Horizon Forbidden West Review: The Sequel to Zero Dawn Is a Holistic Improvement on All Fronts

With an awe-inspiring world brimming with mystery, rich lore and fantastic gameplay, Horizon Forbidden West has certainly risen to the occasion and drawn eyeballs to itself. Magnificent machines, stunning scenery, strong storytelling, and highly improved gameplay; these are but some of the many admirable aspects of Horizon Forbidden West. Guerrilla Games’ highly anticipated sequel and newest entry to the Horizon series has you take control of the feisty and headstrong Aloy once more, in this refreshingly high-octane adventure across this glorious rendition of post-post apocalyptic western USA. Hungover from 45 hours sunk into the game, I still find myself itching to hop onto my trusty machine mount and traverse the western frontier to soak in the beauty yet again.

Mysterious threats to the very fabric of humanity’s existence

The questions left unanswered at the end of Zero Dawn take center-stage right from the start. Six months have passed since the blockbuster finale of the last game. As Aloy is on the lookout for a solution to reverse the state of the Earth’s deteriorating biosphere, a new menace rears its ugly head. Quite like the diverse and complex machines that litter the map, the story of Forbidden West is multi-layered and frothing with intrigue. As you chip away at the plot with an array of increasingly challenging main quests and interconnected (yet not mandatory) side quests, the mystery deepens. Each step taken in Aloy’s shoes will leave you with more questions than answers, quite likely tempting you to continue playing, and egging you on to dive deeper into the story.

Guerrilla have improved on their already impressive ability of knowing when to guide you by the hand, and when to gently nudge you into the welcoming arms of a spectacular open-world packed with opportunity to explore at your own convenience. While the game is often guilty of prolonged dialogue sequences and irrelevant character interactions on multiple occasions, there’s no questioning the quality of the story. It is suitably emotional, highly captivating, and is riddled with shocking twists, gasp-worthy moments, and jaw-dropping cinematic sequences.

As the end-game approaches, you will likely find yourself wanting to close the story out quickly, with each quest simply reeling you into the meat of the plot, as you steer the story to a spectacular and satisfying conclusion.

Returning players and newcomers alike will likely agree it is undeniably a memorable experience all-round – spearheaded by the ever-daring Aloy and her ragtag band of companions.

Aloy charges into the story with a cast of fascinating characters

In the Forbidden West, players take on the role of the flame-haired, spear-wielding Aloy once more. Ashly Burch reprises her role as everyone’s favorite Nora warrior and her performance shines through the game like a tallneck against the awe-inspiring horizons presented within it. Aloy’s courage, perseverance, and mettle (pun intended) are on full display, as she navigates the challenge of saving the inhabitants of Earth from potential extinction. Emboldened by recent successes, armed with the knowledge of her origins, she is also weary from the weight of the task that has befallen her shoulders (one she insists on carrying alone through the game). Burch plays her role admirably, delivering a protagonist that has only gotten bolder, wiser, and more powerful, as she experiences a more diverse range of emotions since the first game. Motion capture has extensively aided this, with improved character animations and expressions making the narrative experience more lifelike than the prequel.

Accompanying Aloy through this adventure is a wide array of accomplices, both familiar and new. As she travels further west in search of the answers to her questions, these unlikely champions from different walks of life add their own flavor to the story. Injecting a renewed sense of purpose in Aloy’s mission through their own questlines, your friends are a source of relief from the main story when you need it and lend their morale to our protagonist in counsel and combat alike.

