Day by day, Playground Games and IGN are peeling back more layers of Forza Horizon 6 and its stunning representation of Japan. The most recent previews have focused on the map, specifically how it’s split up into different biomes, and the ways in which seasons impact each of them. Even without having played it, it’s immediately apparent this is the most ambitious environment the studio has ever built. Not merely because of its scope and density—which would probably qualify it alone—but also because of subtle details that players may not even notice once, twice, or 10 times through a stretch.
Seasons are clearly back in a big way in FH6, transforming the map at least as comprehensively as they did in Forza Horizon 4, which was, of course, set in the U.K. That said, Playground clearly spent a lot of time reflecting on how some of FH4’s seasonal structure fatigued players. The reduction in grip on asphalt, due to snow and ice, might’ve been initially exciting but seemed to overstay its welcome days into a cycle.
Given that, FH6’s attitude toward winter is as follows: Roads will be mostly clear—Production Director Mike Bennett notes that Japan’s actually quite good at clearing its roads efficiently—while gravel or off-road paths will be less well-kept, both for obvious reasons and to satisfy players who want a taste of winter driving. Additionally, the alpine section of the map, which serves as the highest point in this very vertical world, will be snowy year-round.
Forza Horizon 6 Brings Back Horizon 4’s Sweeping Seasonal Changes | IGN First
That seems like a good balance. But most of the world, which is held together with the connective tissue of low mountain roads, will see far more seasonal variance. Eagle-eyed players will notice fireflies and koi in some sections during the summer months. Lanterns and kites will signify holidays, which naturally are always closely linked to the seasons in which they occur.
In the winter and colder nights of autumn, you’ll notice water vapor from your car’s exhaust, a touch I simply love. A sea of clouds will bathe the lowlands in fall. And if you expect to bound through rice paddies without a care, the way they freeze over in colder months will necessitate tougher machinery.
It all sounds like music to my ears, frankly. And while I did note a couple of weeks ago that what little we saw of Tokyo City looked a little lonely (here’s hoping they’ll crank the traffic up at launch), the team clearly nailed the scale of buildings, from the sensation of slicing through skyscrapers on the expressway to the quaint suburbs on the outskirts. The Horizon series is beloved for a variety of reasons, but I don’t think it’s controversial to say the world that Playground builds for each one is what truly sets these games apart.
The studio is so invested in this process that for FH6, it actually split the environment team into two groups—the folks concentrating on Tokyo City, and those working on everything else. And in IGN’s videos, multiple members of the dev crew have credited leaving behind prior-gen Xbox One hardware as allowing the headroom for these richer worlds. The wait until May, when we can start exploring, gets a little harder with every sneak peek.
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