The sequel to 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn, “Horizon Forbidden West” brings a combination of fascinating combat, overwhelming creatures, excellent character design, and an open world that lures you to explore it. The 2022 action role-playing game has surpassed the achievement of its predecessor.

 Horizon Forbidden west was developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game setup is in a post-apocalyptic version of the Western United States, recovering from the aftermath of an extinction event caused by a rogue robot swarm. 

The Gameplay Features a Variety of Genres

The setting takes place in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by robotic creatures; humans live primitively with limited technology. Various human and robotic enemies populate the world, which you can explore freely on foot or via various forms of mechanized transport. The player’s primary means of attacking enemies is using melee weapons such as spears or axes, while other tools, such as bows, are used to strike enemies from afar. If players take damage during the battle, they can partially refill their health meter by picking up small blue orbs dropped by enemies when killed.

Horizon: Zero Dawn can be played as an action-adventure third-person shooter video game, role-playing video game, and a hunting game, with minimal stealth and mild survival elements. The player controls Aloy, a hunter who becomes involved in the conflict between machines created by ancient civilizations and the modern humans who hunt them for materials, food and other resources. When playing on average difficulty level, the player has three main attributes (health, focus, and stamina), which are regenerated automatically during combat should they fall below the threshold level.

Aloy, the Heroic Machine Hunter

Horizon Forbidden West continues the Story of Aloy, the machine hunter, but Aloy had not always been a Machine, she wasn’t born a machine hunter, but from an outcast, she has transformed into the brave Machine Hunter. She is born into the Nora Tribe and a clone of the Old World scientist Elisabet Sobeck. Aloy hunts with purpose and leads a group of companions to the arcane frontier known as Forbidden West on a quest to find the source of a mysterious plague that kills all it infects. Aloy journeys the uncharted lands, discovers new regions and new tribes, and faces even more deadly machines.

Aloy starts her journey in this game after receiving information from Sylens to continue her search in the Forbidden west. Aloy is searching for a working backup of GAIA to restore the planet’s rapidly degrading biosphere. Aloy travels with her friend Val. Together, they cross into the west. They arrive in the middle of a civil war between chief Hekarro and the rebel leader Regalla. She can track Sylens to a facility where she finds HADES badly damaged and permanently deletes it. She also finds the GAIA she has been searching for, but she has quickly faced opposition from some futuristic humans and barely manages to escape with the GAIA.

Aloy re-joins the GAIA with her subsystem MINERVA, in a control centre. The GAIA locates the other subsystems, and now Aloy must find these subsystems before attempting the more advanced HEPHAESTUS. But Aloy’s journey does not end here, as she goes on to have a thrilling adventure, discovering truths, meeting new companions, and fighting more machines. Aloy carries a huge burden as she faces dangers and challenges in these uncharted lands. There is a deep story behind this alluring Game character Aloy. However, these three words, I feel, describe her best, Hero, Brave and Fighter.

Outfits Expand Your Abilities

Outfits in this game have the capacity to increase Aloy’s abilities. Each outfit has its unique strengths, weaknesses and perks. You can gain outfits in more than one way. You can get an outfit when you complete a quest as a reward or while exploring the open world. However, you can find outfits by talking to Stitchers. Stitchers are merchants that sell the majority of the game’s outfits.

Anybody who has played an RPG or action RPG will know about lock-on targeting. Horizon’s lock-on functionality is intuitive and helps you focus on your enemies in a heated fight. If you don’t want to use lock-on, it is also possible to manually move Aloy around using controls similar to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, allowing for more precise manoeuvring and targeting.

Learning to Upgrade Your Skills and Weapons

You can obtain skills in the skills menu and use skill points to unlock numerous skills for Aloy, increasing her abilities and weaponry. The Valor surges are special skills that allow Aloy to save her skin in the heat of a battle, there are 12 Valor surges in the game, and each can be upgraded twice after unlocking.

You cannot run out of weapons to use in this game, from Ranged weapons to Melee weapons. Aloy has many weapons, and each one fulfils different combat roles. There are also other special legendary weapons to find throughout the game.

Combating the Deadly Machines

The player fights against deadly machines, and in fighting these machines, you will need to apply strategies to advance. You want to face a group of deadly machines and be outnumbered, which could be very dangerous for you, so you should lay in wait and strike from the tall grass. The deadly machines include; Darting, Skydrifters, Pouncing Scrappers, Clawstrider, etc. However, there are new and fantastic weapons to help you fight and defeat these machines.

Several characters will ask you to do quests for them throughout your journey. These can range from finding items for them to killing certain enemies and reporting their death. Questing is a big part of Horizon: Zero Dawn’s gameplay experience and never gets old as you continue through Aloy’s journey.

Conclusions

Horizon: The Frozen Wilds is an excellent expansion to an already fantastic game. While most of its new elements are minor quality-of-life improvements, they add to a smoother gameplay experience overall. There are three significant new quests with some great lore to unpack if you’re looking for more of a narrative-driven experience.

But even if you don’t want to spend much time on that side of things, there are still plenty of activities out in the wilderness to keep you busy. If you loved Horizon Zero Dawn, I can guarantee that you’ll also love its first expansion. It feels like a natural extension of what was already there rather than just another piece tacked on top.