Should You Play Horizon Zero Dawn Before Forbidden West

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The release of Horizon Forbidden West marks the second entry in a series from Guerrilla Games, the first of which was 2017's Horizon Zero Dawn. Early reviews indicate that Horizon Forbidden West is better than the original, which already set a decently high bar, but as a direct sequel there's a risk of becoming lost while trying to follow a story that has already been developing over the course of a whole, rather expansive game. Anyone seriously interested in the series will probably want to start with Zero Dawn, but Forbidden West will have a mostly self-contained story, so it's not strictly necessary to start from the beginning.

Horizon Forbidden West launched in February 2017 and has become one of the more prominent PlayStation Exclusives of recent years. Its PC release in August 2020 was a significant milestone for PlayStation exclusives arriving on other platforms, and brought the open world game to a larger audience. The series follows protagonist Aloy in the 31st century, where humanity has regressed to tribal civilizations. Horizon Forbidden West will have environments and towns not unrecognizable compared to those in Zero Dawn, and will similarly have a story derived from an overarching threat to humanity at large — the mysterious, animal-like machines that once peacefully roamed the wilderness, but have recently grown hostile.

Related: Horizon: Forbidden West Review — A Superb Sci-Fi Sequel Worth Waiting For

The Horizon games are heavily narrative driven, and skipping straight to Forbidden West may be detrimental to the experience. That said, Zero Dawn and (presumably) Forbidden West have many other elements that are worthy of consideration. Aloy's story may be the primary reason for wanting to start from the