Horizon Forbidden West is more Horizon, more of the open world formula that’s filled the last decade of open world games and more of the visual fidelity that seemingly only PlayStation first party studios can deliver.
It’s not bad or a problem to be the default, when you excel at building a world with a fidelity that I would usually only expect of a rockstar open world game. When you create lore and stories that fill this staggeringly beautiful places with life. When you deliver a robust combat system, with a huge variety of enemies that are beautifully animated and distinct enough to keep you engaged for at least into the later parts of the game. What also separates this from the pack, is that you are not forced to play through the more generic and tedious parts of the game. Everything in your journal is split up so pedantically, that you would basically be able to play through the game in a very linear fashion, leaving out all the errands, the camps and other collectibles. They are waiting for you however, if you decide to spend more time with the game - and you can spend hours upon hours in it if you choose to. When I think about my favourite parts of the game, I always think about the exploration. Arriving at and being in awe of the intricately designed settlements or just wandering into the hugely varied wilderness have got to be my favourite moments of this current gen so far. And especially one place in the desert, later into the game, will always stay in my mind as one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever experienced in a game. In that sense it reminded me of the vistas and places I didn’t want to leave in CP2077. It’s not only the visuals from a technical standpoint. I asked myself if I’d still be so in awe if I’d play the game in 10 years from now and the answer is yes: the art direction and environmental design on display here is definitely top notch and will be a reference point for quite a while for me. The soundtrack is mostly beautiful as well, mixing traditional and natural sounds with artificial deep bass and synth sounds matching the same mixture of old and new around you. But not only the visuals and sound design in the open world are what make it a joy to explore, there are also a couple of activities which I thought were a lot of fun: first and foremost the Tallnecks. I love how they made every Tallneck basically into a puzzle and the payoff in the end is always an insane view. The Ruins were also my highlights, often times I just naturally came across them and really felt the urge to explore the places and solve the environmental puzzles. The design of the machines is absolutely mindblowing. Coming across a new type of machine is always interesting, their patterns and how they move and are animated in general is unrivalled imho. Some of the side quests were really well made as well, telling great stories and introducing a bunch of very cool and interesting characters. Not all of the side quests are delivered with the same quality however, this is were CP2077 for example knocked it out of the park. But the same goes for the story in general. It’s good, there are moments that exceeded my expectations by far and it’s filled with great characters for sure, but in the end I won’t remember too much of it, because I wasn’t as emotionally invested as I was with my favorite open world games like RDR2 especially.
Horizon is a very good game, it’s the best iteration of what you would expect in an open world game nowadays. It doesn’t play in the same league as the very best, but it comes close and I’m happy for everyone involved in the creation of this, that it has been such a success.
It’s not bad or a problem to be the default, when you excel at building a world with a fidelity that I would usually only expect of a rockstar open world game. When you create lore and stories that fill this staggeringly beautiful places with life. When you deliver a robust combat system, with a huge variety of enemies that are beautifully animated and distinct enough to keep you engaged for at least into the later parts of the game. What also separates this from the pack, is that you are not forced to play through the more generic and tedious parts of the game. Everything in your journal is split up so pedantically, that you would basically be able to play through the game in a very linear fashion, leaving out all the errands, the camps and other collectibles. They are waiting for you however, if you decide to spend more time with the game - and you can spend hours upon hours in it if you choose to. When I think about my favourite parts of the game, I always think about the exploration. Arriving at and being in awe of the intricately designed settlements or just wandering into the hugely varied wilderness have got to be my favourite moments of this current gen so far. And especially one place in the desert, later into the game, will always stay in my mind as one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever experienced in a game. In that sense it reminded me of the vistas and places I didn’t want to leave in CP2077. It’s not only the visuals from a technical standpoint. I asked myself if I’d still be so in awe if I’d play the game in 10 years from now and the answer is yes: the art direction and environmental design on display here is definitely top notch and will be a reference point for quite a while for me. The soundtrack is mostly beautiful as well, mixing traditional and natural sounds with artificial deep bass and synth sounds matching the same mixture of old and new around you. But not only the visuals and sound design in the open world are what make it a joy to explore, there are also a couple of activities which I thought were a lot of fun: first and foremost the Tallnecks. I love how they made every Tallneck basically into a puzzle and the payoff in the end is always an insane view. The Ruins were also my highlights, often times I just naturally came across them and really felt the urge to explore the places and solve the environmental puzzles. The design of the machines is absolutely mindblowing. Coming across a new type of machine is always interesting, their patterns and how they move and are animated in general is unrivalled imho. Some of the side quests were really well made as well, telling great stories and introducing a bunch of very cool and interesting characters. Not all of the side quests are delivered with the same quality however, this is were CP2077 for example knocked it out of the park. But the same goes for the story in general. It’s good, there are moments that exceeded my expectations by far and it’s filled with great characters for sure, but in the end I won’t remember too much of it, because I wasn’t as emotionally invested as I was with my favorite open world games like RDR2 especially.
Horizon is a very good game, it’s the best iteration of what you would expect in an open world game nowadays. It doesn’t play in the same league as the very best, but it comes close and I’m happy for everyone involved in the creation of this, that it has been such a success.