Horizon: zero dawn has been one of those games that truly stuck onto my membrane. It was one of those new IPs that set new standards for open-world action games. It was a game that did something different, a concept where savage nomads use prehistoric equipment to defeat gigantic robotic monsters. It was a concept that just worked and I enjoyed every moment of it. Of course, it had its difficulties but the quick response of the development team made the game stand out from all of the other launching IPs for PS4. Now after almost 5 years, the sequel has come to us and the game is just an overall improvement of the original. Let’s dive in!
Guerilla Games truly made Horizon, a popular franchise due to its unique concept but also due to the amazing production value of their game. Horizon offered a big world, unique creatures, a great crafting system, a great storyline with unexpected twists, and an interesting protagonist. Horizon Forbidden West continues the story of our “savior of Meridian” namely Aloy. Even when she thought, the world’s climate and the environment were saved by the blight, it is still present… This leads her back to the place where it all started, the place with the creepy dark technical monolith where she thought she defeated HADES, the place where everything ended, will be the place that forces her out of her habitat and will lead her to the Forbidden West…
“Her work is not yet done, not before the salvation of the current environment has happened…”
Aloy doesn’t start this journey without her previous comrades and digital incarnated self. With fear in her heart, she’s determined to see this journey through and will try to live up to her name as “Savior of Meridian” and also fulfill her destiny which is the cleansing of the blight and with the help of GAIA, she might be able to do it… Thanks to GAIA and recent events, she discovered that she has a bigger role to play than being just an experienced outcast. She knows who she is and what’s expected from her. Her work is not yet done, not before the salvation of the current environment has happened…
Without spoiling anything, you can be sure of it that the story won’t disappoint. It might start off slow, as the game tries to fill you in what happened and helps inexperienced players learn the basics of being Aloy within a demarcated area, but the moment you’ve reached the western part of the world, things start to happen and different pieces of the puzzle will start falling into place. The Western part is not only filled with dangerous new enemies but also comes with the contact of new residents that follow a certain regime. Political discussions and dramatic moments will influence Aloy’s quest for redemption and storyline. It’s up to the player to figure out the way to go, taking into account that she’s not the only one traversing the environment. Who can be trusted and what surprises lie ahead? Be ready for unexpected turns and challenging enemies, human foes, or cybernetic beasts, who will tell?
“Both series of quests have a great production value and didn’t disappoint along the way.”
Experiencing this whole series of events, made me feel like the whole world and its lore still needs to open up and that there’s still more to explore. I’m only speaking of the main storyline of course, which is important, but doing the side quests helps to form the world around you. Guerilla Games did an awesome job with the storytelling as the journey just quickly flies by, from one mission to another… You’re on an exciting rollercoaster and next to the main event, there are some side quests that are also top-notch. The side quests are intertwined with the main story. You’ll meet different persons that really don’t need that much of an introduction to know that they still will have their part to play in the main story. Both series of quests have a great production value and didn’t disappoint along the way.
Graphically speaking, the game doesn’t leave much to our fantasy and that’s positively speaking. The previous game looked tremendous, and it seems like Guerilla Games has put Horizon Forbidden West into the next gear. As a player, the immersion feels terrific. The jungle environment combined with a post-apocalyptic field creates this believable atmosphere where you truly feel like the world is a living-breathing thing. The fauna & flora is there in a way like you can almost touch it. The creatures look as futuristic cybernetic as they can but also feel prehistoric at the same time. Their behavior has been developed well as they feel unpredicted and savage. The animation of the characters combined with decent voice acting helps tremendously with the storytelling aspect of the game. Everything looks brilliant and that makes the game keen for the eyes. The power of the PS5 feels very present in this game.
“The open world is filled with activities you would expect from an open-world type of game but don’t expect anything groundbreaking.”
