Forza Horizon 6 Preview: Collectibles, Seamless Races and Open World Design Make for the Most Explorable Adventure Yet

The Forza Horizon video games know methods to make an entrance, and Forza Horizon 6 isn’t any outlier.

Inside moments of my hands-on preview starting, the now-traditional intro sequence had me barrelling by the hills of breathtaking rural Japan in the sport’s newest cowl automotive – the 2025 GR GT Prototype –, hovering previous iconic landmarks, dashing down the Japanese Alps, and overtly skidding as much as a reside rocket launch. That is the Forza expertise the group desires you to have – smooth, superfast driving with an impeccable backdrop. After which, like some kind of petrol-fumed fever dream, the prologue is over and you’re left to find this world for your self.

In Forza Horizon 6, you’re no circuit celebrity, right here to rub shoulders with racing’s best. Not but, anyway. You’re a fan, a competition vacationer, visiting Japan on a whim with two good pals. The Horizon Pageant is in full swing, however your invite for the Invitational isn’t even in the put up but. You’ll have to qualify for the Invitational by proving your price.

For newcomers, this narrative makes absolute sense as a tutorial when you become familiar with how these fantastically designed autos deal with, their nuances, how they every reply to the setting, and what you’ll must be driving for every kind of exercise.

“Japan is such an thrilling, attention-grabbing, intriguing location that many individuals have wished from [the Horizon] franchise for a very long time, that we’ve wished to do for a very long time,” Design Director Torben Ellert tells us in a latest episode of The Official Xbox Podcast. “What would it not really feel like if the Pageant was there? It wouldn’t dominate Japan, it might be a part of Japan, and with that we requested: ‘how can we give gamers permission to simply be in Japan?’ Nicely – tourism.”

(*6*)

One early sport race is a decent, unpredictable zip by Tokyo’s city district that allowed my modest first automotive – a 30-year-old Toyota Cecilia GT-4 – to shine (actually) by the dense, neon-soaked hotspots of Ginko Avenue and Shibuya Crossing. One other race is a cross-country affair stuffed with tough terrain and water, and your starter off-roader, a ’70s GMC Jimmy, is the excellent accompaniment for these tumultuous routes.

However what makes Forza Horizon 6 really feel extremely particular is how seamless and inviting this tackle Japan is. When you’re by a brief part of introduction, the world is all yours. The marketing campaign is there to information you thru the ranks and races at the coronary heart of the sport. Your automotive’s built-in AI information is there to supply course when you really feel genuinely caught. There’s a “golden path” for you to take – however there’s no have to take it at something aside from your individual tempo. For the most half, the aim is solely: Discover.

And that seems like the true innovation at the coronary heart of Forza Horizon 6 – greater than ever earlier than, the sport duties you with discovering what you wish to do subsequent, slightly than merely heading from icon to icon on the map. It’s a philosophy that suffuses the sport – there’s all the time one other race in the Pageant ‘marketing campaign’ to finish, however there’s an equal sense that when you simply take a distinct flip, you might uncover one thing for your self.

The clearest trace to that change comes from the map itself – for the first time, a Horizon sport has a “fog of conflict”, with the map unveiling as you journey by it. It provides you an actual sense of your journey by the sport at a look, to not point out makes every new icon really feel like a discovery slightly than one thing you merely pointed your GPS at.

“This new system is designed to let you know the place you will have been and what you will have seen in a very legible approach,” Ellert explains. “We now have this rule with all of the Uncover Japan content material the place when you discover it, you possibly can play it.”

“Finally, freedom is a core design pillar for us – we’ve actually tried to not pressure you to go and do a particular factor, however as an alternative, tempt you into going and doing them.”

Throughout my preview time, these discoveries included Time Assaults, which allow you to set a greatest time on a particular lap round a route. In the meantime, Drag Races are there for that insatiable urge to simply go actually, actually quick, with out having to fret about arbitrary nonsense like steering or corners. Each of those actions include the added bonus of drawing from the wider participant pool, and your mates checklist, to behave like uneven multiplayer – these tracks might be full of ghost vehicles from actual gamers, and billboards displaying greatest instances will continually beckon you to strive and beat their scores.

