4.5/5 ★ – AllieN7's review of Horizon Forbidden West.

Absolutely did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. As someone who enjoyed the original Horizon Zero Dawn quite a lot actually this is a step up in almost every aspect and the leap in quality from that first game is noticeable and the overall scale and quality Guerrilla Games managed to achieve here is commendable. Zero Dawn’s narrative was so focused on Aloy and her individual struggle of finding a place in the world and using her own strengths to overcome obstacles and save the day, while Forbidden West takes the interesting and unique world and expands upon it making for the side characters both old and new becoming the real soul and heart of this narrative, as Aloy learns she can’t do everything herself and needs allies, leading to some really affective emotional beats, arcs, and some fantastic side quests that can add both layers and backgrounds to some characters while also giving some great world building. And it all takes place in one of the most beautiful and dynamic open worlds I’ve seen in a very long time filled with so many jaw dropping views and breathtaking environments, rather it be the ruins of San Francisco coasts, the small villages, or the endless horizon this game is absolutely gorgeous and the experience is enhanced by how smooth everything is not to mention some of the most fun and unique combat encounters in modern day gaming and it’s all topped off by a wonderful score. The open world design on display here is remarkable, Horizon absolutely nails the sense of discovery and freedom and even with using map markers every location and activity is unique in some way rather it be a ruin completely underwater or a tall neck that’s basically a multi phased puzzle that requires exploration to unlock, or a new location filled with it’s own side quests. I love how worth while exploration is despite the map showing you where certain points of interest are and the game’s side content in general are just loads of fun to experience that seeing a section of the map absolutely filled with makers never feels exhausting like in other games. Forbidden West’s story is more complex, bolder, and more epic than the first having you recruit all sorts of new characters from new tribes and leaning about them all, the first half of the game can really boil down to discovering a new tribe, doing some stuff for them in hopes of gaining what you need, and repeat, but the best moments really come from the more quiet and deep conversations you have with your companions during off time from the game’s big action set pieces but I feel like the one thing that truly holds this adventure back for me is the high end sci-fi storytelling here. I won’t get into spoiler territory but I feel the more sci-fi approach here doesn’t really work as well as a more grounded one would have like the first game had. I like the story here a reasonable amount but it just falls flat for me in some places as it gets into a lot of the backstory of the world and all sorts of other heavy futuristic stuff that I can’t help but think a more realistic and simplistic narrative would have fit this sequel, but the characters and their individual arcs are fantastic and more than enough to make up for the overwhelming story, even with a very slow pace at the beginning I do think things pick up and there’s some real great moments of character progression and story developments here. But that brings me to the side quests, they balance pacing, dialogue, exploration, combat, and story so spectacularly that they more often than not intrigue me more than the actual main missions, and the way the world builds off these side missions unlocking new dialogue options and having companions comment on completing certain side objectives really compels you to do everything you come across, and the actual side missions given by your companions can help you achieve a greater bond with them in a side quest structure reminiscent of BioWare titles. Because this is a Sony released PlayStation exclusive it will and already has gotten natural comparisons narratively to the likes of God Of War, The Last Of Us, and other high quality story based games and I think Forbidden West will fall in comparison to these other titles but when taking into account the overall quality of the side quests and the storytelling found there this game will fair much better when compared to those other masterful experiences. Combat is the last thing I wanted to touch on and it’s absolutely phenomenal, just like in Zero Dawn every combat encounter feels so unique and different from the previous as the locations, set of enemies, and tools at your disposal are changing constantly and even the smallest of low level foes can bring some real intensity and challenge that often isn’t found in other open world combat systems, targeting the body components on the creatures and removing them is such a rewarding and fun way to play, removing cannons so they can’t fire at you, shooting off armor pieces, hitting weak spots to do extra damage is all so satisfying, the pre planning, accuracy in your shots, balancing the different elemental damages and the actual fast paced fights with fluid animations and particle effects, make for some incredible non scripted sequences that can happen almost anywhere in the open world. There’s definitely some technical issues brought by the limitations this game faced by having to release on both PS4 and PS5, and it has some unnecessarily complex item management and loot mechanics that I just don’t think really belong in a game like this or benefit it that much, and the traversal system of climbing up structures like walls can be incredibly awkward, it feels like an odd mix of the hand holding traversal of Uncharted with the free movement of something like Assassins Creed, as some forms of rocks can be climbed marked with a yellow line while others can’t, it’s very immersion shattering and can lead to some frustrating moments watching Aloy struggle to climb something that she could realistically traverse over. But even with it’s issues Forbidden West is an absolute achievement in this generation of gaming, it manages to preserve what worked in the first game while cutting down the rough edges and expanding upon the ideas of this incredibly interesting world, filled with so much love and attention to detail.