Introduction
Horizon Forbidden West is the latest instalment by Guerrilla Games, and Sony Interactive Entertainment. It’s the sequel to 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn, and is an action adventure game, with an open-world, single-player experience. Set in an apocalyptic time, in the far west of the United States of America.
Review
Wow! That just about sums up my experience with this game – incredible from start to finish. I’m going to keep this as spoiler-free as I can.
Horizon Forbidden West is the sequel to 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn, and Zero Dawn was a game that seemed to be way ahead of its time, during an era of first-person shooters, this game couldn’t have stood out more.
Now we have Forbidden West; and my goodness, what an incredible game. I probably spent about half my playthrough taking photos and staring at the immense level of detail on, well, everything. However, the cherry on the 5-tier, dressed to the nine cake, was the detail on Aloy’s, and other characters’ faces; they had pores! there was also discolouration of the skin from the sun, reflections in their eyes, just so much detail. I cannot tell you how incredible the level of detailing is in this game.
I could talk about the photos and amazing set details all day, however, let’s move onto the story – I thought Forbidden West had a better story than Zero Dawn (which I loved); it was more impactful and had so much depth and discovery. The main story quests and side quests are jammed packed with interesting detail and law, you should expect to be playing this for at least 40 hours, platinum or not.
The game has so much to offer; interesting characters, beautiful scenery and views, new and improved machines, underwater swimming for as long as you like (with a breathing mask), and so much more.
The colours are just as incredible as the detailing, and the way the colouration changes to the time of day, is pretty awesome. From the way the water moves, to the way the sunlight hits surrounding objects, to the shadows – it’s certainly an experience. And makes the fun of playing even more realistic.
It’s a pretty easy game and everything can be done on the easiest difficulty. Which makes it highly customisable; including the outfits, weapon loadout, UI HUD, and all the various accessibility options, there’s a play-style for everyone.
There were a few bugs; flashing black screen, random audio issues and the game did crash once. But this didn’t take away my enjoyment of the game.
Old characters that we know and love, new characters that we fall in love with. A truly incredible experience with a high play recommendation from me.
Rating
Pros:
- Incredible level of detail
- Amazing and immersive story
- Who doesn’t love Aloy at this point, right?
Cons:
- A little glitchy – patches have been released addressing some of the issues
Summary
Not much more that I can say that I haven’t already. Immensely incredible game with kick-ass characters, and an amazing story. Level of detail goes beyond anything I could have imagined for this game. Highly recommend.
If you’re interested in this game, we have a trophy guide that can help on your journey:
https://nodegamers.com/2022/03/03/horizon-forbidden-west-trophy-guide/
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Game & Developer Information
Developer Website: Guerrilla Games
Developer Socials: Twitter
Publisher Website: Sony Interactive Entertainment
PSN Store Links: £59.99/€69.99 Europe / $59.99 North America
Trophy Information: 59. 
1 / 
1 / 
7 / 
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