What made that have even richer was the new Aftermarket Vehicles function. As you journey by the world, now you can discover time-limited alternatives to purchase new vehicles at cheaper-than-normal costs. For me, that was stumbling upon a black Dodge SRT Demon, parked proper subsequent to a Drag Race spot, and I luckily had sufficient credit on-hand to buy it straight away. The banged-up Toyota I delivered to the Drag Race? Relegated to the storage. The Dodge? Instantly in my palms, able to take for a spin.

In line with Ellert, the Aftermarket Vehicles function is knowledgeable by the need to place attention-grabbing vehicles which are related to your gameplay expertise proper in entrance of you when you’re exploring, if that’s your most well-liked factor to do: “It’s a refined suggestion of ‘hey, do that automotive out, take this automotive to this occasion’ – and it’s my hope that extra folks will expertise these great machines by us inserting them in the open world, and making them cheaper to buy.”

To push that have to discover even additional, every space of Horizon’s Japan has a sequence of collectible mascots dotted round places, which grant a small reward when collected. A few of them are set out on the aspect of the highway, simply spottable as you cross, and some are tucked away, goading you to nosey down an as-yet unexplored path.

It’s a step ahead for the Horizon sequence so as to add actions that make exploration really feel not simply viable, however thrilling. There’s all the time a motive to veer astray and take a highway you’ve by no means been down, poke round a suburb or a forest, or just simply cease to take a look at the sun-soaked horizon in entrance of you and simply… drive in the direction of it, as a result of you possibly can.

It’s the interconnectivity of all of those actions that make Forza Horizon 6 really feel so magically immersive this time round. Each aim, side-mission or collectible merchandise is correct there on the highway with you – whether or not it’s choosing up a mascot, testing your automotive’s paces at a Time Assault cease, or difficult a passing participant’s Drivatar to a fast battle.

These options prolong approach past what we noticed in the preview too – the Journal is one other contemporary addition to Forza Horizon 6 that provides one other layer of intrigue to the world round you. With the Journal, you possibly can acquire images of iconic landmarks and hotspots, to create your individual customized account of your journey in Japan.

The personalization will also be felt inside Horizon 6’s storage customization choices – which we obtained a small glimpse of at Mei’s home – your first “base” in the sport. Every residence you buy from there on out comes with its personal storage which you can design nevertheless you want – deck it out with furnishings, floodlights, odd objects, or depart the vehicles to be the star of the present. It’s totally as much as you – your journey, your area.

It’s, as Ellert places it, about “giving gamers company over the place the place they preserve their vehicles.” You possibly can construct one thing grounded, life like and gritty, like a storage, or one thing wildly ephemeral like a secret lair or a dinosaur jungle, – or no matter else you possibly can consider.

“That simply felt in-line with what we noticed gamers doing, and we all know that having company over the world, and having the ability to earn and construct one thing that’s yours, is a very enjoyable and compelling factor.”

With extra causes to easily hop into your chosen automotive and drive – not simply since you’re attempting to win races or climb Pageant ranks – Forza Horizon 6 faucets into greater than only a love of driving competitively. It’s enthusiastic about exploration in a approach we’ve by no means seen inside a Horizon sport – it invitations you to discover the world, unlock the map, take your favourite autos out for a spin since you really feel prefer it, as a result of there’s something on the market on provide, one thing to find. Your vehicles aren’t only a device for victory and prowess, they change into your companion on this mesmerizing journey. And with a wide ranging setting like ray-traced Japan, it’s extremely onerous to refuse.

Forza Horizon 6 launches Might 19, 2026, and might be obtainable on Xbox Collection X|S, Xbox on PC and Xbox Cloud as an Xbox Play Anyplace title, and playable day one with Xbox Sport Go.