I blast out of Tokyo, off into the countryside. At first, the roads run alongside waterlogged rice paddies, through flat and open country. Soon, though, I hit the coastal highway which winds its way over deep blue sea and past fishing villages. Carving north, I navigate snaking passes straight out of Initial D and slide upwards through their narrow switchbacks. Then, as I climb, everything opens up again.
Wide alpine roads sweep past green hills offering a spectacular view of Tokyo far to the south, the snow-capped peaks to the north, and Mount Fuji sitting stoically to the west. For a moment, it reminds me of the fabled alpine spaghetti you can find if you tour central Europe’s most breathtaking regions. Continuing my ascent, I soon hit snowy ski trails, steep stretches encased in permafrost and banked by looming snowdrifts.
Heading back south, down the western side of the country this time, I find myself twisting and turning alongside rivers and a huge waterfall. As the land begins to flatten out, more rice paddies come into view, this time interspersed with vibrant fields that radiate yellows, reds, and purples. I zoom through rural hamlets dripping with traditional Japanese architecture that in some cases looks to have been frozen in time since the Sengoku period. I come round past a giant stadium, then tunnel-blast down the coast past a rocket launch facility. Tokyo looms close by now, its trademark tower and skyscrapers welcoming me back as I cruise into its expressway arteries and slink down the alleyways that serve as its veins.
An open-world driving game lives and dies, to a large extent, by its world. Forza Horizon 6’s is an all-timer. A sprawling, diverse love letter that makes the most of the sheer variety of scenery Japan offers and neatly packages it all into a landscape that’s wonderful to drive through in any car. After the initial wow-factor of Horizon 5’s Mexico dissolved into a rather bland mass of green, browns, and beiges, I’d hoped that Japan would be the perfect four-seasons-in-a-day climate to make for a setting as visually stimulating after 100 hours as Horizon 4’s UK was. I’m not quite at that point yet, but it certainly feels so far that I’m unlikely to be wrong. If Horizon Mexico is an all-inclusive beachside resort that could get a bit tiresome once you’ve spent plenty of time lounging about in the sun, Horizon Japan is one of those mythical month-long cross-country odysseys from which you return with more lovely photos than you can fit on your hard drive.
Split into nine different regions, each with their own cute regional mascots (who appear as smashable collectibles by the roadside), Horizon 6’s Japan is rounded out by endgame festival hangout Legend Island and The Estate. The latter’s a rural house next to a sizable chunk of open grassland, which you’re free to turn into a private racetrack or other custom motorsport destination via the building mechanics Playground have introduced with this entry. Tokyo City, the game’s version of the Japanese capital, takes up an entire region of the map. It’s naturally trimmed down a lot compared to its real life inspiration, but it’s sprawling enough to make a big step up on Horizon 4’s Edinburgh. As with that city, though, I’ve found its expressways and docks mainly serve as a nice change when you’re not roaming where any Horizon truly shines: open country roads and trails.
I’ve always found the relentless hype-filled chatter and enthusiasm of Horizon characters a bit grating, so it’s been a bit surprising that some of the most fun I’ve had in Horizon 6 has been in its day trips. These are short, cruising tours of each region, during which an NPC guide tells you a bit about the area and the cars they’ve picked for the run, before you do one of the game’s speedy or jumpy stunts to cap things off. I can take or leave the facts, but simply reminding you to slow down once in a while and take in the surroundings benefits Horizon 6 greatly. These and the other tourism-focused missions, including the likes of delivering food around Tokyo in a kei truck and joining the drift club, come under one of the two trees the game’s events and activities are split into.
There’s the less neon-soaked and glow stick-wielding side, Discover Japan, which hosts the likes of regional mascot smashing, street races, and touge driving in addition to these missions. Naturally, there’s also the Horizon festival, which has you work your way up through levels of access-granting wristbands via the usual combo of racing and stuntage, with showcase events (including a race against a giant, stompy mech) punctuating the grind. Alternating your focus between the two goes a long way to helping things stay fresh, with Discover Japan also dishing out the barn find hunts which see you track down long-lost wrecks and restore them to glory.
While most of these activities are tried and tested Horizon staples by this point, I did find the new touge races disappointing. They work like your standard Horizon street race, but limited to two cars and staged on a windy point-to-point run at night. That’s fine, but it lacks any extra twists like the winner being determined by the fastest time or closest following distance across two runs, with strict rules prohibiting car-to-car contact or pedestrian traffic to dodge. These were the wrinkles that helped make Race Driver: GRID’s depiction of touge stand out from the crowd, and an opportunity to pull off something just as memorable here has been missed.
It’s a shame, because Playground have packed so much else into their version of Japan that helps make it feel distinct to, and more alive than, previous entries’ open worlds. For those cruising in free roam, there are new aftermarket and treasure cars to find, with the former being rides parked in certain places you can buy at a discount from their regular price. That means building up your car collection feels more natural than retreating to a menu screen with regularity to scroll through showroom or auction house grids, something now often reserved for moments when you want to buy a specific ride. For those in motoring groups, there are car meets like Shuto Expressway’s famous Daikoku parking area where you can gather to show off your rides, as well as short time attack tracks around the map that you can compete for fastest times on without leaving the open world.
