Forza Horizon 6 Review | A Dream Setting Let Down by Game Breaking Bugs
Japan Was Worth the Wait. Just Hope You Don't Lose Your Save File.
REVIEWS
Spencer K
7/3/20265 min read
Japan has been one of the most highly requested destinations for the Forza Horizons franchise for quite some time and folks, it's finally here!
I absolutely hate vague reviews and love to be transparent with my game progress and experience, so before I go any further I'd like to list my current progress with Forza Horizons 6. I have 60+ hours played with 41/57 (720/1000 gamerscore) of achievements unlocked at the time of writing. I have completed the main story and have unlocked a vast majority of the collectables!
I don't think it's controversial to say that Xbox developed games have been struggling at best and Team Green definitely needed a win. The Xbox Series S/X exclusivity catalog is by far the most disappointing out of every Xbox generation. Thankfully Forza Horizon 6 is one of the best games Xbox studios has put out for this generation. With all of that said, this game had some massive issues at launch, and I personally experienced them, which was a major bummer.
A Map Worth Getting Lost In
If you're going to bring Forza Horizon to Japan, you better have one of the most beautiful maps ever in the series. And they do. No complaints about the map or art style whatsoever. It's absolutely packed with activities and doesn't feel over or undersized. Discovering roads, hitting XP boards, races, car meets, missions, challenges, and all of the attractions make exploring feel genuinely worthwhile. A personal highlight for me was running over the cute little mascots set up throughout the map. There are plenty of custom made races and activities as well as seasonal changes that keep the map feeling fresh.
Customization That Earns Its Place
Speaking of customization, it's back and better than ever with custom tune-ups and art and paint jobs for your cars. If you're like me, you can download the funniest paint schemes for your favorite makes and models. Custom shared art schemes are a dying feature in online games, but they are alive and well in FH6 so mess around to your heart's content.
The Racing Is Complicated
You can't talk about Forza Horizon without talking about the racing. Unfortunately racing is kind of a touchy subject in FH6. Some people absolutely love it and feel like all of the quirks give it character and add unforgettable, insane moments to races. Others feel the racing is too inconsistent with glitches ruining good runs. I personally lean toward the first opinion.
One issue at launch was the AI being extremely inconsistent, with some drivers being unrealistically fast and aggressive. While a little frustrating at times, it led to so many funny moments playing with friends online. Watching an AI driver roleplay as a Tomahawk Missile and slam into my friends will always be extremely funny to me.
There have also been complaints about too many dirt and offroad races and not enough city races. I understand the complaint, but with custom races available I don't feel like it's a big deal. Most of the default races are designed well and offer a fair pairing of variety and challenge.
The Soundtrack Is the Best in the Series
By far my favorite feature in this game is its soundtrack. You have a variety of radio stations to choose from and after listening to all of them for hours on end, I don't think there's a single song I dislike. Every song feels like it belongs, which isn't always the case in racing games. My personal favorite is Bass Arena with Gacha City a close second. Most people won't admit it but a solid soundtrack can vastly improve the overall experience of a game, especially a racing game.
The Issues That Almost Killed It
Unfortunately in today's gaming world, you can't say AAA release without also saying game breaking glitches, and FH6 is no exception. While somewhat rare, FH6 has a couple of glitches that will completely break your game. The more common issue is an error with the cloud save where players would load up their game and find all prior progress erased. A fix has supposedly been issued, but players who had their accounts reset have no way to recover their previous progress.
The issue I ran into was even rarer. A random game crash during a loading screen resulted in an endless loop of crashes that hardlocked my game entirely. I reported this to Xbox and Forza support but received no response after weeks of waiting. After 48 hours I gave up, deleted my saved data, and completely restarted my playthrough. I haven't had the issue since and I'm now 60+ hours in.
The One Other Gripe
If you're lucky enough to avoid those massive issues, there's really not a lot of negative things to say. The only complaint I have outside of the game breaking stuff would be the Forza Horizon Wristband events. Half of them are nearly impossible to lose scenic driving events while the other half are almost impossible to fully beat without tons of tuning and practice. It's a weird combo that felt inconsistent and corny at times.
As an example, there's a giant robot you race that can fly and run super fast, with you trailing the entire time, but then the robot magically malfunctions just before the finish line and you win. Visually appealing and a first for the franchise, but a bit corny. Forza is primarily a racing game and isn't known for complex storytelling, so I chalked it up to a goofy event and don't hold it against the game. But the fluctuation between difficulty and tone is worth noting depending on your appetite.
The Verdict
In the end, I highly recommend Forza Horizons 6 to anyone who wants to enjoy an open world racing game. They really did a great job designing a map themed after Japan. If you're lucky enough to dodge the rare but destructive game breaking glitches, you'll have a blast tearing up the Japanese countryside.
