Review: Horizon: Forbidden West

Remember my gushing review of the first installment? Yep, it's happening again. Only this time, it took even longer. I started my playthrough August 2025 and finished February 2026.

Contrary to what I wrote before, this isn't an expansion, but a sequel. So let's dive in.

Introduction

As with all games with character progression, the protagonist must be reset somehow - you need progression, again. So all the gear I gathered during the first game is summarily discarded. Kind of lazy, no further explanation.

Some things that were learnable skills are now built in, such as stealth kills. The tutorial is well thought out, as Aloy explains the world mechanics to Varl, another Nora tribesman.

The views are more than on par with the first game. I spent many a moment just looking around in wonder.

Graphics have improved, as per this rain-soaked Aloy.

Story throwback

After the brief tutorial, Aloy travel to Meridian for reasons. Well let me tell you, it's nice to walk by my statue instead of being questioned and bullied as an outcast.

Aloy finds out that she needs to travel to the Forbidden West (who'd have thunk it) and says goodbye to all the characters we knew from the first game. I didn't realize at this point, because I did - literally - everything and so met all these folks, but there is no 'saved' game state. Nothing is imported from the first playthrough. The game just assumes that you know who these people are. Which might get weird if you don't, actually.

Sun King Avad still hitting on Aloy, still without success.

Kids be kids.

So after a bunch of optional dialogue, Aloy gets moving. Turns out, the world ending BBEG we stopped in the first game was just the precursor of something even more sinister. We just don't know exactly what.

Into the Forbidden West

Views are still awesome. So is the insane but also realistic (or is it???) medieval robot tech?!

Now with underground vistas!

Consumables have been revamped, there's a cooking mechanic now. I liked this character, felt like Salt Bae, Oseram version.

New characters keep popping up. Some might feel important, some not that much, some die immediately after. And some look like Bill Cosby.

The old war is much more evident here. All the land is full of ruined Corruptors and Horus titans.

The past reveals itself gradually, much like it did during the first. Although these revelations are nowhere near as dramatic. Once you've seen the end of the world, nothing much can phase you.

There's also romance in the story...

...but not for Aloy.

My absolute favorite moments are still tied to characters appearing from the first game, such as Talanah hunting for machines (and an old companion).

Carja outfits look best, but unfortunately they tend to favor traps. With a cap on the number of traps you can place, the whole mechanic becomes just useless as soon as medium sized machines appear. I guess they were too strong in Zero Dawn.

Even my favorite sociopath makes an appearance.

Having played through Fallout New Vegas previously, this made me chuckle.

The trend of having both men and women appear indiscriminately as leaders, on both sides, continues.

Because of course there are human enemies.

However, there are stronger notes highlighting misogyny...

...disabilities...

...and LGBT themes. But again, they're not central to the story, they just... exist. Some people are like that. 

The new tribes and locations introduced are... somewhat on the sillier side as opposed to the first game, but they are likable enough.

About halfway through the game, a nugget of info you may have discarded at the beginning turns out to be a world changing though. #nospoilers but here's a second clone of Elisabeth Sobeck. She's no Aloy though; definitely not a product of this brutal pre-historic-ish world.

Anyway we're soon back to romping through the world. There's even a questline involving Oseram showmen looking for holographic instruments in an underwater facility.

I definitely liked this old rogue.

The holograms sure do offer an impressive vista.

And all's well that ends well.

A side note on game mechanics: most things work as you'd expect after Zero Dawn. There's an emphasis on melee combos, but I never bothered to learn them, nor do the melee challenges. Ain't nobody got time fo dat! With the capped traps useless and stealth kills not working on large machines, the end game is all shooting your various bows, crossbows, javelins and slings. There's also a class of gauntlets throwing returning projectiles, which were a pain to use and I just pretended they don't exist.

Now on to some real changes. Aloy crafts advanced scuba gear, bringing with it flooded caverns to explore. Underwater combat is not a thing, so you also get a series of stealth missions where you literally have no other option but to evade the machines.

