After arguably the worst gaming year ever, we can only hope that the new game Horizon: Forbidden West sets the tone for 2022. With this game, the Dutch game studio Guerrilla Games is making the ultimate sequel to the game that already reached an audience of millions in 2017 and won the prestigious Bafta Games Award for ‘best original idea’.
In this sequel, you have the total freedom to plow your own path through the wilderness, but also stop regularly to spin the camera and take in the crushing environment. Horizon fans, cancel your plans for this weekend. And if you don’t say anything in the previous sentences, this game has the perfect excuse to start the series. Even the inexperienced gamer.
Forbidden West picks up the thread of the previous part almost seamlessly. Here we were introduced to Aloy, a little girl who lives a thousand years in the future. Our society has perished and on the wreckage of cars and windmills the population has returned to a kind of prehistoric times full of mechanical animals. One day Aloy stumbles into a ruin and finds a device from the distant past. After a series of discoveries, she turns out to be a link in a plan to save the world from destruction.
Bone Cracking Machines
In this sequel, hunter-warrior-computer geek Aloy continues to navigate a post-apocalyptic world filled with bone-crunching machines and primitive peoples too busy smashing each other’s brains to see an all-consuming danger looming. Whoever thought this was a long sentence should keep a notebook handy while playing. The plot summaries of the previous part on YouTube often last about 30 minutes and this sequel is also very extensive – possibly a bit too extensive for people who don’t like to interrupt their game for complicated explanation scenes.
Parent company Sony will be pleased with the customization for the PS5. In addition to the fact that loading screens are virtually absent, the makers have actually used the functions of the new controller, such as the precise vibration and the buttons that give more or less resistance. Really having to put in the effort to pry open a door, the feeling that your controller crumbles under your hands as a joist crumbles under Aloy: blissful. The view is not hampered by quest prompts, which appear with a simple swipe on the touchpad. Too bad that this console is still out of reach for many people due to the chip shortage (and the price).
The greatest advancement is clearly in the freedom to move around the world. The climb barrier in the previous game – Aloy could only grab a defined path of yellow-colored ledges – has been replaced by a multitude of anchor points that appear at the press of a button. There are now almost always multiple routes to your goal, but the game also lets you puzzle every now and then. And the possibilities for taking out enemies are endless, whether you prefer to jump directly on top of them or prepare an ambush from the bushes. Oh, and without giving up the plot: yes, we’re going to swim, and even fly—sort of.
Meridian
Beginning in Meridian, the city where the previous game ended, Aloy soon moves to the “forbidden west.” The pitfall for many games in which you move freely through a (large) world is that the makers build up too many missions in the same way, so that after about ten assignments you have the feeling that you are repeating yourself. Guerrilla has managed to build a gigantic world where, after two weeks of playing, that doesn’t seem to be the case. As you gradually gain new tools to access blocked paths, you continue to rediscover familiar areas.
Even the most avid collector will have a hard time completing this game one hundred percent. And, it must be said: since the majority of the objects to be collected consists of text and sound fragments, it can make you dizzy every now and then. With the countless main characters, intrigue, futuristic technology and plot twists, your eyes sometimes glaze over and you miss the emotional connection to the story. A shame, because the theme is relevant and well thought out. Room for improvement, hopefully in a third part. But for now we are with Horizon: Forbidden West just as sweet.
About Guerrilla Games
For the hatching of Horizon: Zero Dawn in 2017, the Dutch studio Guerrilla Games was best known for the grim shooter series kill zone† An open brainstorming session, where all employees, regardless of position, were allowed to pitch, gave rise to the idea for a post-apocalyptic world that didn’t feel grim, but felt pleasant. A gigantic open world, in which the story is central and a female protagonist fights with a bow and a spear – the studio had no experience with it at all. Quite a gamble for the largest Dutch media production to date. The budget amounted to more than 45 million euros. The gamble paid off: more than 20 million copies were sold.
Start at the beginning
Where Guerrilla Games at Horizon: Zero Dawn really took the player by the hand, pick yourself at Forbidden West a few berries and you almost immediately run into the first machine. You can skip the first part, there are enough summaries online to understand the plot. But the explanation about gameplay and combat options is rather brief, especially for the novice gamer. If you really want to enjoy the game, start at Zero Dawn – no punishment, by the way.
Horizon: Forbidden West
game
Guerrilla Games
Available from 18/2