Forza Horizon 6

There are games that you start “for half an hour,” and then three hours later you realize you’re still driving aimlessly, listening to the radio and chasing the perfect drift through corners as if you’re the main character in some overpriced car commercial. Forza Horizon 6 has exactly that effect. Playground Games has once again done what it does best. The massive car festival has been transformed into a virtual annual vacation for all speed lovers, metal pets, and outrageously beautiful landscapes.

And right from the start, it must be said honestly, Forza Horizon 6 is not a revolutionary sequel that turns the series upside down. It doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel or dismantle the foundations that the fifth installment has already excellently set. What it does is polish almost everything that the series has built over the years and turn the entire experience into perhaps the most enjoyable open-world racing game of today.

Even after just a few races, it becomes clear how obsessed Playground Games is with details. The world looks absurdly good. The roads wind through vibrant cities, the villages feel convincing, weather effects often look like a tech demo for the new generation of hardware, and the changes from day to night can completely alter the driving atmosphere. Sometimes you’ll be racing through a storm while lightning splits the horizon, and ten minutes later you’ll be driving alongside a sunset that looks like a screenshot from a travel advertisement.

And yes, the game knows it’s beautiful. It really knows.

The greatest strength of Forza Horizon 6 remains the gameplay that simply “clicks.” The driving is arcade-like, but precise enough that each car has character. Supercars feel brutally fast and unstable at high speeds, rally vehicles devour gravel effortlessly, while muscle cars roar through tunnels so well that you’ll instinctively lower the music just to hear the engine. Vehicle control is at that perfect boundary between simulation and pure fun, so the game never feels exhausting, yet still provides enough depth for experienced players to tweak their cars for hours.

Where Forza Horizon 6 perhaps shines the most is the feeling of freedom. You can follow the main events, collect cars, chase online challenges, or completely ignore everything and just drive. The game almost never punishes you or forces you into a specific play style. This relaxed approach has been part of the series' charm since the beginning, but here it feels the most polished yet.

Of course, not all tires are perfectly inflated. After ten or fifteen hours, the familiar Horizon formula starts to feel apparent. The events are fun, but often too safe and predictable. AI opponents still have strange moments where they either drive like complete beginners or turn into terminators that ignore the laws of physics. The story exists just enough to connect the races and festivals, but rarely leaves a stronger impression. The characters are likable, but the dialogues sometimes sound like they were written by a marketing team desperately trying to sound “cool.”

The online component brings a ton of content, but also the standard issues of modern live service games. Sometimes matchmaking takes longer than it should, and certain events feel like copy-paste activities just with different weather conditions. It’s not a disaster, but it feels like the series might soon need a more serious creative risk instead of yet another “more and prettier” approach.

From a technical standpoint, it's hard to find a serious complaint. The performance is impressive, loading times are quick, and the audio design is fantastic. The sound of the engine especially deserves praise as few racing games manage to convey that raw mechanical aggression of the car so convincingly. When the Ferrari roars at full throttle or when the old Nissan pops from the exhaust while descending downhill, the game literally brings a smile to your face.

Forza Horizon 6 is not a perfect game and it probably won't fundamentally change the racing genre. But what it does, it does almost flawlessly. This is racing comfort food in the best possible sense. A game you start when you want to enjoy, relax, and lose a few hours without stress. For some, this might seem too safe and familiar, but it's hard to ignore how high-quality the whole package actually is.

The best description of Forza Horizon 6 might be that it feels like a digital car festival where every gamer would want to stay for “just one more race.” And we all know that one race almost never stays just one.

Forza Horizon 6 may not redefine the genre, but it easily confirms why Horizon has been the king of arcade open-world driving for years.

PC version of the game purchased for review purposes