Horizon Forbidden West review

Credited as one of the biggest game launches of 2022 on both the PS4 & PS5, Horizon Forbidden West is the successor to the 2017 smash hit Horizon Zero Dawn. 

Developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Horizon Forbidden West is an action role-playing video game set in a huge open post-apocalyptic world, overrun by a deadly plague, volatile machines and other survivors.

Horizon Forbidden West follows female protagonist Aloy, who is a young hunter of the Nora tribe. Seen as an outcast in Horizon Zero Dawn, she leads a band of companions to accompany her on a quest to the Forbidden West frontier, in order to understand why the plague is killing everything from indigenous life to all big creatures great and small.

The game itself centres around reconnecting with humanity, and reforming friendships. We see classic characters such as Varl and Erend return back to the franchise, and an inner circle of new characters being introduced into the fold.

Horizon Forbidden West has that user friendly feel to it, and from the get-go you are introduced to the difficulty settings ranging from Story, where it eases the combat experience, allowing the player to focus on exploration and narrative to Very Hard offering a tougher and more demanding combat for players looking to test their skills.

The game offers breathtakingly beautiful scenery, showcasing moving ripples of water, to the gentle movement of swaying flora.

The colours are incredibly vivid, bringing both the characters, creatures, and bosses to life in an astonishing cinematic way.

The controls for Horizon Forbidden West, are fairly easy to navigate around making the gameplay that bit more enjoyable. For me personally, it ticked all the boxes making my gaming experience a lot easier than I anticipated.

Is Horizon Forbidden West worth investing in? Absolutely! From the moment I picked up my controller, hyped with anticipation I struggled to stop playing. Aloy is a character who has come along way since the days of Horizon Zero Dawn, has definitely earned her rightful place in the sequel, sharing more of a backstory on both HADES and Elizabeth. We can’t give too much away here, of course!

So if you’re a fan of the first game and enjoyed everything that it had to offer, you won’t be disappointed! If you’ve not played the franchise before, there is a flashback which explains everything right from the very beginning.

Therefore, I can highly recommend this enjoyable title!