This review contains spoilers

It took me all year with a few monthlong breaks here and there, but I finally finished Horizon Forbidden West earlier this month (with a platinum trophy as my take-home prize!).

I loved the story for Zero Dawn and Forbidden West started out just as compelling. Collecting all of GAIA's sub-functions scattered around the world was the most exciting part of the story because it felt like Aloy was making huge progress in healing and piecing the world back together. The story gradually fell short when it became apparent that the Far Zeniths were the main antagonists.

I'm not sure if it was the stark sci-fi difference compared to the tribal aesthetics that I'm used to, but the Far Zeniths looked so damn goofy and out of place. If I compare the Far Zeniths to the Collectors in Mass Effect 2, I can look past it if Nemesis lives up to its reputation in the next game.

The ending for Forbidden West was rushed and disappointing, given how much I enjoyed the rest of the game. I keep comparing it to Mass Effect 2, given the "suicide mission" aspect of the final mission: Aloy assigning her companions different tasks, having meaningful conversations before moving out, etc. Forbidden West's attempt at a suicide mission doesn't work quite as well because I didn't have time to bond with my companions since they spent all their time at the base and I only saw them in brief cutscenes during their related missions.

The best thing about Horizon has always been the combat, and it was elevated so well in FW! I absolutely loved all the new machines, with the Slitherfang and Tideripper as my personal favorites. The absolute satisfaction of ripping off machine parts never got old.

In the end, I really loved this game even though I'm tired of the generic open world formula of hitting up '?''s on the map and uncovering map fog. I sense this formula will come back in the next game, but the combat of Horizon and love for Aloy has me looking forward to any future DLC and next entry.

Reviewed on Nov 07, 2022


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