This review contains spoilers
Back when Horizon Forbidden West first released, I decided to play it on the toughest difficulty, to force myself into playing strategically. Also, since I had loved the first game so much, I was set on 100% completing the sequel. That left me with 27 hours of playtime in which I accomplished only half of the game's story, a dull experience where even the simplest enemy is a damage sponge, and an overall dissapointing experience.
I was however keen on going back to the game eventually. I believed that with an easier difficulty setting and a focus on main quests accompanied by a few side quests, this game could be pretty good. Turns out, I wasn't completely wrong, but the experience still wasn't up to what the original accomplished.
Now don't get me wrong: Horizon Zero Dawn is no absolute masterpiece. It's one of my favourite games of all time, sure, but that's more down to the story and worldbuilding than anything else. Sure, the gameplay is really interesting with it's focus on targeting parts, mixing arrow shooting and trapping, really excelling at makign you feel like a hunter stalking it's giant mechanical prey. The sense of scale of the fights is immaculate, the sense of progression is really well done, the quests are mostly pretty good, the side activities are abundant but not overwhelming... Horizon Zero Dawn is a good game made great by its lore and worldbuilding. It's also a game that knows its ambition, and limits its scale in consequence. The game is by no means small, but the upgrade system is on the simpler side of things, there aren't a thousand different weapon types, and the skill tree is small but really gives you a sense of progression, as you unlock new moves. Zero Dawn wasn't trying to be the best game ever, and it made it great.
Forbidden West on the other hand, clearly wanted to put its name next to the likes of The Last of Us, Uncharted or God of War as a Sony classic, and it shows. The game seems to be trying to justify its own existence so bad, it really hinders the experience. The simple, coil based upgrade system from Horizon Zero Dawn ? Add a crafting based upgrade system on top of that. The amazing skill tree from the first game ? Replace it by one of the dullest skill trees ever, where every "skill" is just a stat boost. The limited but perfectly decent weapon selection from the first game ? Add more weapons, most of which are useless or very context sensitive, more ammo types, so that no two weapons play alike to such a degree that the player is confused as to which ammo goes with which weapon and what each does, which discourages him from engaging with shopkeepers and using different weapons. The map from the original, which is (relatively) dense compared to other open worlds ? Make it twice the size with the same number of activities, including an introductory part of the world which could've been cut off without any problem.
Forbidden West feels like it was scared of being told it wasn't enough of a sequel, so it just kept adding stuff to justify its existence, when it really didn't need to, because the stuff we actually wanted to see a sequel to, that being the worldbuilding, really excells. The tenakth are fascinating, the Faro twist is great, the world is beautiful (although I was severly dissapointed with San Francisco). It's a shame that Guerrilla didn't believe in its project's strength and felt like they needed to do way more than necessary. Sometimes, less is more.
The story sucks though. It just feels confused, and the theme of "Aloy learning to accept help" was interesting on paper, as it made perfect sense to push Aloy's character in that direction as she grew up an outcast, but it doesn't really have any meaningful beats. She just suddenly accepts help. There is no emotional low point, she just changes her mind. Not great.
Less is more, especially in a gaming landscape saturated with way too big open worlds. I truly do believe that there is a huge gap in the market for a small, dense, linear open world with a well crafted story and measured ambition, something even smaller than Zero Dawn. Instead, Forbidden West decided to fight fire with fire, to combat the other huge open worlds of our day with something even bigger, and the result is a nauseatingly big game that most will never want to touch again.
I was however keen on going back to the game eventually. I believed that with an easier difficulty setting and a focus on main quests accompanied by a few side quests, this game could be pretty good. Turns out, I wasn't completely wrong, but the experience still wasn't up to what the original accomplished.
Now don't get me wrong: Horizon Zero Dawn is no absolute masterpiece. It's one of my favourite games of all time, sure, but that's more down to the story and worldbuilding than anything else. Sure, the gameplay is really interesting with it's focus on targeting parts, mixing arrow shooting and trapping, really excelling at makign you feel like a hunter stalking it's giant mechanical prey. The sense of scale of the fights is immaculate, the sense of progression is really well done, the quests are mostly pretty good, the side activities are abundant but not overwhelming... Horizon Zero Dawn is a good game made great by its lore and worldbuilding. It's also a game that knows its ambition, and limits its scale in consequence. The game is by no means small, but the upgrade system is on the simpler side of things, there aren't a thousand different weapon types, and the skill tree is small but really gives you a sense of progression, as you unlock new moves. Zero Dawn wasn't trying to be the best game ever, and it made it great.
Forbidden West on the other hand, clearly wanted to put its name next to the likes of The Last of Us, Uncharted or God of War as a Sony classic, and it shows. The game seems to be trying to justify its own existence so bad, it really hinders the experience. The simple, coil based upgrade system from Horizon Zero Dawn ? Add a crafting based upgrade system on top of that. The amazing skill tree from the first game ? Replace it by one of the dullest skill trees ever, where every "skill" is just a stat boost. The limited but perfectly decent weapon selection from the first game ? Add more weapons, most of which are useless or very context sensitive, more ammo types, so that no two weapons play alike to such a degree that the player is confused as to which ammo goes with which weapon and what each does, which discourages him from engaging with shopkeepers and using different weapons. The map from the original, which is (relatively) dense compared to other open worlds ? Make it twice the size with the same number of activities, including an introductory part of the world which could've been cut off without any problem.
Forbidden West feels like it was scared of being told it wasn't enough of a sequel, so it just kept adding stuff to justify its existence, when it really didn't need to, because the stuff we actually wanted to see a sequel to, that being the worldbuilding, really excells. The tenakth are fascinating, the Faro twist is great, the world is beautiful (although I was severly dissapointed with San Francisco). It's a shame that Guerrilla didn't believe in its project's strength and felt like they needed to do way more than necessary. Sometimes, less is more.
The story sucks though. It just feels confused, and the theme of "Aloy learning to accept help" was interesting on paper, as it made perfect sense to push Aloy's character in that direction as she grew up an outcast, but it doesn't really have any meaningful beats. She just suddenly accepts help. There is no emotional low point, she just changes her mind. Not great.
Less is more, especially in a gaming landscape saturated with way too big open worlds. I truly do believe that there is a huge gap in the market for a small, dense, linear open world with a well crafted story and measured ambition, something even smaller than Zero Dawn. Instead, Forbidden West decided to fight fire with fire, to combat the other huge open worlds of our day with something even bigger, and the result is a nauseatingly big game that most will never want to touch again.