Horizon Forbidden West also tries to set up a bigger version of the open world of the previous game. It’s filled with a lot of exploration and the game gives you the choice of “exploring the world on your own terms without the necessity of HUD elements” or “exploring the world with a reaching hand from the development team with simple HUD elements”. It’s great to see this option available as it can make your experience totally personalized. The open world is filled with activities you would expect from an open-world type of game but don’t expect anything groundbreaking. It’s the same kind of activities with a couple of tweaks and they’re mainly just improvements of their previous selves. There are different points of interest, there’s the option to glide and the outposts to overcome. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great and a lot of the side missions ( like I said before) offer cool scenarios that make these open-world activities a lot more vivid and more enjoyable to plow through. There are also different sightseeing environments to make the game a lot more variable.
An open-world action game wouldn’t be complete without the elements of platforming. Aloy has the ability to go almost everywhere she wants and she has a few options that go along with that idea. Like I said a couple of lines ago, you’ll be able to explore the open world with some fresh new tools for a Horizon game, but not so much in the aspect of an open-world type of game. Aloy can now use gliders, flying mounts, grapple hook, … and use her climbing skills to get to different points of interest. It does take some time to get used to and I’m glad the climbing options are being explained in the first couple of hours. I expected a simple straightforward set of climbing skills, so I was constantly spamming the X-button on my controller but in the end, the game told me that you had to use another button to jump backward or even strafe to the side. A great tip that made my climbing experience a lot more fun and without the occasional “Woops wrong direction” and “ falls down to her death”. Aloy can also slide and it truly feels great!
“I’m also glad we can use our mounts to traverse the Forbidden West because the world is huge.”
Just like mirror edge, the world will show light yellowed colored sidings that’ll give you the hint of being “climbable”. Even though the colored sidings are a welcomed sight, I feel like they could have made them a bit more obvious because sometimes you truly have to look for these “climbable” surfaces. Then again, I get it because it makes the immersive experience a lot better. It’s probably something personal… Also, some types of rivers can be crossed over and some don’t, if they could give a more subtle heads-up, that would definitely make Aloy’s life a bit easier. I’m also glad we can use our mounts to traverse the Forbidden West because the world is huge.
There’s also the use of Fast Travel-locations by using Campfires as your on-demand teleportation system. I like this but it could have been a bit more “practical”. These campfires can be unlocked anywhere in the world and it’s good to have the ability to skip some traveling time. However, it may be a personal thing but I believe the campfires could have also been placed in more “wildlife”-territories.
“The development team did a great job with their art design and graphical presentation.”
All of the campfires in Forbidden West are in places where only a few things are present and mostly, we’re talking about NPC’s but it would have been great to see some campfires near areas where the savage beasts roam the plains. It would have been a quality-life improvement to get near a place where a lot of beasts are roaming because it would be easier to hunt for different crafting parts. Even though I like the exploration, sometimes I’m just in the need of a quick run to a certain area instead of mount-running for a couple of miles.
The development team did a great job with their art design and graphical presentation. The lighting and special effects were on point. The balance between savage cities and futuristic buildings was great and never did the world lose my interest. Even though it all looked great, it didn’t come without any flaws. There were some different pop-up glitches but that’s something that can be fixed easily. I would also sometimes think that some “combat” animations could have been worked on a little more because I already saw too many glitches that break the immersion a bit. The game isn’t perfect but I truly stand by the fact that the development team succeeded in bringing this game with a constant framerate of 60FPS. The game runs fluently and the loading screens are existent-to-none. There’s an option to play the game at a higher resolution but the game would drop its framerate to 30fps. I don’t think the graphical heightening is worth the drop of 30fps. It already looks amazing on 60FPS.
Conclusion:
Forbidden West is just a better version of its previous self and I’m truly grateful that it is the way that it is. It’s a very polished game and in our current meta, this is rare. Horizon Forbidden West continues the path of great storytelling in a vivid and brilliant world. The atmosphere is breathtaking and I can’t wait for what’s coming next. The characters have been developed with great care, as well as the mechanics that have been introduced. Every aspect of the game feels more fluent than before. It’s not groundbreaking but why change the formula if it works? I’m glad the development took their time to create this polished, good-looking fun game. If you haven’t started with Horizon, you might want to reconsider!
