Horizon: Forbidden West is a continuation of the story that began in Horizon: Zero Dawn, but you do not need to know anything about the original title to enjoy (or understand) what is going on in Forbidden West. That's an excellent thing, because you can play the best version if the Horizon universe today.
However, you may only do this if you've got a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 console. If you don't, you may need to settle for the PC version of Horizon: Zero Dawn to tide you over until such a time that you find yourself a PS4 or PS5 and pick up the game.
Forbidden West is a marvel of technology, story, game play, and is a game that should (and will) be ranked among the best games released in 2022, if not in the entire decade of the 2020s.
Forbidden West is an open world action game where you fight mechanical monsters in a post-apocalyptic world where the balance of nature is a struggle for survival.It is a world where you can sneak, trap, melee or explode your foes to smithereens. You can do what you want, when you want, and how you want to do it.
If there's only one complaint I have about the game is that you are not able to upgrade your spear (which to my early game play style) - was my favourite weapon = stealth strikes. Later, you get armor that increases the damage your spear and melee (And sneak attacks can do) - but it doesn't scale as well as all the other weapons in the game do.
Speaking off weapons - there's dozens of styles of bow that accept different types of ammunition - crafted from items scavenged from foes and found in the environment. All the weapons are effective given the correct situation, and I found myself swapping between different types of bows, traps, and melee combat styles throughout my play through.
For example, you might want to set up some traps in the path (or out of the path) of a large monster, and lure them into the trap by harassing them with a bow from within stealth or cover. Alternately, you might want to use a rope caster, a weapon capable of tying down enemies, to render them immobile, allowing you to focus on hitting weak spots or removing weapons from mechanical creatures.
In addition to the monsters that you fight, you'll find yourself hunting various animals of an organic nature, and you can use the spoils to make food with the assistance of chefs, which provide combat boosts. You can also use animal hides and bones to upgrade your storage capacity, with various pouches, quivers, and satchels to increase your ability to survive away from outposts against hostile machinery for even longer.
The world of Forbidden West is sprawling, massive, organic, and stunning. From plains, to deserts,, to hills, to beaches to swamps, and enormous, sprawling ruins of the old world, there's hundreds of things to discover, be they areas where machines congregate, towers where there's trinkets of the old world hidden, or fallen aircraft where you get to explore the last moments of the human capital that once occupied the Earth of Forbidden West.
The exploration doesn't stop on the surface of the Earth. You'll explore underground ruins, and there's even an enormous, sprawling network of caves and underwater diving spots where you can discover valuable resources and unravel mysteries of the world that once was.
For an open world game, everything that you can see and touch in Forbidden West is attached to some sort of narrative thread that you can tug upon. There aren't a hundred collectibles scattered in random spots about the map procedurally to pad out the game - each and every one has a purpose - and while that purpose may not immediately be apparent, the game rewards you if you were diligent in collecting them all as you progress.
The wonderful part about this is that you're not locked out of past areas - you can simply go back if you didn't find something the first time round - and you can enjoy the spoils of adventure along the way. The game retains a fast travel system (which is required - given the enormous side of the map) - and loading times are practically non-existent on the PS5, thanks to the PCI-E gen 4 SSD contained within. Reports of the PS4 version having longer loading times are to be expected.
It feels as though there's a wide array of characters in every village are unique, but many are indeed just NPCs. Though, in each town, you'll find characters that have stories and quests that will tell you more about the areas that you're exploring, and as a result, you feel a part of the various tribes and towns you encounter, as you have impactful actions upon people's lives.
There's no moral dilemnas offered (ala Mass Effect) - and every interaction you have with NPCs will have a positive outcome on their lives (for the most part) - meaning that you get a tale told from a single perspective. It would be a neat addition if you could upset one of many parties along the way instead of being rail-roaded into playing the good "girl" that Aloy is.
The result is a thoroughly wholesome tale that sprawls along dozens and dozens of hours if you explore all the side quests you can possibly find, along which you'll find creature racing, arena fights against monsters, trials where you need to learn the specific combat styles best suited to taking down certain machines; and then to top all of that off, there's even a melee arena; and a board game you can play with a cast of characters, while collecting pieces to expand your collection, modeled, of course, after the machines you encounter in the vast, Forbidden Wilds.
Horizon: Forbidden West is a genuine masterpiece of game design. It is complete, balanced, satisfying, and much like other excellent open world games - such as the Grand Theft Auto series; it is fun to just explore the environment, soak in the atmosphere, and explore. I am writing this at 75% game completion, with the main quest likely about to come to a close; and numerous side quests still outstanding.
For my troubles, I've enjoyed over 120 hours of the best game play I've had in many years. After Horizon: Forbidden West, I feel as though every other game I ever play will be held to a significantly higher standard - now that I know the complete breadth, ambition, and vision that is capable of unfolding in a modern video game.
The enjoyment I've garnered from this game alone more than makes up for the price of admission being a PlayStation 5 console. With the backdrop of the post-apocalyptic world something that looks more and more likely each given day (whether this be through environmental impacts, conflict, or the best of intentions unraveling into a disaster) it makes the atmosphere of Forbidden West all the more poignant and meaningful.
If you enjoy open world games; this is the new standard against which all other open world games should now be judged. If I were to score the game, it'd very clearly be a ten out of ten. Go get this game. Go get a PlayStation 5. Go get a decent TV to enjoy it all on, and I'll see you in a few months when you've managed to extract yourself from the wonders that Forbidden West has to offer.
We'll talk then.