Horizon Zero Dawn was once very warmly received by the gaming community. The open-world setting and hunting robotic dinosaurs with a bow brought some freshness to the industry. Of course, there are no completely perfect projects, and Horizon is no exception. Among the fans there were also critics who make reasonable claims to the game. Among the most popular immediately come to mind: meager facial expressions during dialogues, an open world that is not rich in events, additional quests that are divorced from the main plot, and a loot system that exists for show.
For me, the knowledge of the world of Horizon began precisely from the Forbidden West. In this review, the creation of Guerrilla Games will be evaluated by me in isolation from the previous version.
Plot
The introductory video of the game immediately tells a brief extract from the main plot of the last part. It tells about the origin and purpose of the main character: why she is the very chosen one and why it was on her shoulders that the task of saving humanity from extermination, which had already happened centuries ago, lay down. The developers assume that the player has completed Horizon Zero Dawn and do not hesitate to announce the main outcome of the finale. For those who are not familiar with the ending of the first part, spoilers for it will follow, since it is on this that the justifying and motivational plot of the Forbidden West is built.
The world was reborn after the post-apocalysis, which was led by machines that got out of control, feeding on the biomaterial of the planet and throwing waste into the atmosphere. A special nine-function terraforming program was created by the brilliant scientist Elisabeth Sobek in order to restore the planet and give life to the next generation of mankind. And if the attempt is unsuccessful, a complete erasure will occur and everything will start from scratch. Each aspect was controlled by a different machine, but at the head of the entire revival was an AI named Gaia. Hades was responsible for the complete “Zeroing”, which at some point was awakened and given consciousness by a mysterious signal. Through the combined efforts of Aloy and the strong craving for knowledge of the scientist-researcher Sylens, it is possible to defeat the formidable artificial intelligence. Further, the paths of the two heroes diverge: Aloy goes to correct the consequences of the destruction and look for a copy of Gaia, and Sylens, together with the sealed mind of Hades, headed in an unknown direction, plotting something obviously unkind.
The narrative line doesn’t often refer to events in the past, so as a pioneer I felt quite comfortable. Knowledge of the plot of the predecessor only affects the bias towards some secondary characters. The rest of the story is loyal to new players, smoothly bringing things up to date, while not forgetting about players familiar with the story, endowing them with new details that are organically woven into the introductory part.
In the process of passing Horizon Forbidden West will throw a lot of new interesting and intriguing story subquests, woven together by a single thread with the main one. In them, the arrangement of chess pieces on the board will change more than once. This is exciting to follow and watch. Just watch it literally. In the dialogues, there is a selection wheel, but as such, the answers do not give the variability of the outcome.
The game has a huge number of animated dialogues with detailed facial expressions and gestures of the participants. And such small films are sometimes delayed up to 20 minutes.
Gameplay
For anyone familiar with third-person action-adventure console games, Horizon Forbidden West’s gameplay is unlikely to be anything new. Here you need to move around the open world, climb ruined skyscrapers or mountain peaks, fly and even swim in deep water, hide from enemies in tall grass, attacking them stealthily or facing head-on. Of course, active actions will be diluted with solving puzzles of the ruins of the forerunners with a parallel initiation of the player into the mysteries of the world with colorful cut-scenes.
Yes, there are quite a few cut-scenes here, including at the moment when the player has the opportunity to organize his headquarters, collecting companions from the previous part and acquiring new ones in it. You can talk to everyone and everyone has their own quest that reveals the character. And this was done for a reason, because getting used to and imbued with the characters and their destinies, the player will choose with whom to go into the decisive final battle.
Combat and pumping
The crafting and leveling that is present in the Forbidden West is a very peculiar thing. The necessary items for replenishing ammunition or various kinds of traps are literally lying under your feet. Special materials are obtained by killing robotic fauna, by attacking specific points of machines – you just need to press a couple of additional buttons when marking an enemy. But the skill tree is quite extensive and varied, although it is pumped in the right amount already closer to the middle. Depending on your own playstyle, you can focus on setting up traps and silently killing enemies from grass, or increasing damage in ranged combat with additional melee attacks.
However, one interesting feature is connected with pumping. After upgrading one of the branches to a certain level, several active abilities will open, allowing Aloy, coupled with individual animation, to throw on various useful effects: activate a shield, go invisible, or increase the damage from shots. To perform the above actions, you need to fill the energy scale, which is filled from the battle with opponents. You can switch between abilities at any time through the pause menu. But it should be borne in mind that the higher the talent level, the more energy is required to fill it. When switching to a lower level talent, the energy bar will drop to its maximum value and, in this case, the excess energy will be wasted.
Detailed and colorful open world
Graphically, the project deserves the title of a nekts-gen game like no other. The detail and physics of nearby objects: grass, faces, clothing elements of the characters are simply incredible. During cinematic cutscenes, it is nice to watch live animation of faces. The landscapes that sometimes open before the player are breathtaking. Deep immersion is not least influenced by DualSense and its adaptive triggers with vibration response to any event in the game.
In the graphics settings, you can choose between two modes: performance priority – smooth picture at 60 FPS and FHD resolution; or resolution priority – high detail, but at 30 FPS. I preferred the second option, but there was a lack of smoothness of the picture, and when choosing the first option, the player loses all the beauties of the game due to a strong decrease in detail.
Review
The moments I voiced at the very beginning of the review, which critics did not like in Zero Dawn, in my opinion, were completely eliminated in Forbidden West. The faces during the dialogues cannot be called stone, and the characters are wooden – each cinematic scene is filled with gestures and elaborate facial expressions. Secondary quests are connected by a thin thread with the main one, the presence of which you learn only in the climax itself and you are pleasantly surprised by this. As for the resource extraction system, it seemed to me rather simplified. However, players who are used to “vacuuming” everything in their path may like this format and will not be disappointed in the slightest. Graphically, Forbidden West has something to surprise even a very sophisticated gamer who is not indifferent to the colorfulness and clarity of the picture – the elaboration and detailing of the world at a very high level.
✅ Benefits
- Beautiful graphics with high detail objects and locations.
- Well-developed world and large open locations.
- Interesting and addictive side quests.
- Realistic cinematic screensavers.
- Low entry threshold into game mechanics.
❌ Disadvantages
- There is no variability in secondary quests.
- Noticeable reduction in detail in performance mode.
Source: Trash Box
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