Horizon Forbidden West Review

"Aloy's Tomb Raiding"

Campaign

March 2, 2022 at 10:36pm
By Jason Stettner

Aloy’s second adventure finds her heading far out into the west in search of lost secrets, and a way to stop the next extermination of humanity. It’s a tall task and it’s one that seemingly has her very grumpy one might note in terms of dealing with the situation. The character definitely doesn’t put up with anyone and that’s rather interesting.

She’s largely paired up with Varl who while annoying initially at the start of this one really does grow on you and I liked his progression as a character, along with the others that join up as the journey progresses. It’s a chunky narrative filled with a similar amount of content to the first game which feels about right for the time value that it provides.

There’s a lengthy main narrative that is padded with lots of extra activities to take part in if you so choose. This game really does have just a ton to do, and it’s all so beautifully presented. I did find that some odd difficulty spikes were present, including the final boss to be a complete pain which felt out of place yet similar to what the first game had for its conclusion.

That aside, this is a wonderful experience that feels almost the exact same as the prior one with some minor upgrades here or there. I was entirely engrossed with the story here finding the new discoveries to be just as exciting as the ones in the prior game. There are many cool places to explore, and ever so many secrets to come across. That being said, I did find some narrative beats to be slightly disjointed in this one but not enough to wreck the grand time I was having.

Mostly some aspects about a bigger sort of enemy that comes into the picture, and how that force didn’t really have much to them outside of being evil if that makes sense. Trying to edge along the lines of being spoiler free while giving some context there. Anyways, the missions were plentiful and generally quite engaging. You explore a wide range of locations including ones that are familiar, but mostly brand new spots as you continue to move across the United States.

I would have liked more time in the San Francisco region, but I loved the unique biomes that were present from having multiple areas covered within this experience. So you get a mix of unique intrigue in understanding more of what happened as humanity fell, alongside Aloy attempting to get more used to a team as she once again heads out there by herself to save the day against the mighty mechanics robot animals that roam the Earth.

Gameplay

This plays essentially the exact same as the last game did, with some minor new traversal elements included within Aloy’s arsenal. You’ll be climbing, rolling about and battling vast swathes of enemies across a range of locations. The machines are very distinct featuring many points of destruction on them that looks ever so satisfying.

That’s paired with the DualSense which makes the action feel more intensive to your hands alongside having the triggers impact how your bow is used. Some of the enemies did feel rather tough, so keep in mind difficulty options are present and you can also opt to level up your character as well through side ventures that are readily available.

The world is filled with activities to do as you take advantage of light crafting in the process of exploration or also perhaps find yourself riding a new creature. You may even take to the sky this time around which is simply wondrous.

The combat in general feels really good here, you have many environments to take advantage of and many different types of enemies to face. The visual presentation is simply gorgeous, with the frame rate mode being my preference. You’re getting a checkerboard resolution at 1800p which isn’t quite as clear as the native 4k 30fps quality mode but having that 60fps action is certainly appreciated.

The HDR implementation has a bit of shimmer to it but looks nice otherwise. The cutscenes in this are absolutely mind blowing in terms of fidelity and in how they effortlessly sway into gameplay.

There’s basically no loading here which is wonderful and it’s one long seamless adventure the whole way through. A technical masterpiece of an experience for the PS5, that’s for sure. I can’t wait to see what they do with the third one as I imagine that won’t be cross-gen like this one is.

The Conclusion

Horizon Forbidden West is a simply stunning experience that’s very familiar to the first game while boldly expanding the scope of what Aloy is aiming to achieve. As mentioned I did have some issues at times with the story as it felt slightly disjointed but I just loved the mystery and was completely captured by what was going on.

Some difficulty spikes might be present, wish they would even that out more as the gap of level requirement goes a little too high at times. I like a challenge, but I also don’t want to grind things out story wise. I feel as though the open world is enticing enough that I don’t need to be forced to head out into it as I’m wanting to really work at the story portions. I still never found anything too hard, outside of that final boss battle.

You do get many tools, unique ways to fight and a distinct selection of environments to face off against foes in. So it does allow you to be creative to tackle the challenges that arise. I love the world that they’ve crafted it here, it’s nearly flawless in terms of traversal and the secrets it holds. There may be some noticeable pop-in, but that’s essentially only when you take flight.

Regular exploration yields a basically perfect visual experience the whole way through no matter where you go or whether that’s in cutscenes or traditional play. They’ve put together a very pleasing experience and I cannot wait to see what Aloy does next in what I imagine will likely be an expansion and then a full on sequel years down the road.

Read our Horizon Zero Dawn Review
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Horizon Forbidden West Review on Playstation 5
Review Code Provided by SIEC

Rating Overall: 9.4