Horizon Forbidden West

I usually try to rate games objectively and not subjectively, but for this game I lowered the score based on my opinion. In true honesty this should be towards an 8 or 9 but I just did not enjoy it like a 8 or 9 out of 10 game. The story is good, although it can be a little overwhelming to follow it with everything going in between factions, but the latter half really picks up and becomes a grand spectacle. The visuals here are absolutely stunning and it runs extremely well. In my opinion the absolute best thing about this game are the setpieces. There are some areas in this game that look incredible, but they also have an incredible atmosphere that is difficult to recreate in other genres. Some areas really left me in a sense of awe. Where my enjoyment took a hit however was the gameplay. As beautiful of a map this game has, there is way too much filler content. There is just too many things to do and have no weight to them and feel meaningless. The combat here is also not for me. I never understood how the weaknesses of the beasts works, and the major focus on the bow sucks for me anyways. But seeing a new beast for the first time is cool though. This by no means is bad, infact it's incredible, and you should play it. Whether it's for the story, gameplay or exploration it is worth it

-Impressive span to Zero Dawn, with massive world content. Makes it nearly an ultimate RPG game. (+)

-Storyline and characters on the other hand are of average quality and lacking. Most of the work efforts were invested in technical fields and side activities. (-) (+)

-Game direction and characters design (not texures quality) have lots of downsides. (-)

-Gameplay is diverse and smooth, you choose your own way of playing and is not linear. It has excelled RPG elements. (+)


•Amongst other Sony exclusive releases for next-Gen, Horizon Forbidden West has to be on top of them with Huge content and top tier technical showcase.
•9/10

It’s still a good game but the overall intrigue and mystery in the story and the side missions are 100% better in the first game

Really enjoyable main story and the game looks gorgeous. The combat doesn't really vibe with me but it's good enough overall. Edit: combat kinda sucks, faced a Tremortusk further in the game and it was painfully unbalanced. Hate how enemies slide along the ground in a glitchy way to hit you when it seemed like you were safe.

The real issue with this game is that Aloy will not shut up. Aloy will talk to herself out loud approx every 30 seconds for the entire playthrough. This includes telling you how to solve any type of puzzle either before you've had a chance to look or when you've figured it out and are in the process of completing it already. It's extremely annoying to be backseated and it gets worse and worse.

This point alone means I can't give the game above a 7 simply because it won't let me play it. It also felt like there's not anything fun to do in the open world, usually you just get some mundane rewards from a chest that have no real value.

Horizon Forbidden West
✪ {ᏚᏟᏫᏒᎬ : 5.8}
…   …………….
🝰 | 𝚁𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚂

• Story : 3.8
~ the story feels like an over-stretched DLC for ZD. a very unnecessary and unambitious sequel. it continues on something that was already pretty much concluded, and while the whole mystery element of it is now gone, it comes and adds nothing of value.
i tried but i just couldn't be more uninterested in what was happening.
as someone else said, it's an mcu type of story. scared of taking any risks, bland and boring.
𐄁 Characters : 4.2
~ the main-story characters are all bland and generic except for a few. even aloy has lost her charm and feels uninteresting.
𐄁 Acting : 4.6

• Atmosphere : 5.8
𐄁 Immersion : 3.0
𐄁 Intensity : 6.4

• Gameplay : 3.9
~ the gameplay has barely evolved a single bit since ZD. it still has all the issues that ZD had. and i mean ALL. like the clunky movement, very repetitive, shallow, and frustrating combat, super-clusterd inventory/crafting, ect. it's just SO not fun to play. i didn't like it in ZD, and i specially don't like in this one, since you've basically already played through it once before.
it also has alot of poor design choices, the skill tree for ex.
𐄁 Combat : 3.8
𐄁 Bow : 5.1
𐄁 Stealth : 2.2
𐄁 AI : 3.5
𐄁 Movement : 3.0
𐄁 Traversal : 3.9
~ the open world is too big and not fun to travel around. I'm getting so tired of open world games honestly.
• Level Design : 6.4
𐄁 Pacing : 3.0
~ it's hard to tell how bad the pacing really is when the game is repetitive and unfun from start to finish. that said, it's definitely poorly paced with too many filler shit.
𐄁 Puzzles : 3.7
• Side Content : 𝜘￬
~ the few side-missions i did were alright. they had decent writing like in ZD, but they just took too long and weren't very fun. idk tho, i didn't play enough of 'em to really form an opinion.

⋆ Visuals : 8.7
~ it looks fucking amazing during cutscenes. during gameplay, some areas like chainscrape look magnificent, specially under the sunlight, while some areas look just, good. and with some i struggled to spot many differences between it and ZD. there's a general lack of things working together in union. it's inconsistent at best, but quite pretty nonetheless.
𐄁 Textures : 8.8
𐄁 Lighting : 8.8
𐄁 Small Details : 4.6
~ sometimes it has some crazy small details, and well, most times it forgets the biggest most important ones.
• Environment Design : 8.3
𐄁 Cinematography : 7.5
~ the fake RPG cutscenes have improved alot since ZD. they're alot more alive and animated now. tho they're still very very overwritten and boring.

• Animations : 7.9
𐄁 Movement Animations : 7.7
𐄁 Combat Animations : 7.3
𐄁 Facial Animations : 6.7

• SoundTrack : 8.7
• Sound Design : 6.5

• Performance : ￪￪￪￬￬￬
~ it has loading issues out the wazoo. textures almost always loaded in very late.
and sometimes just mid-gameplay it'd just say fuck it and go to a loading screen for a few seconds, happened too many times, never stopped being funny.

⎆ 𝙾𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚁𝚂⬎
𐄁 Customization : 7.5
𐄁 Replayability : 𝜘￬
𐄁 Innovation : -
𐄁 Accessibility : ⍟⍟
𐄁 Setting Options : ⍟⍟⍟⍟
𐄁 UI/HUD : 3.0
𐄁 Extras : 〆
𐄁 Collectibles : 𝜘
𐄁 Trophies : 𝜘

…   ……………….
？| 𝚀𝚄𝙴𝚂𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂

𐄁 Do i recommend this game? no.
𐄁 Did it make me take my time with it? no.
𐄁 Did it meet my expectations? i had low expectations but i was still mostly disappointed.

…    ……………………
〄 | 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽

- Platforms : PS4 Pro
- First Playthrough : 25.11.23
𐄁 Finished at : 28.11.23
𐄁 Playtime : 25h 37′
𐄁 Difficulty : Normal
- Beaten : 1 time
- Trophy Progress : 36℅³⁸'°
⟆⟅ | Won't Platinum :<

I'M SO IN LOVE WITH HORIZON
The game is visually astonishing and I cannot get enough of it.
Zero Dawn was great but this went beyond my expectations! Story got better, the way they depicted every different environment amazed me.
Probably my favourite game ever.