You can turn back the clock almost 10 years and still find fan-fueled rumors of Forza Horizon choosing Japan as its next locale. The island nation has easily been the series’ most anticipated venue since the very beginning, and it isn’t hard to assume why. Japan’s trend-setting car culture, hallowed grounds of motorsport from Ebisu to Suzuka, and legacy of contributions to our industry make it an obvious selection. If one thing is immediately clear from sampling the first hour of Forza Horizon 6’s campaign, it’s that the developers at Playground Games not only revere that legacy; they’ve captured the environment that made it possible.
I was lucky enough to get a snippet of FH6 ahead of its May 19 release. The preview started with the game’s prologue event, an introductory affair Horizon players have come to expect. It’s a sampler of race and vehicle types that showcases the full diversity of the game world, culminating in a race to the festival in this installment’s hero car, the GR GT. From there, you’re introduced to your guide for your adventures in Japan, meet your starter cars (those would be an ST205 Toyota Celica GT-Four, widebody S13 Nissan Silvia, and—wait for it—a K5 GMC Jimmy), and can immediately begin contesting races to qualify for the big show, the Horizon Festival. For this preview, I got to try the first three qualifiers and roam the map as I pleased.
Something I’ve come to learn six entries into, let’s be honest, the only racing game involving real cars that matters to most people anymore, is that my initial impression is always the same: sheer awe at the world Playground Games has created. It’s no stretch to call these environment artists the finest in the biz.
As with its last two installments, FH6 respects Japan’s changing seasons, though their effect on the world is far more profound than in Forza Horizon 5‘s Mexico, which really only alternated between dry and wet spells. This sampling of the game was constrained entirely to spring, though the country’s diversity of climates means that alpine weather—and an obligatory four-wheeled ski jump—is never more than a road trip away, no matter the season.
My preview was also limited to Xbox Series consoles only, and yet, what Playground has achieved from a visual standpoint on nearly six-year-old hardware is oftentimes breathtaking. The foliage in FH6’s Japan—be it the waves of Gingko trees draped across hillsides, fallen cherry blossom petals kicked up from passing cars, or snow-covered pines to the north—is the prettiest I’ve ever seen in a video game. I know Playground’s rendition of Tokyo City, and particularly car-nerd havens like Daikoku PA, will get the most attention from first-time players, but it’s natural beauty that these titles do best, and FH6 is no different.
About that city: Playground rates it as five times the size of FH5’s Guanajuato. I would say that while I’m sure it is indeed that big, it feels a little more intimate than that, because this urban zone is more vertical than horizontal. There’s plenty of layering of expressway routes over city streets, with landmarks like the Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge always seemingly perfectly framed by skyscrapers. Yes, the roads are wide—frankly, a smidge wider than I would’ve preferred, while fully cognizant that Playground couldn’t make them authentically claustrophobic and fun for racing at the same time.
Traffic, too, is on the light side. It’s not quite as sparse as the first gameplay footage we saw in March, but in tandem with the many unoccupied travel lanes, larger boulevards do feel a bit lonely. There are pedestrians, however, cordoned off into defined areas that cars obviously can’t go, so that’s an appreciated sign of life.
In your travels, you may happen across cars for sale, and I’m not just talking about your classic Horizon Barn Finds of old (those are here, too, though not in my demo.) These cars have some modifications and are sold at a reduced price, and they’re a very cool wrinkle that I expect will lend this installment some surprises its predecessors probably could have used. On the topic of customization, we’ve discussed the new Forza aero parts available for every car, but an even bigger deal is the selection of new aftermarket wheels added for this installment, as well as the ability to fit different wheels on each axle. This might now be the best and most diverse assortment of rims in any racing game, and Gran Turismo 7 is no slouch.
As far as the racing itself, there are two details about FH6’s progression that I feel are important to note and wholly welcome. First, it wasn’t enough to finish those qualifier events to get into the Horizon festival—I had to win them, which is how it damn well should be. Second, all events in the campaign are locked to specific car classes before first completion, which will be music to the ears of anyone who ever thought these games were too directionless and open-ended to invite any tension or purpose.
I love that FH6 returns to the first game’s “wristband” system, where you’ll have to work your way up to faster vehicle classes as you play. Because it kind of takes all the wind out of my sails to randomly win a priceless Porsche Le Mans legend four races into my Horizon career via a prize wheelspin I earned for doing nothing of consequence. FH6 represents at least a nudge back toward old-school game design.
By the time review code drops, I expect to be able to sample FH6 on PC as well as my Series X. (PS5 players, we’re told, will have to wait until later in the year to hit the road.) This particular build was locked to the game’s Quality mode, which caps framerate at 30 frames per second in pursuit of more detailed visuals. I see FH6 as a more exploratory and less sweaty-palm competitive racing experience, so I reckon Quality mode is a fine way to experience this game, though there will of course also be a 60 fps Performance option for those who settle for nothing less.
Speaking of which, I’ll have to get behind the wheel of more than the 20 or so cars offered in this preview for a final call, but I wasn’t picking up a massive difference in handling behavior between what I drove in this preview and my memories of FH5. You can expect around 550 vehicles on day one, and if that’s not enough, be patient. The previous game launched with close to the same number, and almost doubled that in the years following release. Longtime fans will appreciate that some cars that date back pretty far in Forza lore, like the S13 and S15 Silvia and R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R, have been remodeled to look much more accurate than they ever have in the franchise before.
FH6 has shaped up to be exactly what the throngs have been asking for: Forza Horizon as you know and probably love it, staged in Japan, with the deft environmental touch that only Playground games has been apt to deliver. Personally, I’m hoping for some more surprises in the full release, like those cars for sale out in the wild. And, with plenty more new features we didn’t explore in this preview, like the ability to decorate your own garage space, there will surely be much to discuss when our full review drops in the coming weeks. See you right back here, mid-May.
What do you want to know about Forza Horizon 6 as we prep our review? Let me know at adam.ismail@thedrive.com