Horizon Forbidden West Review I Recommend Robot Dinosaurs And Forbidden West
The opening hour is a little rough, though, seemingly because Guerilla were afraid that a lot of new players were going to jump into Forbidden West without any knowledge of the first game. The initial 60+ minutes are given over to recapping the foundations that were laid in Zero Dawn, which in fairness I appreciate because my memory tends to suck, even when it comes to games I recently completed. Still, even with this time being used, anybody coming into Horizon for the first time faces a daunting amount of crazy names and concepts being thrown at them. This, after all, is a post-apocalyptic game where tribal people live alongside hulking machines that wander the landscape. You can absolutely muddle through, but I’d highly recommend checking out a video recapping all the major points so that you don’t feel too lost when words like Zeniths, Zero Dawn, and Focus get thrown around.
Forbidden West is a fairly direct sequel, picking up mere months after the end of Zero Dawn. Aloy is now on a mission to save the world, and standing in the way is the mysterious Zeniths. So Aloy has to journey far into the “forbidden” west (which isn’t actually forbidden) to track down what she needs in order to reboot Giaa and recover all of its various sub-functions. Overall, there’s a bigger scoop of sci-fi dropped onto the story and generally stronger writing that doesn’t tend to rely so heavily on leaden lumps of exposition, rather spacing out the mumbo-jumbo throughout the 30-70 hours it can take to wrap Forbidden West up. Other things make for a more enjoyable story, too, like a more cinematic flair that brings the cutscenes to life, and plenty of movement during dialogue sequences to help keep you invested. Whereas in Zero Dawn it was often two heads speaking to each other, characters will now get up from a bench and walk around as they speak or gesticulate madly. Meanwhile, their impressive facial animations and truly excellent voice acting are some of the best in the business.
Aloy has gone through a couple of changes between games, both for the better and for the worse. She’s far more confident now and has lost the naivety she initially had. She has taken on the weight of the world and has extensive knowledge of the technology scattered around the land that other people still view as godly and mysterious. And, of course, she’s a hero now, a living legend and even the farthest tribes seem to know of the red-haired warrior and defer to her. She’s basically Jesus, at this point, and any hint of her having to come to terms with everyone’s near-worship is quickly brushed aside. Considering Aloy doesn’t tend to enjoy the attention, it’s slightly odd that the writers don’t opt to do more with her having to deal with everyone’s adulation.
She’s also regressed, too. The first game was the story of Aloy the outcast learning to trust again and to make friends who loved and respected her. It formed a solid emotional core, but for the sequel, Guerilla has gone backwards. At the very start of the game, Aloy has abandoned her friends and set out on her own yet again, leaving her comrades to chase after her and try to convince her that she can’t do this on her own. It’s retreading ground we’ve already covered, and the result is that Aloy doesn’t really have a personal journey this time. The Aloy in the opening hour is the same Aloy when the credits roll.
There’s also an issue with her personality. This incarnation of Aloy is armed with vastly superior knowledge compared to almost everyone she encounters along with an obsessive need to complete the mission, which is understandable given the nature of it. But this means she comes across as abrupt and rude quite frequently, shoving her way through conversations. She doesn’t have time for anybody, except when they are offering a side-quest, in which case the fate of the world can go shove itself up a robot dinosaur’s arse.
And then there’s the fact that I just don’t like Aloy very much. I’m aware I’m very much in the minority here since there are countless pieces of fan art depicting Aloy kicking butt, but for me, she has the personality of a damp cardboard box. She’s dull, and without the emotional journey of learning to trust again, she has little in the way of interesting traits. She’s a monotone protagonist, somehow showing less personality that the very woman she is a clone of. The only thing that makes Aloy a passable protagonist is Ashley Birch’s breathy performance, the actor once again giving it her all. There’s no shortage of dialogue, either; on top of all the main story stuff, there are hours upon hours of voiced side-quests, plus deeper dialogue trees that you can opt to explore. I shouldn’t just credit Birch either, because the acting is absolutely top-notch across the board, perhaps even beating out Guardians of the Galaxy, albeit not in terms of character writing.
Aloy gets outshone by her friends and allies constantly. Varl and Erend are back with Varl, in particular, playing a big role in events, and they get joined by a bunch of new faces. There’s the gruff one-armed warrior known as Kotello, for example, and Alva who gets positively giddy about data. There’s an almost Mass Effect structure to the game as you gather up companions before the big finale. For the most part, they chill out at your base, meaning if you really want to get to know them you need to head back between story beats and explore their new dialogue options. They’re a fascinating bunch, and I only wish they could have gotten individual moments to shine and more emphasis on the group dynamic, rather than just their one-on-one interactions with Aloy. More than anything, I wish they could be taken along on missions more often so their personalities could be explored further because the incredible voice actors deserve more meat to tear into.
