Horizon Forbidden West | Review

Initial Release Date: February 18, 2022

Developer: Guerrilla Games

Engine: Decima

Series: Horizon

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Composers: The Flight, Joris de Man

Introduction: Horizon Zero Dawn was in my top three favorite Sony exclusives list last generation which in turn might have created an overinflated hype for the recently released Horizon Forbidden West. Looking back could you blame me? Who doesn’t like robot dinosaurs. You have to be dead inside to not love robot dinosaurs. “ME GRIMLOCK!” Regardless. Horizon Forbidden West suffers from a case of “too much” which took away from it’s essence somewhat. Keep reading I’ll explain.

Presentation: Horizon Forbidden West is a game that needed less overall. There are way too many unneeded gameplay mechanics. Why do I need so many different bows with so many different arrow types now? Why are their so many skills that are not really needed? I understand the need for variables in gameplay but their aren’t that many robot dinosaurs in this game. Gameplay is bloated just for bloated sake.

Furthermore, there were more memorable bugs and glitches in Forbidden West compared to it’s predecessor Zero Dawn. Now for the positive. Horizon Forbidden West’s Visuals are the best in 2022. Destroying robot dinosaurs is still fun as all hell. Grander story with new enemy types and bigger stakes were welcomed. Sound design and music was invigorating. So not all is bad with Horizon Forbidden West.

Story: Aloy is back to save the world against a bigger threat from Earth’s past called Far Zeneth. Far Zeneth are just a bunch of elites from all types of backgrounds that escaped Earth’s demise via a spaceship only to unleash a virus-like organic-eating predator which chased them back to Earth. That is where Aloy comes in. Story is much larger in scope. Aloy travels to more locations stretching to San Francisco.

You encounter more tribes which Aloy tries to bring together to defeat Far Zenith. Corruption of machines still plague the lands which sends Aloy on a massive fetch quest spanning many areas and meeting various tribes in search of all legendary machine cores. Sylens continues to tease and drop breadcrumbs for Aloy to unravel. Underneath the main story arcs Aloy discovers what happened to Ted Faro after Earth’s collapse that he caused.

Story definitely has that “more” feeling but is it good? I enjoyed Horizon Forbidden West’s story however, certain parts within it lingered. A few supposedly big time characters also died in ways I found corny. As for Far Zenith’s story goes I figured that out pretty easily. Overall story should have been more focused and toned down like the first game. Too many things going on that convoluted the main story.

Gameplay: Bigger, bolder and more ambitious describes the gameplay. There are more robots like the Bristleback, Leaplasher, Shellsnapper, Slitherfang, Specter, Tremortusk, Widemaw and many others. Destroying robots take the right weapons and upgrades, equipment and know how. The feel of combat in Horizon Forbidden West is enthralling. It will NEVER get old taking down robot behemoths piece by piece.

You can collect materials throughout the open world to level up bows, equipment and replenish items for Aloy. The negative drawback of so much choice in regards to bows is confusion. There is no quick and easy way to have all the bows with types of arrows ready to take down every type robot. Something has to give, usually a weapon slot and it ain’t gonna be my Boltcaster.

New weapons include the elemental Boltcaster which I modded to take down most robots. Think of it as a LMG robot destroyer. I’ll be honest there are so many options in regards to weapons I barely touched the Sling or Tripcaster. Melee weapons like the spear ends up being one of the most important weapons once again. The Spear along with completing Cauldrons grants you the ability to manually override machines like the Sunwing.

I hate how you had to reach near the end of the story to ride a Sunwing. Flying on back a robot bird in this game was a beautiful experience indeed. Combat-wise I died a few times. You have to be prepared and have a strategy to take down advanced robots. So no you cannot just button-mash your way in Horizon Forbidden West. Loved the combat. At times it looks downright spectacular.

Visuals/Graphics: Horizon Forbidden West has the most impressive visuals in a videogame I played so far in 2022. Textures, draw distance, art style, technically 4K 60 fps or Raytracing 30FPS this game performed 99% perfectly. I rarely ever saw a dip in framerate. The open world is also more dense then you think.

Fly around on a Sunwing and look down if you don’t believe me. Guerilla Games pared with Playstation 5 are no joke when it comes to visuals. Taking down a Frostclaw, Grimhorn or Shellsnapper looks mindblowing visually. I wrote an article involving this game’s visuals here.

Sound/Music: Each robot makes a distinct territorial warning sound. Sound is a big part of the combat and gives you that feeling that this fight is literally moving the ground. Robots have various attacks whether it’s bombs or lasers that all sound different and impactful. The music reminds me of Jurassic Park. Epic tunes giving the game that scale when Aloy battles robots or taking to NPCs. I loved the sound design implementation and the orchestral melodies. Great job to all involved.

Final Verdict: Horizon Forbidden West is a very good game. You have a gorgeous open world with so much to do. The combat can get confusing due to so many bow variations and equipment types. More memorable robots, and NPCs flesh out the world. I made 291 gameplay videos for Jason’s Video Games Source YT. All of my youtube videos will be here eventually. I personally enjoyed Zero Dawn more than Forbidden West. Thank you for reading – Jason