Horizon Forbidden West is my ex-boyfriend: boring but pretty – Reader’s Feature

metro.co.uk:

A reader regrets buying Horizon Forbidden West and is disappointed that despite the graphics the game itself is not holding their attention.

It’s my own fault. I knew exactly what Horizon Zero Dawn was like and I knew there was little sign that Horizon Forbidden West was going to be very different, but I bought it anyway. There are two main reasons for this: 1) I own a PlayStation 5 and it feels ages since the last exclusive and 2) I saw the gameplay demo last year and the graphics really were pretty mindblowing, especially the waves on the beach. I’m doing okay money wise, and knew the trick about buying the PlayStation 4 version and getting the free upgrade, so I took a chance and… it was okay. It was exactly the same as the last one but with slightly better graphics and proper side quests. And that’s it. That is literally the total of their ambitions.

As GC pointed out in their review, the artificial intelligence seems like something out of the PlayStation 2 era, the role-playing elements are just boring busywork, and the stealth is the same old hiding-in-the-tall-grass nonsense we’ve seen in a hundred games before, including lots from Sony.

What gets me though is how a game with robot dinosaurs, which are really nicely designed and show a lot of imagination, can be so boring. I think it’s obvious that it’s a misguided attempt to be ‘grounded’ and more serious, as they didn’t want to come across as too silly. Because god forbid a video game has an outrageous premise and just plays it for fun (do you remember the good old days when that was the norm?).

As a result, the game’s story and characters are so boring you could drill your way to the Earth’s core with them. Aloy is held up as this strong female role model but she