Horizon Forbidden West tries to improve over it's predecessor but is dragged down by it's overdifficult mechanics. You are always told to try new things like using traps, attacking the weak point of an enemy or going all out, but it's not the way you should be doing it. There's always a prefered way the game tells you to kill a robot, while Horizon Zero Dawn allowed you to take many routes to take out enemies.The traps have been toned down, stealth has never been a worse mechanic and enemies serve more as damage sponges since hitting it's weak point will not warranty a good advantage over that monster. The exploration feels empty, the collectables are boring, just some Lore here, some green stuff here that allows you to upgrade your armor and repetitive climbing. Upgrades are also a drag, there are lots of weapons and you don't feel like you want to upgrade anything due to the low damage increase and knowing that better weapons are on the way. Killing machines is fun at first, but it gets frustrating after a while. As for the story and characters, the story is subpar to the first game. The first game was shrouded in mistery and you wanted to know what happened in this world. Now we have discovered it and the game tries to drag a very convulated story with more clones and aliens. Feels like playing a Kingdom Hearts story. Also Aloy has never been more annoying. She always gets what she wants, she doesn't learn from her mistakes. On the first game she was never trusted and she did whatever it took to get to her goal, even if people disliked her. Now she's the ALMIGHTY ALOY, she is always told how good and perfect she is. Even the tribes on the west who should not know her a lot give her special treatment like she's their hero. I am not saying this game is bad, but it's certainly a downgrade and after 27 hours I feel like i am being dragged to play this just to complete it instead of being inmersed in this world.