Horizon Forbidden West

It is 2022 and one game, another action open world RPG, is making a big impression on gamers. The rich environments it displayed, the diverse combat systems, the engaging lore and world sucked players in and everyone who has played it already are clamoring for a sequel. That game was Eldin Ring. Man Horizon just can not seem to catch a break when it comes to releasing a game, like it is doomed as a franchise to be overshadowed. Which is a shame as honestly I loved this game, though it certainly is still not perfect.

This year I did not sleep on the game, and got it within the first week of its release. This was a very different experience for me. When I picked up ZD all the bugs had been patched out of the game I guess because with very few exceptions the game ran smoothly and played well on my aging PS4. I played FW on the same PS4 and had many, many graphical and other types of glitches. Clipping through terrain or assets being invisible, it was very buggy but to be fair never crashed, although sometimes I genuinely thought it might. Early in my play-through I encountered severe frame drops, although after several patches this seemed to improve. However, even as I was finishing the game an area did not load terrain and I fell to my death. They are still improving the game even now, but it still has a way to go before it is as stable as its predecessor.

The game's visuals are easily relatable to the first entry yet somehow are more lush and colorful. The opening tutorial area might be a little too lush but it is certainly impressive. The first game was already a beautiful but the sequel improves in every way. I was a little put off by the new UI at first, I felt the original is more intuitive, for showing where enemies are and whether they can see you or not. It is not a deal breaker though and I got used to it but I do not think they changed it to improve it just to differentiate it from the first game. The skill tree is another example. The whole dream catcher design is neat but I preferred the much more straightforward system of the first game. But that is a personal nitpick and the game is very aesthetically pleasing and rich in environmental diversity and with its color pallet.

The game continues and improves on the excellent character depiction from the first game. In a way the first game is themed around motherhood. Aloy is searching for her mother and a lot of significance is placed on the theme early in the game. The second game focuses on fathers as an underlying theme and features less Elizabet. Elizabet in this game is a shadow that looms over Aloy because of the expectations she self imposed on herself being Elizabet’s clone. But her encounters with Beta show her that having Elizabet’s genes has less of an impact than she thought. Rost’s influence also was there and he instilled in her several of the qualities that she has relied on to find success. Beta provides an interesting dynamic for Aloy to interact with and the two of them influence each other's development. The circumstances of Rosts death lead Aloy to become isolated, and the game puts a lot of emphasis on the need for Aloy to share the burdens she carries with others. Varl stands out the most of the returning cast, he steps up throughout the plot to be there in a fatherly way for several characters. I do not want to spoil several key moments of the game but early on I was very attached to Varl and his contributions to the story. Erend is always fun and new members of the cast are well written and performed by the actors. Indeed the cast increased so much from ZD that I will not cover all of them here for the sake of expediency.

Aloy continues to be fantastically characterized. The trauma of the last game has sunk in hard for her. Now that a new threat looms she finds herself still reeling from her past traumas. She starts out angry, pushing those who care about her away, seemingly annoyed by how they slow her down. She comes across more combative and impatient than before, bulldozing her way ahead, not carefully tending the relationships she has built from the first game. But as the game progresses she slowly catches her breath and slows down. She transitions from loner to leader and learns to empathize with those around her. Rost’s final wish was for Aloy to be one with the tribe, he did not want her to be alone. She fulfills his last wish in a different way, she makes a new tribe. In this way she forges her own unique path from both her “parents” Elizabet may have been a loner but she does not have to be. Tilda and Beta can only see her as Elizabet, but her other friends can see her for the unique individual that she is. Ashly Burch does another phenomenal job characterizing the difference between Aloy, Beta and Elizabet using inflection of her voice. The acting extends to Aloys character development, she starts out sounding more and more like Elizabet but finds her own voice again through the narrative. It is impressive work.

I mentioned in my review of the first game that I did not find the combat of ZD to be at all limiting because I felt that the stealth and long range combat more than made up for it. This game does build on the combat of the original, providing more fluid options and differentiated combos that can be unlocked. But the star of the show is still the long range and stealth combat. One thing I found to be limiting over the first was the limitations on trap placement and duration. As such I relied more on the placed bombs than the trip wires because they had unlimited timers. Combat overall is greatly improved with even more variety of weapons that can be purchased and upgraded. The game is very open to how you want to play, but I found myself relying on my own tactics developed from the previous entry. That is not a criticism, I like the feeling of continuity that can be carried over from the previous game.

The story continues to intrigue me, tickling my itch for in depth science fiction, doubling down on its themes. Some I am sure did not care for some of the directions taken by the plot, and even I was not sure about some of the story decisions. But the game did conclude in a way that I found to be satisfying and sets up a new threat for future sequels which I find intriguing. I can not say more for fear of spoiling the game but I am already looking forward to Horizon 3 and even more so for some DLC. For the future I would love to see a prequel, we have seen so much of the sad story of the end of the world. A tragic story set in that time period that plays more like a cover shooter might be really interesting. For the sequel I expect they will shake things up quite a bit. Likely they will expand the arsenal of Aloy even more and some story co-op options would be very welcome.

In this section for the prequel I talked about some improvements I wanted to see. I am pleased to report that almost all of my ideas were included as well as some implementations that I loved but did not know I needed. I already mentioned combat and while I did not touch on traversal, as online there are several who already mentioned it, the best addition to traversal in my opinion is the wall jump. It is broken and like Breath of the Wild’s various techniques I used it to circumvent puzzles and enter areas that were not intended early. It gave me that feeling I love from Super Metroid of using practiced mechanics to bend the game to my will. I also wanted a more consistent visual presentation for NPC’s with improved animation. While still not perfectly this aspect has been vastly improved upon. Future tech is also more fleshed out, and while there are still some yellow buses here and there, see last revue, it does now look more like a ruined “future” while still walking that line of the familiar. Increased functionality of tamed machines was also addressed. Arrow types allow you to tag targets for tame machines to attack. Tamed machines are also more active and will follow you carrying out one of two directives given by the player, attack or defend. It is just enough control without being overly convoluted and as such I found myself taming many more machines than in the first game. Also, the ability to fly on machines is easily my favorite edition. Even after I finished the campaign I would boot the game and just fly around seeing what mischief I could get into.

Again my chief complaint comes from the amount of glitches that I encountered. A couple of side quests were not marked as well. One particular side quest that irked me was one involving two leaders that Aloy must choose between as they were unwilling to compromise with each other. Aloy’s whole montra is to find the third option yet here the player is not presented with another way to proceed. Certain choices made save some lives but I found the interaction to be unsatisfying compared to the normal collection of quests presented in the game. But really the only real problem I had with the game was just how often it broke.

I really liked this game. The premise remains very engaging to me and the world is fun to explore. I am looking forward to DLC and a third game set potentially across the sea moving even further west. I would love to see two campaigns. One single player campaign featuring Aloy and then a smaller co-op campaign centered around the supporting cast from this game. I can dream right? I firmly recommend this game and when I do break down and get a PS5 this will be the first game I play on it.