Introduction
Travel beyond the Forbidden West as Aloy’s story continues. Encounter new machines and a compelling new story.
The DLC is brought to you by Guerrilla Games and was released on PlayStation 5 on April 19 2023.
Review
For those that absolutely adore Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, will be completely immersed into Burning Shores. I fully enjoyed the heck out of the Frozen Wilds DLC, but Burning Shores, for me, was even more enjoyable.
I did have to refresh my memory of which controller button did what, but it didn’t take long and I was off on another adventure with Aloy. I fully enjoyed the 7-10 hours of story and quests which did leave me wanting more, though I’m never ready to say goodbye to Aloy.
It was a bittersweet moment when I first saw Lance Reddick’s character, Sylens for the first time since the sad news of his death. In this DLC, Sylens sets Aloy on her journey to the Burning Shores and then sets her up with ideas on where to go next at the end. I first saw Lance in TV series Fringe, many years ago – he was an incredible actor and voice actor; from Sylens in Horizon to Thordak in the Legend of Vox Machina (which is amazing by the way). RIP Lance, you will be missed by many.
The visuals of the DLC, just like with the main game and previous DLC were incredible. Beautiful scenery and sky views were non-stop and I couldn’t get enough; colours of the surroundings changing depending on the time of day, the breeze blowing against the flying Waterwing mount… the level of detail on all weather, colours, physics doesn’t go unnoticed and the game is worth it just for that.
The island itself is relatively small when seen via the map, however once on the ground, the open area feels plenty big. There’s lots of various items to collect, including resources for crafting, aerial data captures and figurines for a Dino Quiz. Even though it’s a DLC, there’s plenty to do.
There are eighteen new skills to learn, including six Valor Surges. Little note: you can reset all your current skill points (if you played Forbidden West) and re-distribute as preferred, including obtaining the new skills – there’s also a trophy for leaning all the new skills. Also, the new grapple critical strike means that you can now grapple enemies that are downed but are a distance away, which I found HUGLEY useful.
I’m not going to go into too much detail of the gameplay or story, as it needs to be experienced as fresh and spoiler-free as possible. But I will say that I found the gameplay super smooth and the main story focuses on family, reuniting with loved ones, and even making new relationships.
Rating
Pros:
- Immersive story
- Interesting and individual characters
- Aloy – what? she’s awesome
Cons:
- Not available for PS4
Summary
Beautiful game with stunning scenery and visuals. Enjoyable main story with a handful of side quests, plus new skills and weapons to play around with.
It’s unfortunate that the DLC is only available on PS5.
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Game & Developer Information
Developer Website: Guerrilla Games
Developer Socials: Twitter
Publisher Website: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Images – https://www.igdb.com/
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