You will take on herds of machines so you could harvest them for parts.

You will shoot animals for their hides.

You will climb Tallnecks and rappel down.

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You will take out countless camps of near-identical human opponents.

In truth, I can’t calm down about the way Forbidden West looks.

Someone made this, and you’ve got the option to walk around in it!

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What I’m interested in, however, is change.

I can recognise and appreciate that Guerrilla made attempts to address some common criticisms of the first game.

However, in most cases these intended improvements don’t actually improve a lot.

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The new map is once again a stunner.

I got a lot of enjoyment from just discovering each new part of it and taking it in.

Characters are almost always just as gorgeous as their surroundings.

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I especially live for the skin in this game.

As for what you do in this world, and with these characters?

After a lengthy tutorial which establishes the basics, all bets are off.

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In short there is a discovery problem.

Elsewhere it’s the same story.

So why are they there?

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Other improvements are equally troublesome.

One frequent criticism of Zero Dawn were its many rather stupid human enemies.

In Zero Dawn, I enjoyed nothing more than taking out entire camps stealthily.

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But this time around, if one of them hears you, almost always all of them hear you.

Additionally, any human opponent seems to be able to withstand some ten odd arrows.

In terms of structure, Forbidden West’s main quest structure is now much more geared towards visiting dungeons.

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There is more of a clear goal to what you’re doing this time around.

Let’s just sit with this sentence for a moment.

Its ending is tedious and anticlimactic.

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Horizon Forbidden West is still evidently not a game that has anything of interest to say about its apocalypse…

It’s a game that exists to be looked at.

Beyond the story, in Forbidden West Aloy herself is the real disappointment to me.

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But Saviour Aloy is also absolutely unbearable.

What’s more, narratively, almost the entire campaign is structurally identical.

It’s a game that exists to be looked at.

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There are other frustrations.

While Forbidden West is not a difficult game to understand, it acts like it is.

Aloy will narrate your every move, and I mean every move (“I should scan this.”

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They’re just sitting in a large bunker, without much to say on your progress.

I didn’t get a lot of added value from it.

It’s a real shame.

Unfortunately, with Horizon Forbidden West that’s often the case.