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

Horizon: Zero Dawn was something I didn't expect to like. In fact, I knew very little of the game before receiving it as a gift. I booted it up, started playing and wasn't really sure what to think at first because it started off so slow. But then I reached the game's first mini-boss and fell in love immediately. At the time, Zero Dawn served as the Monster Hunter game I've always wanted—since Monster Hunter seemed as if it would never return to home consoles—and its combat was a strong enough point for me to overlook its faults. It offered a lot of what I wanted for quite some time, but still left a lot to be desired. About 5 years later we've got a sequel that improves upon the first in more ways than I could have imagined, and even with a couple new Monster Hunter games releasing since, I'm still loving Horizon. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗜 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗱, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻'𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗡𝗶𝘁𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗸𝘀. [𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘆] ✪ Aloy's Focus has been improved in every regard, making it much more convenient while also increasing its relevance significantly. Tapping R3 triggers a pulse that shows us everything within a certain radius of our position rather than bringing us into the traditional view we had in Zero Dawn. This makes gathering much more fluid and finding interactable objects a breeze. Holding R3 enables the classic Focus view, which mostly functions the same outside of combat, but has been overhauled within it. Gone are the days of having to move your cursor to specific Machine parts to find weaknesses and learn about what you can get from each. Now you can simply lock onto what you're interested in, then switch between parts with the D-Pad. If certain parts interest you, you can even mark them now, allowing you to see those parts highlighted until they break off or the Machine dies. The improved interface also allows for more information to be seen without being too distracting from the gameplay, and if you want more, pressing the touchpad while you're scanning a Machine brings you to its Journal entry. Here, you can see everything about them; a summary, their Override location, weaknesses, strengths, loot chances and attributes. ✪ One of my favorite things about Zero Dawn was its combat, but it took Frozen Wilds for me to go from loving it to truly appreciating it. Before Frozen Wilds, just about everything you fought seemed to respect your boundaries, felt a bit sluggish and was easy to take down even in the game's Ultra Hard difficulty. Forbidden West cranks that up a few notches, making every encounter feel just as intense, sometimes even more-so, than Frozen Wilds' toughest fights. Machines are more aggressive, while also doing a much better job working together and taking advantage of the environment. Humans hit harder, seem to be much smarter and have new toys that make them genuine threats this time around. Even on Normal difficulty I found myself struggling during a few fights, with each feeling rewarding once I was the only one left standing. ✪ My absolute biggest gripe with Horizon: Zero Dawn was traversal, with climbing being the game's greatest offense. Only being able to climb dedicated handholds, which were always distracting yellow ledges or nubs, was frustrating in a game that had so much exploration potential. You'd then either be forced to take a zipline, climb back down, or fast travel to leave a location you spent several minutes ascending. Fortunately, Forbidden West improves upon traversal in every way possible. Instead of setting up dedicated paths throughout the world with ugly yellow objects, we're given a more dynamic set of options that only become visible when we trigger our Focus. Minimalistic yellow lines and X's decorate the surfaces we can traverse, with climbing now allowing us to scale far more than the path or two set on them. We also get a nifty glider after a Main Story mission called "The Embassy", reminiscent of that in Breath of the Wild or Genshin Impact. Except, using it doesn't require Stamina, so it can be used to your heart's content at the cost of a slightly faster falling speed. ✪ As a digital hoarder, there's nothing that miffs me more than the lack of a storage option. I pick up most of everything I see because there's usually use for it later, and I was regularly punished for that in Zero Dawn. Forbidden West removes those nasty shackles with its incredibly generous Storage system. Whenever you're in a Shelter or town, you can access a universal storage box that allows you to keep everything you've ever picked up. What makes this better is how having a full inventory no longer means you have to leave something behind or sell things you'd rather keep. Anything you pick up while your inventory is full gets sent to Storage automatically, which is as much of a blessing as it is a curse. Never again will I be leaving things behind. ✪ Though each of the characters you met in Zero Dawn were fine to look at, had interesting personalities and excellent voice work, how they expressed themselves physically left a lot to be desired—especially during conversations. Actually, aside from a questionable few, it was easy to tell a characters' relevance because of how little effort went into making sure their expressions and gestures were fleshed out. In Forbidden West, hardly any characters have this issue. Just about all of them, including a majority of the game's background NPCs, are charming, well-designed, expressive and rarely ever stiff as they were in Zero Dawn. ✪ Zero Dawn's settlements were underwhelming, to say the least. You'd arrive, see residents walking around, have a few people who were willing to talk to Aloy and a couple who were ready to give her a task. They *looked* lively, but were really just animated backdrops that you'd only be returning to for main