Familiar gameplay reinforced by quality-of-life improvements

It is evident Guerrilla has taken player feedback from Zero Dawn seriously. Those new and those familiar with the series can smoothly glide into Forbidden West courtesy of a favorable learning curve, healthy array of difficulty settings and a leveling system that feels challenging enough to encourage getting stronger before progressing, while ensuring it doesn’t become a grind-fest for loot and levels. Traversal is much better too, with the new Pullcaster allowing you to rapidly scale heights that were previously unscalable, and the Shieldwing is a magnificent option to descend quickly with grace and precision. These two tools standout among the others, all of which unlock sequentially as you pass milestones in the story. Those familiar with the Odradek scanner from Death Stranding (another game which shares Forbidden West’s Decima Engine) will be pleased to see the enhanced focus borrows features from the former, helping with terrain scanning and highlighting objects of importance to help extensively with navigation. Movement itself might be inconsistent at times, and some awkward character animations might be glaringly evident. Certain mountable machines are far from finessed, and you might find yourself mildly annoyed as you try to nudge Aloy in the right direction. However, these are minor inconveniences and don’t extensively break the immersion.

Combat remains as tight as it ever was in Zero Dawn, and those experiencing the game on the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controllers will find themselves quivering, quite literally, as they rush into battle against man and machine alike. Exciting new machines supplement the original roster from Zero Dawn, making it an enjoyable yet reasonably challenging experience, particularly on higher difficulty levels. The human AI is also improved, and melee combat against man and machine alike is considerably better. However, it still feels out of place in a game that rewards wielding a bow. Certain skill trees (such as the Hunter tree) are more lucrative than the others, which might make certain playstyles particularly challenging over others, especially on higher difficulties. I highly recommend exploring the various skill trees to discover what suits your playstyle the most and hone-in on a few for a truly definitive experience. Weapon and armor variety has been expanded significantly, providing you with more options to further refine you playstyle and align it closely with your chosen active and passive skills. Most high-tier weapons come with varying firing modes, and additions and enhancements to the elemental damage types makes machine-hunting a joy to behold, even if it might be overwhelming to some, considering the vast number of machines present in the game.

Weapon and armor weaves are perks that add stats and benefits to specific items in your inventory too, giving you plenty of options to ready Aloy for battle your way. A particularly painful aspect is the need to hunt wildlife to improve Aloy’s equipment, hindering your ability to expand ammo capacity beyond a point. Unless you take time away from quests to pelt arrows into wildlife, you will often find yourself praying for that elusive cut of meat or flesh that will help you upgrade your equipment, with merchant wares also being frustratingly amiss in offering a quick reprise from the tedium.

A stellar world teeming with life

Forbidden West’s true beauty lies in its gorgeous interpretation of a post-post-apocalyptic world. Building on their work from Zero Dawn, the sequel is a spectacle to behold; dense jungles, rich valleys, derelict ruins, freezing mountaintops, submerged secrets, arid desertscapes and colorful lagoons come together seamlessly to paint a picture of perfection. Each area presents many opportunities to hunt and loot for better parts and materials to enhance Aloy’s capabilities and plays host to specific types of machines and wildlife that can be hunted for inventory upgrades, adding to the immersion, and rewarding planned excursions.

As you travel further west, you will encounter the Tenakth tribe, which among a spattering of other minor factions, represents most of the human element within the game. The Tenakth and their rich settlements add a feisty new dimension to the story through their interwoven political motives and richly diverse and contrasting lifestyles and background; a stark contrast from the other tribes present in the game, and indeed, from Zero Dawn.

A world this densely populated and loaded with content does get tiresome and mildly repetitive once the initial awe wears off. Having to travel extensive distances towards the latter half of the game (fast travel is your best friend if you wish to skip this) doesn’t help the cause either. However, the beauty of the world-building bolstered by the truly sensational graphical fidelity is incentive enough to whip-out that virtual camera and capture your favorite scenes from the wonderfully rendered and vibrant locales, as you ride your (t)rusty mount through the landscape.

Virtual photography lovers and screenshot enthusiast rejoice; this game is arguably one of the best games to invest time in the photo-mode. It comes with a healthy set of options to capture your favorite in-game scenes and chronicle those intense fight sequences and edit them to your heart’s content to give you that social media share-worthy output to show-off to your friends.

This review was posted by Tanay Iyer who is a guest contributor for IGN India.