Plus, being able to take companions along could stop Aloy from talking to herself all. The. Godamn. Time. I praised another Sony exclusive game for having a talkative lead character, but in the case of Days Gone Deacon’s constant rambling served almost entirely to reinforce his character. He was talking to himself, muttering and cursing like a real human stuck in a horrible situation might do. Aloy, however, is very clearly talking to the player, frequently repeating the same lines or even spoiling the solution to a puzzle before you’ve even started working on the damn thing. After 60+ it’s fair to say that I would nail my own lips to a cat’s arse than listen to Aloy tell me that medicinal berries are handy for the billionth time. Yes, Aloy, I am aware. And I also know they’ll magically go to my stash if my pouch is full. And yes, I already figured that I need to leap directly backwards off of the wall. WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT UP!?
As fun as the story and its unpredictable twists and turns are, the ending is what may cause some division. Firstly, and without spoiling anything, the ending might be a little too much for some people as it charges headlong into Horizon’s sci-fi elements. And secondly, and again without spoiling anything, the finale sets up heavily for a third game and in the process of doing that doesn’t wrap this story up in any particularly satisfying way. It’s actually annoying how often I’ve voiced this sentiment lately; laying the groundwork for a sequel is fine, but that should not come at the expense of writing a solid ending for the existing game. In short, the journey is fun, the destination is just okay.
There are a lot of changes to how Aloy can get around the vast world, starting with her mountaineering skills. No longer are you constrained to very specific patches that can be climbed, now you can clamber up loads of things. A press of the stick sends out a pulse that lights up rockfaces like a freaking Christmas tree, dozens of little neon lines indicating handholds for Aloy to use and abuse It’s still far from perfect because Aloy has a habit of randomly stopping, forcing you to shuffle around until she decides to finally jump to the next handhold, but it’s a huge improvement over the first game and opens up some fun new approaches to taking on enemies. And once you reach those high points you can glide back down using the new Shieldcaster. It’s surprising how little that new tool gets to shine, though. It actually makes me think it was maybe added later in development as a faster way to get down from higher locations. Regardless, climbing has been improved and while that doesn’t make it more fun it does make it smoother.
It isn’t just new heights Aloy can reach, either – now she can reach new depths! Literally, not morally. Obvious. Aloy is a good girl. The point is she can swim now, and even manages to acquire a handy device that allows her to breath indefinitely under the waves. There are entire underwater missions that let you explore sunken cities and laboratories. Since bows don’t work well in water,r stealth is the only option when huge machines are lurking nearby, so handy patches of I kid you not, Stealth Kelp can be used to hide in. The controls can be a little wonky, but overall being able to explore the depths is a fun addition to the formula. Just don’t think too much about how Aloy learned to swim so well between games.
The open world is massive and very predictable in its structure, ticking every single box in the Big List of Open-World Stuff list. There are rebel outposts to conquer, icons litter the map teasing relics to be found and Tall Necks to climb, and side-missions are found at the numerous outposts and cities. To put it simply, Forbidden West plays it incredibly safe with its open world, which means you know exactly what to expect of it and it delivers on that promise. Really, it’s just a shame that Guerilla happened to launch their big sequel around the same time that Elden Ring hit, a game getting huge praise for how it handles its open-world. It’s not the first time, either – Zero Dawn came out at almost the same time as Breath of the Wild, another game praised for its groundbreaking world.
Aloy’s playground is absolutely gorgeous, rich in vibrant foliage and costumes that practically sing if you have a HDR-capable TV. The myriad of machine animals that lumber around is some of the coolest designs I’ve ever seen and are packed with a stunning level of detail that can only really be admired by using the photo mode. In the middle of the intense action it’s hard to get a good look at the various pieces of armour adorning a giant mechanic T-rex that’s busy launching missiles at you. And let’s just take a moment to appreciate that: a robot T-Rex that fires missiles. But that isn’t the best of the machines because that award easily goes to a newcomer; the monstrous Slitherfang, a humungous metal cobra that wraps around the scenery and is a joy to fight. In other places, the level of detail is just as absurd, like the moss on the ground or the flowers or the subtle texture work in a character’s costume. It’s a huge upgrade from Horizon: Zero Dawn. However, in fairness, I’ve been playing the PS5 version of Forbidden West, an upgraded version of the core game offered for free by Sony after they attempted to charge people $10 for the privilege despite previously saying they wouldn’t. But don’t panic – I’ve checked out the PS4 version, too, and it’s still beautiful.