Given all of that and the wonderful map, it’s rather puzzling that another strand of new Horizon 6 additions work to actively take you out of the Japanese landscape the devs have expertly crafted. While I was sceptical of whether I’d dig The Estate, the Horizon 6 player home which doubles as a settlement building valley, out of the gate, I underestimated how Playground’s decision bring in customisable garages alongside it would impact my enjoyment of chilling out in the racer’s many purchasable abodes. First, though, The Estate. As a settlement building zone, it feels rather undercooked compared to the slickly executed mechanics and polished creations that dominate the world outside of its building bubble.
As in Fallout 4’s settlement mode, or any racing game with a custom track builder, you’ve got a decent, if very generic-looking, selection of blocks and decor with which to assemble whatever you want. Go around deleting big bushes and trees. Stick some track pieces down. Don’t forget to turn on the auto-snapping so you avoid facing an impossible task in lining edges up. Put a few buildings next to the track. Then, spend hours searching to see if there’s a button which can get rid of the grass that’s clipping through everything you’ve placed which isn’t elevated or layered a certain distance off the ground.
Realise, after sampling some of the small drift tracks Playground devs themselves have made, that such a button doesn’t seem to exist, so every new road has to go up a ramp the moment it leaves the paved route leading into the one-pre-built estate house, and everything beyond that also has to be built atop a patchwork of support pieces. Build a little track of your own that’s a decent diversion, but nowhere near as satisfying to look at as the test tracks built into the proper map, which are all perfectly satisfying to lap. Try to build a high speed oval, but struggle to get the banked turns to clip together properly without forming unintended bumps or elevation changes. Leave because you’d much prefer to be driving along roads laid by the pros and gazing at Japan’s beautifully detailed vistas. That’s where I’m at with it. My stance might change if, once the game’s out, tricks like Fallout 4’s infamous rug glitch are quickly unearthed and pave the way for builds that can come anywhere close to rivalling the beauty of the base map. At the least, I’ve no doubt the likes of backyard Spas and Silverstones will abound.
Though not suffering from any grass clipping, the custom garages which serve as every home’s car tweaking zone bear similar hangups to The Estate. Placing items on top of each other without any floatiness or clippiness is a pitched battle with finicky height controls. You need to leave a tonne of space around your main ride’s parking spot so that you can wander around taking a look at it in the game’s Forzavista mode, which rather limits the potential for creative or unorthodox layouts. Being able to place up to three display cars that’ll be visible at all times is neat, but they’re about the only props that feel unique. In terms of decor, those looking to build the likes of a licensed shrine to prancing horses around their Ferrari collection are out of luck, as is anyone looking to deck their place out like a tuning station full of ads for real-world aftermarket parts. Or Japanese souvenirs that aren’t just a generic gate or wall you’ve dragged in from a limited selection of rural objects.
There’s an entire section of garage gear and another of decor, but only one instance of each item, with hardly any colour or pattern variants. The result is that it’s quite tough for each garage not to end up feeling fairly bland, which is a crime when Playground have put just as much effort as always into ensuring the exterior of each house offers a contrasting aesthetic pulling at a different strand of Japanese architecture. The best you can get at the moment is a pale imitation of the professionally-assembled slices of picturesque Japanese landscape which exist in abundance beyond your garage door. Or a sleek, but relatively characterless, GTA Online-style arrangement of generic sofas and TVs around your motors and tools.
The Estate is, at least, very easy to ignore if it’s not up your alley. You’ll see one of these custom garages every time you load into the game, even if you can quickly peel out of it to go do some actual racing. To be fair, this is the first time the studio have tried delivering this sort of abode customisation, and it could well be something that fits a lot more snugly in future Forzas with a bit of iteration and refinement. For now, though, it’s a weak spot.
That said, unlike the circumstances currently surrounding Playground owners Microsoft – that certainly will be a dealbreaker for some when it comes to buying Horizon 6 – the niggles I’ve outlined aren’t egregious enough to stop the game from continuing the series’ roost atop the PC racing genre. This sixth entry’s been well-honed into the ideal crowd-pleasing racer, blending a beautiful open world with driving that offers arcade accessibility and has enough mechanical depth to its rides that it can at least dip its toes in the sim waters if you turn the aids off or decide to tinker with setups.
The car roster, while as heavy on familiar holdovers as Horizon games always are, has plenty of quirky new Japanese faces to take for a spin, plus the latest models from all the major brands it stocks. It’s true no matter whether you’re pounding around in a Mercedes-AMG One as I was in the intro, pulling up at Daikoku in a Nissan S-Cargo, or drifting a modified Impreza down a mountain. Unless you’re a seasoned petrolhead looking for something to satisfy a particular niche, Horizon 6 is the new king of the road.