Horizon Forbidden West — Review
Forbidden West landed in a brutal release window alongside Elden Ring and has earned a quieter, longer-term reputation since. Here's the review on its own terms.
Forbidden West landed in a difficult release window, alongside Elden Ring. It's earned a quieter, longer-term reputation since — and judged on its own terms, it's one of the strongest PS5 first-party releases of the generation.
What Forbidden West Is
A direct sequel that expands rather than reinvents. New region, new mechanical breadth, the same core loop refined. The runtime is longer, the world is denser, and Aloy's character writing matures across it.
How It Plays
The traversal. The expanded combat options. The way the underwater world is integrated rather than walled-off. The machine encounter design is still the best in the genre — every new machine type changes how you read an encounter, and the focus-scan loop encourages reading before engaging in a way most action games actively discourage.
What Stands Out
The visual fidelity. Burning Shores. The willingness to push protagonist writing into harder territory than the first game allowed. The Las Vegas-area arc remains one of the strongest single environments Guerrilla has ever built.
What Holds It Back
Some of the open-world activity bloat that the genre as a whole is finally moving away from. A few main-quest pacing dips in the middle act. The dialogue system still leans on a tree structure that often makes the strongest performances feel boxed in.
Who It's For
Anyone who liked Zero Dawn. Anyone wanting to see what a first-party PS5 budget actually looks like. Anyone interested in where the franchise goes next.
The Verdict
One of the best-looking PS5 games and one of its most underrated open worlds. Burning Shores remains essential — and four years later, Forbidden West is the kind of game whose reputation has improved with distance from launch.
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Guerrilla Games' post-post-apocalyptic action RPG series — Aloy, the machines, and the slow uncovering of what really happened to the old world.
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