Horizon Forbidden West Review - Sony Has Done It Again, But Should It Do Something New?
Horizon Forbidden West is, for better or worse, just Horizon Zero Dawn but bigger. For some people, that will be enough. I expect when the embargo lifts, this review will find itself nestled amongst some perfect scores, and I can understand why. Forbidden West is fun and it’s pretty, but with so many open-world titles coming along since Zero Dawn, I hoped the series might get better, not just bigger.
Forbidden West begins with a stumble. Right from the very first quest, the stakes revolve around the end of the world as we know it, and it’s just difficult to care. Horizon has built a fascinating world, but it’s now two for two on going way too big and losing us all in the process. Not only are the stakes too big for us to relate to or connect with, but the opening exchanges expect you to remember all the characters from the first game, like Who, Which One Were They Again, and Oh Yeah Them. This is another issue with going bigger - it doesn’t fix the faults, it doubles down on them.
Related: Horizon Call Of The Mountain Could Be VR's Breath Of The Wild
I loved Horizon Zero Dawn. It seems to have come in for a critical reevaluation since the tidal wave of acclaim it was hit with at launch, but it remains one of my favourite titles of the PS4 era. It only had two serious faults for me; the story was weak, and the whole game engaged in Native American cosplay. Forbidden West just needed to overcome those faults, but it succumbs to them both.
It’s not only that Aloy is again facing the end of the world, it’s that everyone she does it with is terrifically dull. Erend and Talanah return and are built upon, while some new characters add a nice texture to the game - Aloy frequently has company on her missions now and feels more
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