Horizon Forbidden West - Review

 

It's been 5 years since Guerrilla Games released their first open world game with Horizon Zero Dawn. The game was very well received by the critics and players. Now there is a new journey for Aloy with the Forbidden West and I'll tell you if it was worth the wait.

Horizon Forbidden West was released for Playstation 4 and Playstation 5 and is not a pure "next-gen title". Guerrilla Games once again uses the versatile and self-made Decima Engine. This engine has already been used in games like Death Stranding and Until Dawn.

Story:

As the title suggests, this time you find yourself in the Forbidden West and once again control the extremely charismatic Aloy.

A new danger is plaguing the world and remains a great mystery. Over the length of the story, which lasted about 40 hours for me, you will meet many lovable characters.

The story worked for me even better than the first game. It's mysterious, well written and there are some insane highlights that I won't spoil. In one word, I would call the main quest "epic".

The story just worked great for me because I feel connected to Aloy. She's just a lovable character and the motion capture and the synchronization are again at an extremely high level.

Quests:

The side quests and side characters are awesome. Yes, on the same level as The Witcher 3. Quests that seem boring at first turn into a whole quest line that is varied and packed with nice rewards.

By exploring the game world, completing quests and other activities, you earn skill points, which you can spend in 6 different talent trees. Here you can expand your melee, ranged, survival instincts and more.

Many different options can be overwhelming at first, especially at the beginning. But I think it's good that you really get skill points through almost all activities, so that you can use skill points regularly.

Combat:

As the game progresses, you will always get new close and long-range combat options, which will be used in numerous bombastic battles. Next to exploring the game world, combat is the biggest highlight of Horizon Forbidden West. What Guerrilla Games offers here in terms of animations and enemy variety is jsut amazing. Machine parts are flying everywhere, lightning bolts and large boulders are coming at you.

You can scan all the machines before the fight and this make some machine parts recognizable. This is much more intuitive than in the first game.
the relevant information will be displayed to you immediately. This makes it easier to find and collect different parts. Machine parts are needed to upgrade your bags and weapons at a tool bench.

The arsenal of weapons really appealed to me again. In addition to slingshots, various bows or tripping weapons, there are also large weapons, which you separate from the machines in the fight.

The close combat has also been further expanded compared to its predecessor. New combos can be unlocked, which are very well animated. However, the execution of the combos are very tricky . I also missed a "lock on function" and the melee combat is overall too weak compared to the long-range counterpart.

Exploring the game world:

THIS GAME WORLD! I think Horizon Forbidden West has the most beautiful game world 
in an open world game so far. The sheer amount of detail on display here is almost surreal. 
Particles fly everywhere, animals move through the grass or leave tracks in the sand.
 Machines swim and relax in water, for example. Oh yes... the water! It looks insanly good 
and has been significantly improved over its predecessor. 



Streams of water flow naturally and waves are now simulated on the beach. 
I was strongly reminded of Death Stranding here. Since Kojima Productions are very 
good friends with Guerrilla Games, I strongly assume that the team may have gotten a 
few tips here. 

I thought the same about the scanner in the game world. As usual, you can press the 
analog stick to search your surroundings for objects. A new mechanic is that you can also 
make climbable rocks visible. Guerrilla Games choose a path between its predecessor 
and Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You can't climb all the walls, only the 
marked ones, but there are a lot more of them than in Horizon Zero Dawn.

In this way, the developers can plan climbing passages very nicely. Especially for set 

pieces.But a few times I stood in front of a rock that should definitely be climbable. 

However, this was not the case and you could only climb another wall next to a similar 

looking one. I also found the controls fiddly while climbing and fell to my death a few 

times, which shouldn't have happened.

It's not enough for a game world to simply look eautiful. You just have to be able to move very well in these environments and just have fun discovering new things. And this aspect is amazing in this game.

Aloy gets all kinds of new equipment for traversal. In addition to a glider with which you can glide down from the highest heights, you will also receive a diving mask. So you can stay underwater indefinitely. 

I really enjoyed exploring the world. You keep discovering new "points of interest" by accident and everything just works smoothly. 

And the world is gigantic. I've earned the platinum trophy in a total of 56 hours of playtime, but I'm still a long way off from discovering everything on the map. I strongly believe that if you really want to see all of the game, you can double your game time again. 

The game is really packed with activities. You will find ruins that all have different puzzles and a reward at the end. Clearly related to Zelda, but even better in my opinion. You can complete battle challenges under time pressure. There are arena fights in which you can compete against particularly strong machines and get hold of the most beautiful and best outfits.

You can compete against other NPC competitors in machine races, clear bandit camps, explore underground caves and much more.

The overview map is again revealed by the Tallnecks. And here the developers have come up with some really great puzzles and surprises. It's not just about the giant machines, you have to think of different tactics and paths. Some amazing stuff happens here.

Platinum Trophy:

As already described, I received the platinum trophy with a playtime of 56 hours. I can recommend the trophy to everyone. It's fun, not tied to the difficulty and can be achieved relatively easily.

Platinum difficult 6/10 

Graphics / Performance:

Horizon Forbidden West just looks phenomenal. I played the game on the Playstation 5 and a 55 LG Oled TV. The colors really come into their own when HDR is switched on. Surfaces have been recreated at an absurd level of detail. Details such as sweat on Aloy's face are mindblowing. Just look at this ingame picture I took. INCREDIBLE!

In the options menu you can choose between a resolution and a performance mode. I initially played in performance mode with 60FPS. After playing for a while, however, the reduced resolution bothered me and I switched to the second mode, which increases the resolution and offers (only) 30FPS . And I have to say I played the entire game in this mode.

After a while I didn't even notice the 30FPS anymore and the details of the game world jumped even more in my face due to the resolution.

Playstation 5 advantages:

The extremely short loading times should also be mentioned. Fast travel works almost instantly. This makes exploring twice as much fun and you don't lose any time. 

And now we come to the DualSense features that blew me away. I found this harmony between game world, combat and the controller simply unique. When you enter a cauldron for the first time and are surrounded by various machines, you can really feel it in the controller. High grass is simulated, but you also feel various resistances in the fight with the bow. I love the DualSense controller and Horizon Forbidden West shows why. Another "flagship game" for the DualSense.

Photo mode:

It's nice that the photo mode has made it back into the game. This offers an incredible amount of variety and I can no longer imagine Horizon Forbidden West without a photo mode. I often use the photo mode to explore the smallest details in the game world. 

Verdict:

In conclusion, all that remains to be said is that the successor to Horizon Zero Dawn has been improved in every aspect. Guerrilla Games has created a game world that is unparalleled in terms of beauty and detail. At the end of my adventure, I was standing in front of my TV applauding, and rightly so.

9.5/10