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

So HZD is among my favorite games of all time, so I was of course very excited for Forbidden West. Did it live up to my expectations? Yes, definitely. This game is fantastic. The story takes a lot of unexpected and exciting turns, and deepens the already engaging lore of this world. Aloy is still one of the best protagonists in all of gaming. She's still her usual self. Sassy, stubborn, unwavering and always willing to help those in need. She also grows by learning to work better with others, instead of always feeling like she has to do things by herself. The combat has seen a lot of great improvements. More weapon types, a more expanded upgrade system, improved melee combat and more verticality. As well as even better enemies. They definitely doubled down on making actual robot dinosaurs, instead of them being mostly animals like in the first game. The world is even more engaging to explore and its beauty is truly remarkable. Definitely helped by its well written side quests. Is the game perfect? Certainly not. It does stumble a bit in a few, granted minor, moments. As mentioned before, the melee combat is improved, though it could still see more work. Mainly through more defensive options. It still sorely lacks a block and a parry. It would definitely help to make machine fights a bit smoother, cause my lord do some of them have massive hitboxes. Also, Aloy needs a faster recovery, cause she gets knocked down a lot, and takes a long time to get back up. The parkour system is a tad finicky, as Aloy will often just not want to grab onto the thing you want her to grab onto. It can also be very slow, with Aloy grabbing onto something after a jump, and taking 5 to 10 seconds to climb up on it. Dyes were also introduced here, which is something I really wanted to see. Unfortunately, a lot of these dyes are woefully uncreative and often samey. For the sequel, I would simply let the player choose which specific color they want for parts of the armor, instead of preset dyes. Armors in general are more plentiful this time around, and most of them are great. There's around 40 of them in total. That said, there's 2 BIG, baffling missed opportunities here. No Quen or *SPOILER* armor. 2 factions with lots of drip, that are strangely omitted. There also doesn't seem to be a cool, overpowered armor like the Shieldweaver from the first game. Now that armor was disappointing, aesthetically, but it was still cool. Storywise, there are 2 main issues. And I will get into spoilers for that so beware. 1. The reveal that Ted Faro is still alive and he's a fucked up immortal (probably) Resident Evil lookin thing, was really poorly handled, because, THEY DIDN'T SHOW HIM! Kinda sapped any joy out of that whole thing. I do not know how you omit such a sight. 2. Varl's death felt underwhelming. While the way he dies is well done, the aftermath leaves a lot to be designers. For one, after he dies, you get your meeting with Tilda, which takes a while, so you don't really get to sit with the emotion at all. And when you finally get to do that, you just sit at his grave with Zo, who's by far the most boring and emotionless character in the game. Her baby daddy died, and she sheds not a single tear or shows any real sign of sadness. I also don't really think their relationship was handled well. You only just met her, and she's somehow already smoochin Varl. Them getting together should've been built up throughout the story. But that's my review. Despite my complaints, this game is still excellent.