Forza Horizon 6's return to 'wristband progression' isn't the stand-in for a career mode I wanted it to be, but maybe that's for the best

One of my favourite memories of the old Forza Horizon and Motorsport games is that satisfying feeling of progression you get moving from your first crappy ride and eventually splashing the cash on a supercar. It's been absent in recent games in both the open world and track racing genres of Forza, but things were looking up when Playground Games confirmed that wristband progression would be returning in Forza Horizon 6.

In the Developer Direct at the start of the year, Torben Ellert, design director of FH6, said, "You'll start out as just a tourist in Japan", requiring you to earn a place in the Festival first. "After that, you'll rise through the ranks, unlocking wristbands as you complete races in faster, more exciting cars," Ellert explained.

And that's not untrue. For about five seconds, you are a tourist. Technically. I mean, you're best friends with the Horizon Festival organisers, and you're given a handful of free cars almost immediately, so take that newbie badge with a grain of salt. I don't know about you, but I'm yet to receive a fleet of cars on a holiday. That's nepotism, baby.

Played by

Played by

Rory Norris

I've played (and loved to varying degrees) every Forza Horizon since Xbox's racer went off-road, and I've already spent 30 hours in Forza Horizon 6. A good chunk of that time was spent driving at 5 MPH following breadcrumbs to find all the Barn Finds and Treasure Cars. While I was hoping for a slower start (ironic, really) to our racing holiday in Japan, I think it's already my favourite in the series.

All of this is to say that I don't have any connection or fond memories of my starter car. In fact, I don't even remember which one I picked because I've not actually used it past the first race, and you're given all three anyway.

After that, you'll rise through the ranks of the Festival, earning higher-tier wristbands as you complete events across Japan. These wristbands dictate the performance cap of the vehicles you can use. The opening qualifiers restrict you to C-rank vehicles, but each successive wristband raises the floor. You'll quickly be racing B and A-rank cars in the Festival events. At face value, it's got the career progression I've been craving, and it's certainly a step up over its predecessor which gave out the Corvette C8 as a starter car.

But Forza Horizon is, ultimately, an open-world racer that wants you to drive around in whatever you want whenever you want. These restrictions in the main events don't actually prevent you from driving more powerful cars in the open world or Discover Japan events, like street races.

But my main gripe is that it's just too damn easy to climb up that ladder. My garage was immediately overflowing with cars as a reward for playing previous games. It's even more noticeable if you have the Premium edition, which includes a bunch of bonus rides across its different packs. And it only snowballed from there.

(Image credit: Xbox)

Once again, Wheelspins are a car crash for progression, handing out expensive cars and bucketloads of cash like it's candy. You rarely ever need to buy or tune a car for an event because you'll already have earned at least one applicable ride for free. This is quite a feat considering Wheelspins have intentionally been made rarer in Forza Horizon 6 explicitly to encourage more satisfying, linear progression.

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Similarly, there are two new progression paths—Horizon Festival (the wristband races) and Discover Japan. They're a fantastic way to house all the different activities you can do, but you'll get rewards like cars or thick wads of cash all the time for completing tasks, like races, stories, and even food delivery missions.

(Image credit: Xbox)

All of this is to say that I don't have any connection or fond memories of my starter car. In fact, I don't even remember which one I picked because I've not actually used it past the first race, and you're given all three anyway. Just a few hours into your holiday in Japan, you've got multiple houses with garages stocked with cars. The progression mandated by the Festival races begins and ends there.

Alas, I must admit that half the fun of Forza Horizon is to drive around in fast cars, but there's no ignoring that it loses most of the satisfaction without the build-up. And it's hard to force yourself into that career progression when you're presented with a stacked list of cars before every race and repeatedly handed new ones just for breathing.

Forza Horizon 6's tug of war between complete, free-wheeling freedom and linear, rags-to-riches progression isn't a replacement for a proper career mode. It's a compromise at best.

And frankly, part of me thinks I wouldn't actually like more forced progression if my wish came true anyhow. I'd probably be missing my supercars if I couldn't use them at all until 30 hours later, once I'd paid my dues. Especially given how slow collecting all 550 cars in the Forza Horizon 6 car list would be. I had a blast turning a crappy kei truck into a super-powered S2 rank beast, or tuning it to do backflips and handstands.

Perhaps Playground Games' approach of encouraging more linear progression in the main races, but letting you complete side content however you'd like, really is the best of both worlds after all.