Forza Horizon 6 review: The most immersive Horizon game yet

A Forza Horizon game, set in Japan is what most gamers across the globe had been asking for decades. Or at least, I have been waiting for this, for such a long time, and now that Microsoft has finally listened to us, the result has been unexpected. Of course, I say this in a good way, if you thought otherwise. Forza Horizon 6, for me, has not just managed to meet expectations, but also exceed them. This is by far the most gorgeous open world racing game I’ve been a part of. And I am not even exaggerating. 

Sure, there are a bunch of racing games to choose from, but Forza Horizon 6 is not just any racing that tries to impress you with fast cars and flashy effects. I’m going to sound a little poetic here but from what I understand, this title wants you to slow down, admire the scenery, take photographs, and simply exist in its world (which is very Japanese, I would say). You can drive the cars snowy mountain roads at sunrise or weave through Tokyo traffic at night while neon signs reflect off rain-soaked streets, the game constantly made me stop and admire what Playground Games has built here. 

Read on to know all about this masterpiece. Here’s my full review of Forza Horizon 6.

Forza Horizon 6: Graphics and PC performance

Forza Horizon 6 has multiple moments where it felt less like a game and more like a cinematic car chase sequence from a high-budget film. I especially enjoyed the nighttime drives across the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. During rains, the little water puddles on the road reflected the signs beautifully, giving the scene an ultra realistic look. In addition to this, there are the headlights that bounce naturally off nearby traffic, and the amount of environmental detail packed into the world is just absurd. 

Of course, Ray tracing plays a huge role in elevating the experience. Reflections look incredibly realistic, snow-covered mountains glow beautifully under sunlight, and the countryside roads during sunset almost look photorealistic. Water textures also deserve special praise because beaches, lakes, and rivers feel calming enough to make you stop driving entirely just to admire the scenery.

Talking about the performance, I tested the game primarily on my home PC equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti GPU and 32GB RAM. At maxed-out settings with ray tracing enabled, the performance was simply excellent. With DLSS and frame generation turned on, I was consistently getting 130fps, which made driving feel extremely smooth. Without DLSS, frame rates hovered between 60 to 70fps at maximum settings, which is playable but not necessarily super smooth.  

When I tuned down the resolution to 1080p, things got crazier. With DLSS enabled and multi-frame gen set to 4X, I was getting a whopping 260fps with the highest graphics settings. By the way, the game still looked gorgeous and resulted in an aesthetically pleasing experience. This makes Forza Horizon 6 a dream for competitive players who prefer ultra-high fps performance.

Now, the real showcase moment came when I swapped the RTX 5060 Ti for the RTX 5090 and connected my PC to a 55-inch LG OLED TV. Running the game in 4K resolution with extreme settings and ray tracing enabled was honestly a jaw-dropping experience. With DLSS and frame generation set to Auto, the game maintained a stable 200fps during gameplay, while the built-in benchmark reported around 195fps. 

Then, when I switched the frame generation to 4X, I started getting around 350fps while playing the game and 339fps in the game’s built-in benchmark tool.

As expected, there were no major stutters, loading issues, or distracting performance drops during my time with the game. Considering how visually demanding Forza Horizon 6 is, the optimisation here deserves serious praise. And a big shoutout to Nvidia multi-frame gen to make the entire experience buttery smooth, even on an RTX 5060 Ti GPU.

Forza Horizon 6: Gameplay is more than just racing

The best part about Forza Horizon 6 is how the game never stresses you out with constant pressure to race. Yes, the racing itself is fantastic. Street races through Tokyo are intense, mountain drift events feel thrilling, and long highway drives become adrenaline-filled at high speeds. But unlike many racing games that focus purely on competition, Forza Horizon 6 feels more interested in letting players enjoy the world at their own pace.

I spent my initial five hours in the game without racing. There were just so many other things to do. For instance, you can take up food delivery missions, which sound silly but are super fun. And then, there are some scenic day-trip missions where NPCs guide players through beautiful locations across the map. These sections almost feel like interactive tourism experiences and do a great job of encouraging exploration.

The game also rewards players who spend time discovering hidden roads, photography spots, and scenic landmarks. 

And when you’re tired of driving, there’s the photo mode. It gives you plenty of options, and you can just spend hours clicking photos in various scenarios. You can alter weather conditions, change the time of day and adjust the camera settings; there are a lot of options here. So if you’re into photography, the photo mode deserves a special mention. 

Forza Horizon 6: Sound effects and more

Like I already mentioned above, there are enough racing games to choose from, and a bunch of them look quite good. But not every racing game sounds good. And Forza Horizon 6 absolutely nails the audio experience. The sound effects here are fantastic. Different cars actually feel different to drive because of how they sound, and my favourite part was driving through the tunnels.

The moment you drive into one, the engine sound amplifies and echoes around you in a way that feels super immersive. Especially if you’re wearing headphones. Even environmental audio is impressive. Rain hitting surfaces, tyres cutting through snow, distant city ambience… it all adds to the atmosphere. And combined with the visuals, this creates a super immersive driving experience where you just want to keep exploring.

Forza Horizon 6: Characters and story 

Long-time fans would know that Forza Horizon games have never really been known for deep storytelling, and unfortunately, that does not change much here. To the game’s credit, Playground Games at least attempts to make progression feel more grounded this time around. This is because, instead of beginning your journey as an already-famous racing superstar, Forza Horizon 6 starts you off as a newbie trying to qualify for the Horizon Festival.

Because of this, early progression feels far more rewarding now and lets you relate to your character a bit better. You can’t get the best of cars right away; you go step by step. And winning smaller races and slowly climbing the ranks just makes the journey feel more personal compared to previous entries, where success came too easily from the very beginning.

That said, the actual narrative and supporting characters remain forgettable. After several hours of exploration, side missions, photography, and random races, I often forgot what the main campaign even was. Most NPCs feel like functional placeholders rather than memorable personalities. They exist mainly to hand out missions or accompany players during activities.

Character customisation also feels surprisingly basic, considering how detailed the rest of the game is. Now I am not expecting Cyberpunk or Elden Ring-level character customisation options here. But maybe a few more hairstyle options, facial customisation tools, and deeper appearance controls would have helped.

The strange thing is that the world itself feels incredibly memorable. The roads, atmosphere, cars, weather effects, and environments stay in your mind long after you stop playing. But the same cannot really be said about the people in that world.

Forza Horizon 6: Verdict

Forza Horizon 6 is one of the most beautiful racing games ever made. Its version of Japan looks breathtaking, the driving experience feels smooth and immersive, and the sheer amount of activities available makes exploration constantly rewarding. On PC, performance is excellent across high-end hardware configurations, especially with Nvidia DLSS and frame generation technologies enabled. That said, there was some scope for making the main story and characters a bit richer.

But in a nutshell, Forza Horizon 6 is nevertheless, a strong recommendation for anyone who wants to drive through the streets of Japan virtually. 

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