You also get some shield tech. Dropping static shields gets old fast, especially against melee capable machines. But the shieldwing - a glider mechanic - is a great addition. Not to mention the spectacular vistas you can now glide over.

Right, enough mechanics. Back to the story. Like this goofy-sweet questline about fixing up some friendly machines, and then everybody, including the triceratops robots, bursts out into singing the future version of kumbaya.

You can also craft a new type of musical instrument for a blind guy. Things like these are a cute distraction in between world saving type missions.

Endgame

I did literally every possible side quest, gathered all my allies, built out the fast travel network and goofed around farming components for weapon upgrades. But then it was time for the final questline.

Along with a new tribe that travelled here through the great ocean, we descended into ancient ruins to find... well no spoilers but it was horrific. Enough to say that the access codes enabled us to complete the puzzle and attempt to capture all the secondary AIs and rebuild Gaia.

Obviously, the main antagonists were having none of it. They swooped in, kidnapped Beta and Gaia, taking everything I worked for. Also somebody on the team dies.

Fortunately, one of the bad guys turns out to be a good girl. Meet the girlboss of future past: Tilda. She is completely different from any other character I've previously met, I think they did an excellent job of portraying her as alien to this Earth.

We process somebody's death. The mood gets sombre.

Then it's more side quests that opened up until finally we assault the bad guys' lair. I really liked the gathering of teammates, even on the last leg of the journey. Especially the unexpected allies. Not gonna lie, I expected a couple more heroic deaths during the final mission. There was a twist, with one ally turning out to be an enemy. And a final revelation, that there's an even greater enemy approaching Earth. These nutjobs I've been fighting the whole game, who we thought were responsible for everything, weren't even it.

...well, at least there's a next installment to be looking forward to.

Note. If the last paragraph seems short and clinical: I had to put gaming on pause for more than a month. Just before the final mission no less. I was glad to get back into it, but my gears were kinda rusty.

Honorable mention: Burning shores expansion

Flying mounts unlock towards the end of the Forbidden West storyline, but by that time I had all the map unlocked and just fast traveled everywhere. Burning shores introduces a new region, much like Frozen wilds. Excellent for flying around! There are also unique interactions and quests that require a flying mount; all the better.

Aloy finds a new soulmate, outcast-ish much like her. Seyka is a Quen marine who guides Aloy through this new story.

She also enjoys motorboating, hehe.

The views are phenomenal; and this is why the region is called "burning shores".

Welcome to Hollywood!

Too bad this isn't an RPG; all the choices are scripted. I'd have happily applied deception more frequently!

Much like the base game, this expansion assumes you've completed the Frozen wilds and met this guy. Otherwise the emotional interaction would make no sense.

Finally, there's a side quest of collectibles and you get fireworks at the end.

Second honorable mention: Burning shores ending

The final boss battle is everything that the main ending was not. Forbidden West ends by telling you: hey, you completed the game and upgraded your gear? OK, waltz through the final battle. Burning Shores is more like: you did all that, did you? Well you still have to beat the giant boss by attacking its parts (much like an old Nintendo game), then do some climbing with environmental hazards, then another invulnerable boss with parts that must be destroyed one by one, but this time you also have to time the attacks.

Both have their pluses and minuses. Both were insanely cool, and felt good, for different reasons: achievements during the game culminating in an easy battle, vs a tough battle that felt good to complete.

Anyway you get to beat a Horus titan and then do a dramatic airborne escape. Hard to top that, honestly.

But the story only truly ends when you talk to Seyka again. I had my suspicions on what this will entail.

And I was pretty much spot on. And here I thought Aloy was ace/aro. Anyway, I just want my homegirl to snatch whatever little happiness she can amidst all the world ending crises.

Now kiss!

And then say goodbye, we're off to prepare fighting Nemesis. #nospoilers

Epilogue: have Sylens say thank you.

Truly, these are even more feel-good moments than the main ending with all the team hugging each other and watching the sky.

Rating

11/10 one of the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had.

...but after a 7 month slog, I will definitely not be playing a New Game+.