. Let’s dig into it.
The game’s setup is that the Forza Horizon racing event has moved to the country of Japan. Throughout Japan, there are some wild roads, off-road, and stunt races to bump into. Each successful race builds the player toward a colored wristband, which unlocks more complicated races with bigger prizes (in the same vein as GT’s license system). It’s a crazy big event in the game that spans a good chunk of Japanese districts. This small setup is a quick way to push the game’s small narratives without asking players to get fully invested in them. It’s like admitting that it’s hot outside so that you have a reason to jump into an Olympic-sized pool. Small reason, big payoff.
Anyway, you will not keep up with the story. That is a guarantee for this game. Even though the story is light, it doesn’t drag down your time with the many features of the game; it won’t impact you at all. Honestly, that is more than okay considering that the game wants you to take the endless side quests, go exploring, and just be wild and stupid with cars. The amount of story is appropriate in comparison to what the game would like the player to do. And there is more than enough to do in this game.
Now, the main part of the game, the aforementioned story, leads the player down a linear path of races, which unlock wristbands, which unlock more races. The game gives you some direction with the main quest of the game, which is to dominate and beat the best in the Forza Horizon event, but it doesn’t require you to do so until you’re ready. The main racing quest will show the game’s ‘umph’ off well, as it puts players in different environments, such as street races and mountains, while also upping the ante of what should be in a racing game (see giant mechs for details). I was so impressed by the sheer variety that Forza Horizon 6 threw at the player in the main racing quest. Getting so many different racing scenarios, street, track, off-road, and stunt, helped to keep the game flowing and cognitively engaging. During my multiple hours of gameplay, there wasn’t a single moment when I felt that the game had hit a wall of creativity or started to repeat itself. Every race felt new, every moment felt meaningful, and it kept adding more and more to the experience as I delved deeper into it. In other words, if they had just released the game with only the main racing quest as the entire structure, it probably would have been more than fine. But they didn’t, and now my expectations bar for future racing titles has been set at a new height.
I bet you’re wondering what was beyond the main quest. Well, I am glad you thought that because my response is A SHIT TON.
Outside of getting wristbands and trying to compete in the Forza Horizon event to become the best racer ever, the game gives you plenty of side streets to travel that are all meaningful. The biggest gameplay element that still has me hooked is the sprawling landscape that is just begging the player to explore it. Feeling the girth of the Japanese countryside and cityscape is something to behold. If the player sees a mountain in the backdrop, then they can go visit that mountain. If they see a waterfall in the distance, then they can go visit that waterfall. This is Kojima Productions’ level-sized girth and detail for a racing game that literally lays out a giant world for the player to explore in sandbox-like fashion. There’s nothing quite like going over 200mph down a Japanese highway and then having to hit the brakes so that the car can maneuver through treacherous roads that swerve in and out until they reach a gorgeous mountain view at the top. Exploring and seeing how far the devs pushed the detailed environment is a good chunk of fun within the game. But, as great as detailed environments and exploration are, there has to be more to the experience. Something that hooks the player and gives their traveling more purpose.
That hook comes in several different versions. The first big hook is finding vintage race cars that have been abandoned or hidden from the player. When the player starts exploring Japan, occasionally, they will be given hints that a supercar is nearby for the taking. That car is considered a treasure, and that treasure is given a single picture that the player must decipher to figure out the location. For example, there was a supercar from the 70s hidden in a snowy mountain top near a ski resort. The picture showed a house, a snowy top, and that was it. The game features two areas that are snowy, both mountains, so trying to locate that car was literally a treasure hunt. Once the car is found, cleaned up, and ready to go, the player can drive it to try it out. The car is also added to the player’s collection of cars, which is vast and spans several different manufacturers, even some long-forgotten ones.
Anyway, the task of treasure-hunting classic cars ensures that players will explore Japan’s landscape, and it is a wonderful reward for their exploration efforts. It’s genius to motivate people to enjoy the view, and treasure hunting is a wonderful mini-game that pays off by adding new wheels and new adventuring in the game. I hope they continue to add more of these random treasure-hunting drops, even aside from the microtransactions to buy more maps (not sure I love that, but it’s not overwhelming or in-your-face).
The devs also included items and signs that players could find, run into, and gain points along the way. For example, there is a ramen bowl hunt in the game, where players will encounter giant ramen bowls randomly sitting at locations. All the player has to do is ram into it, break it, and enjoy the points. These points add to the point total from successful events and races, which means more cars could be bought to test out on the roads of Japan. The items/signs aren’t a huge part of the gameplay process, but they’re a nice side item to keep the roads from getting boring.
Now, to make this game even deeper, it also includes the chance to purchase property, spruce it up, and build garages where players can park their property or gain new ones. While this portion of the game wasn’t my favorite, mainly because of my ADHD brain that just wants to go-go-go, it was neat to see Forza slow a bit and ask the player to design their own place in a more methodical manner, which is anti-Forza’s pace. Again, it’s a neat opposite of the gameplay and gives the player some creative control over something more personal to them. It also allows for auction access for cars, as well as a place to sell them.
Beyond these hooks, the game also features a plethora of different tasks and events all over the map. It’s impressive how many different types of racing or challenges players can run into. There are so many that you would have thought Bethesda Studios worked on this game. Rarely will players find boring parts of the game that contain nothing but land. There are always events near players’ locations. Always. What’s even scarier is that as players progress and explore more of Japan, they unlock more goodies, and then more and more of these event stops appear. From straightforward racing to setting new speed records on laser/radar, the game does its best to constantly keep the player occupied. There is so much to do, and I can see this game getting bigger as the years roll on, especially if DLC is in its future.
To wrap up the gameplay, I have to throw some major kudos to the devs for spending time to produce car-accurate driving experiences. The design of each car, specifically what its purpose was in its original/actual creation, reacts with how and where you drive it in Japan. For example, a fast car built for roads and raceways doesn’t belong off-road, which means there will be a lot of slipping and sliding. Opposite, off-road vehicles are designed not to do as well on the track or road. Each vehicle has its own personality, its pros/cons, and drives accurately to how it is in real life. The amount of care and detail that went into these specific designs echoes the amount of love and care that went into the overall gameplay. The devs did a wonderful job of committing to the process of bringing accurate vehicle types and performance to Forza Horizon 6. It has paid off in gameplay splendidly.
Overall, the gameplay is everything and more than most thought it might be. It breathed new entertaining life into my car racing experience, and as I said at the beginning of this review, raised the expectation bar for racing games. I will be playing this game for a while on and off, and loving every moment of it. Yes, it is just that good. Everything you might have heard before this review is true.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Forza Horizon 6 is everything you want in a driving game. It’s big, beautiful, and backs up what it boasts. This is a top-tier racing experience.
