Yeah, we know the Caddy limo was in the last Forza Horizon, but it feels rightfully ridiculous in the mountains of Japan. Most players probably won't spend their first several hours in Forza Horizon 6 hurling a twin-turbo rear-wheel-drive Cadillac XTS limousine through Japan like blood pressure medicine slamming through the small intestine. But they should consider it. There might not be a better car to illustrate what makes FH6 a great driving game—unfettered ridiculousness. The engine-swapped Caddy limo is audibly offensive and mechanically stupid, but it's also fun as hell to drift past a Lexus LFA on the touge with. And like the newest open-world Forza game that launches on May 19 (or May 15 for those who pre-ordered the Premium Edition), it's super easy to get into.
The first 20 minutes of FH6 are as cliché as they can get. The game starts as you speed down a cherry-blossom-covered road in Japan in a Nissan GT-R NISMO, racing wheel-to-wheel against a Honda NSX beneath strings of carp-shaped windsocks through a small village, only to meet a Tokaido Shinkansen high-speed train at the exact moment you make the turn. Just like in previous Horizon titles, the intro plays like a teaser trailer, this time ending behind the wheel of the Toyota GR GT as you arrive at the Horizon Festival while jets fly overhead. It's a healthy appetizer for the gorgeous depiction of Japan, but very few moments after the prologue are as rapidly full of trains, planes, and cherry blossoms.
View Price on AmazonInstead, FH6 spreads its mountains of content thinly across its version of Japan. Most of the time you're racing, but there are plenty of distractions along the way. While the Festival is the heart of the campaign, where players compete in smaller events to earn an invite to the big show, I'd argue that's not really the most fun way to play. Beyond the touge lies an economy built around shared tunes, garage layouts, paint jobs, and auction-house bidding. If enough people like and download your stuff, your bank will swell with credits.
We even participated in a community event that felt more like a street takeover, as we joined a group of lifted Ford F-250s to cause as much destruction and property damage as possible near Shibuya Crossing. And if there are two things my custom limo can't do, it's speak Japanese or apologize.
With more than 550 cars available at launch, winning races is only one way to collect them. You can follow a dirt road to a hidden barn and discover an abandoned Toyota 2000GT. You can unlock cars and decals by smashing through some 200 roadside mascots shaped like edamame, ramen, and other Japanese foods. There are side missions built around food delivery, used-car shopping, and helping characters expand their garages. It's certainly more interesting than punching trees or harvesting carrots, which are popular in other open-world games.
The new Time Attack events are kind of addictive too. Some of the best fun in FH6 comes from those more road-course-like challenges, which are surprisingly difficult and genuinely exciting to drive. What gets me is that despite the world of Forza being this open, chaotic circus, the Time Attack course disrupts playtime by making hundredths of a second matter. And my favorite part about these is that at the end of a lap, the leaderboard appears on a real billboard at the track instead of as a UI overlay.
Not everything feels so immersive, however. NPC traffic deserves a patch. Cars corner awkwardly, often without visibly turning their front wheels, giving them the weird, dead-eyed movement of horses on a mall carousel. Traffic is also far too sparse, especially in Tokyo, where the roads should feel jammed with black Toyota Alphard taxi vans. That said, it's refreshing not to see the usual video-game traffic slurry of Ford Transit Connects, Crown Victorias, and Volkswagen Beetles driving to nowhere. In FH6, traffic is more likely to be comprised of Toyota Corollas and Honda Civics.
Source: caranddriver.com
