Reviewed on PlayStation 5. Review copy provided by PlayStation.
Horizon: Forbidden West is now one of the most eagerly awaited sequels. The explanation for this is straightforward. With Zero Dawn, Guerrilla Games hit it out of the park. And PlayStation exclusives are usually amazing experiences that you won’t find anyplace else. Is Aloy’s return as promising as it appears, or was the first game a fluke? So, to address that question, let’s take a look at Forbidden West.
Join Aloy as she braves the Forbidden West – a majestic but dangerous frontier that conceals mysterious new threats.
Story of the Forbidden West
Horizon: Forbidden West is a straight follow-up to Horizon: Zero Dawn. We’ll try to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible because there are so many intriguing plot lines and story components. To begin, we strongly advise that we play the original game. For starters, it’s a terrific game that everyone should play. Second, because that game teaches us a lot about the universe and Aloy, which is useful in this situation. I understand if you want to leap directly into Forbidden West, but I recommend viewing a good complete lore and story video to get caught up.
Aloy chooses to see what the Forbidden West has to offer, as the title suggests. Aloy isn’t scared to seek the unknown after hearing about it in Zero Dawn and breaking many of the laws and constraints that have held mankind back.
The state of the land is worsening. While terrifying new machines prowl its borders, the scattered remnants of humanity are tormented by severe storms and an unstoppable scourge. Nobody knows why life on Earth is once again on the brink of extinction.
It’s up to Aloy to figure out what’s causing these threats and restore balance to the universe. She’ll have to reunite with old allies, establish alliances with warring new factions, and piece together the heritage of the ancient past – all while trying to stay one step ahead of a seemingly unstoppable new foe.
Side Content
The side missions, in particular, are something that I believe merits special attention. Zero Dawn’s sidequests were mediocre at best. There were a few standouts, but they were mostly forgettable in the larger scheme of things. The side quests in Forbidden West, on the other hand, are fantastic. It’s difficult to get the sense of world-building and the intricate narrative that games like Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2 tell in their side missions. In Forbidden West, however, this is not the case. These side missions are of fantastic quality, and you’ll quickly find yourself spending a lot of time on them due to how engaging they are.
I spent a lot of time in Zero Dawn doing side-missions because I enjoyed the world and liked the sense of adventure and exploration it would lead to. Meanwhile, in Forbidden West, I did the side missions because of how compelling they were. Instead of just doing them for that sense of exploration, I was invested in these side-missions. And what kept me invested in them was that there was a story to tell. It was engaging but also they didn’t waste your time with a boring conclusion or a crappy reward. I did not expect this coming into the game and I highly recommend everyone to take their time with the side content in this game.
Gameplay and Combat
The gameplay of Forbidden West is a lot more polished as one would expect. To keep things from being broken in the early game, you lose pretty much all of your upgrades and items from the original game. So prepare to say goodbye to your cool “ancient armor” that you had in Zero Dawn.
Furthermore, this game has a few new ways of traversal and tools. These additions help with puzzles as well as give you new ways of planning your strategy and approach. You know what every game needs? A Breath of the Wild like glider and we have it here! Which is incredible given the verticality of the world. You can now enjoy your glide down instead of slowly climbing back down or fast traveling away.
Combat is also much improved and even more fluid this time around. On top of that with all your new toys, encounters can get a lot of fun. There’s more variability between fights I feel now.
The skill tree has also been expanded quite a bit this time around. However, I do feel it’s a bit too scattered and a bit daunting and messy. You’ve got six trees with various sub-skills each. In a way, this is good as you can invest points into your playstyle. But at the same time, trying to get everything might lead you to not having some of the stronger skills when you might need it.
Presentation of the Forbidden West
Horizon: Zero Dawn is a visually stunning game. Especially if you’ve been playing it on PC and have access to all of the extra features. As a result, I considered how Forbidden West may be improved. The game was already beautiful and magnificent. How can you raise the stakes, especially for a new console generation? The solution to that question is polish and attention to detail. To be honest, the amount of effort that has gone into each and every detail is incredible.
The Forbidden West is a sight to behold. And some of the game’s biomes will completely take your breath away. Not to mention the new species you’ll meet, all of which appear to be even more intricate and detailed. The animations in Zero Dawn aren’t the best, especially in cutscenes, which is my biggest gripe with the game’s aesthetics. In Forbidden West, however, this is not the case. This is a significant improvement. That isn’t the only enhancement. The lighting has improved significantly more. The particle effects and depth of field are just incredible. I was pausing so much when playing on a huge OLED TV with HDR to just take in the scenery and world.
That is the charm of the Forbidden West. It pulls you right into its universe and immerses you so completely that you don’t want to quit playing.
HDR
If you’re curious about HDR performance, it’s good but the implementation leaves a little to be desired. Most games with good HDR implementation use the system HDR settings of the PS5 however that doesn’t seem to be the case with Forbidden West. You will have to mess around with the HDR settings a bit to get the image to look good and not over-exposed or suffer from black crush. I had to up the shadows a bit and tone down the exposure so I wouldn’t lose detail. If you’re looking for more in-depth information about this you should check out EvilBoris’ work on Patreon.
TL;DR
Horizon: Forbidden West is a console seller. It has all the makings of a Game of the Year title. It’s a phenomenal videogame that I had a lot of fun playing from beginning to end. Yes, this game isn’t perfect and has a few flaws, but those flaws, in my opinion, are completely overwhelmed by what this game does, which isn’t just good, but fantastic. This game is a must-play in my opinion, and it is one of my favourite videogames in a long time.