quest's sake. There was nothing to do that made it worth staying, and you'd hardly remember any of them once you left. Forbidden West makes settlements *feel* lively. Just about every NPC you see is doing something besides walking around or standing in place, with banter that occasionally changes based on what's going on in the world at the moment. There are also many more residents this time around, making settlements feel more like...well...settlements. However, what truly makes them more enjoyable is how much there is to do within them. Merchants make their return, but there are also activities to check out ranging from challenges to an addicting original board game called Machine Strike. ✪ The Witcher 3 has been deemed "King of Side Quests" for me since 2015, all because of the fact that it finally gave us side missions that respected our time. Fetch quests were actually interesting, introducing wonderful characters and having us feel as if what we were getting was worth it. Areas we wouldn't see if we simply followed the main storyline were prioritized. Enemies, from mobs to bosses, were tucked away in them so only those curious enough to do side quests would experience the encounters. We were also, constantly, rewarded handsomely for going out of our way to help NPCs; ones who often let us know exactly why they couldn't do something themselves instead of just barking orders. Horizon: Forbidden West is the first game since then to offer side quests just as good, with some of them doing an even better job than The Witcher 3 did, making it "Queen of Side Quests" in my opinion. Nothing you do feels like bloat or filler content that is only there to give you the illusion of a meaty experience. Every second counts, and I'm all for that. ✪ There are so many little quality of life improvements that giving each their own blip would bloat the review, so I'll just list off my favorites here. The weapon wheel has been increased from a measly 4 slots to 6. You can now fast travel for free when you do so from a settlement or campfire. Several of the skills that were once locked behind leveling are available from the start, including Machine Repair, Trap Disarming and many combat abilities, mostly from the Prowler (Stealth) tree. You can choose how many of something you wish to buy or sell instead of holding X, and conversations are no longer limited to two people, making them feel much more natural. [𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗺𝗲] ✘ Forbidden West's biggest flaws were little bugs that temporarily inconvenienced me. Nothing broke my game, prevented progression or even disgusted me to a point of irritation. The worst of these bugs was a significant drop in framerate during one of the battles I ended up in with a couple machines. I was on Performance Mode, but still managed to be stuck well below 30fps until I reloaded my last checkpoint, which only set me back about a minute. I also experienced a lot of pop-in textures and assets, which is supposedly fixed now, but it's a bit too late for me. [𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗶𝘁𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗸𝘀] • Crafting is less convenient, which is understandable since it was so easy in Zero Dawn, but feels like a questionable misstep that took some getting used to. In Zero Dawn, all you had to do to craft or upgrade was open your menu, go to the Crafting section and make what you wanted. Forbidden West removes that option, giving us two different crafting methods that require two different menus. The first only allows you to craft items Aloy uses in the field, and can be accessed by holding Down on the D-Pad. Doing this opens an unnecessarily convoluted item bar that can be customized to fit 20 items. To craft what you want, hover over one of them and hold X. This is done in real-time and requires more resources to complete than the second option, which is visiting Workbenches. These can be found in settlements, with an interface that looks eerily familiar to Zero Dawn's Crafting menu. They're also the only way you can upgrade your gear. Nostalgia is definitely why this is a nitpick, and it's certainly not a bad thing, just something I am still trying to get used to because it's so different from the first game. • Aloy's hair, though impressive at a glance, can often be really distracting. It never stops moving, even when you're standing perfectly still indoors, and it constantly clips through just about anything it attempts to come in contact with. There are even times when the ends of her hair randomly start jumping in place or shimmying from side to side as if they had a mind of their own. [𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹] Horizon: Forbidden West shines as a prime example for what a sequel should be. It's better than the first in almost every way I can think of, with a plethora of content that respects your time and rewards you for your curiosity. There are even many things I loved about the game that I chose to leave out of this review, which isn't something I usually do. Its beautiful, charming, engaging and is definitely among the best in the industry. My only hope is that Horizon's third mainline entry gives gamers with a wide variety of interest more time to enjoy it without a massive game releasing a few days after. I'd by lying if I said that my anticipation for Elden Ring didn't cripple my experience, but I still very much enjoyed what I played and can't wait to go back. Maybe the PC release will allow me to enjoy the game as it was intended. [𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼] ■ Platform Played On: PS5 ■ Playtime: 50 hours ■ Visuals: Amazing; among the best available. ■ Story: Fine; very little will stick with me, but I was entertained. ■ Post-Story Free Roam: Yes ■ Chapter/Mission Select: No ■ New Game+: Not yet ■ DLC: Starter Items received based game edition and pre-order. ■ Photo Mode: Yes ■ Optional Content: Plentiful ■ Update Frequency: Steady, for now ■ Accessibility Options: Plentiful ■ Plan to 100%: Absolutely