Horizon Forbidden West Review Bigger_ Bolder_ and Buggier - _Buy Wait for Sale_ Never Touch

 guerrilla game sequel to the phenomenal title horizon zero dawn is hitting very soon when the original was announced i didn't know exactly what to think could it work clan of the cave bear meets tron robot dinosaurs and caveman tribes all existing in a future world it was either going to be really good or really really bad if you want to see how they built out the original game check out my walk in the walk video i'll be doing another one in a couple days for forbidden west where i walk through the world and talk about the excellence of world building we see in a lot of these games thanks to

sony for the code and this review is based on the last patch prior to launch 1.3 the one that everybody will have when the game actually launches and the

first 2 000 people who like this video and comment will get my love graphically horizon zero dawn originally from guerrilla games was one of the first

titles that gave me that palpable sense of awe of wonder of wondering exactly what the next thing over the next hill would be almost a gravity-like pull towards exploration have we had that in other games yes we have when a game does that though you get that warm excitement in your stomach when you see something the eyes are saying it wasn't really possible but your heart is all in for and you heard todd howard's skyrim voice whispering if you can see it you can go there gorilla games has now become a master in understanding the differences between having the resources and the resourcefulness for creating a game world about using what they intelligently have to create an amazing looking world and forbidden west is one of the best realized worlds that a developer has ever constructed befitting the epic vision that they've had and they established in the first game and while that game's graphics and world

were a high mark forbidden west steps it up a little bit and if you've played the original game this might hit with more of just a resonance than a gut punch reaction but it's their frequency in the world that gorilla games has built that is so incredible it feels real every single location looks like something you're actually going to want to explore while the map doesn't look decisively bigger than the prior game and its expansion combined it feels huge that distance pushed out that sense of vastness across spaces hasn't been this well visually told since probably zelda on the switch and this game doesn't even have weapons made of saltines like that title does the various tribes locations ancient cities and cauldrons pack a denseness in the world that's

breathtaking that sense that beneath you could be a cave system that within a lake you're swimming in there might be a passageway to a cauldron that wherever you go there is something for you to see just exploring one of the tribe's locations you'll see different animations for each one animations in

the background where they're sawn wood repairing things breaking rocks carrying stone every village or location not only sits in its place but flows out with visible signs of habitation that fades into the wilderness if you played the original game there is a familiarity with the incredible that is going to carry with you if you haven't then be prepared to see one of the best worlds that's not called red dead or gta gorilla brings the world out with incredible texture work as you ride through broken rock arches or clamber up the hearthstones that jump from mossy escarpments even on the ps4 the work here continues to excel dirt and sand don't just look dry they look like the water's been boiled away from them by the sun diving into massive bodies of water and exploring them is almost a game in and of itself finding all manner of creatures and items to collect or those times when you're running along the beach you look out and you see the massive misty shadows of some island and you realize i can go there horizon's fiction has always been fascinating to me a remix of two pasts aloy's current present as well exploring the murky jungles seeing ancient skeletons of cities just like humans found ancient skeletons and dinosaurs in the ground and it reminds you of the passage of time there's a confidence and an ease of which gorilla makes this art it expands out everywhere every location fades slowly into others from mountains to forests to prairies to sand to total desert back to wetlands into jungles and then onto beaches it is natural and it feels incredible and that work continues to the characters their faces the effects it's a massive step up from the original game i know a lot has been made about the peach fuzz that characters have in the title like it deserves some kind of unique award to me it's the improved lip syncing and some of the new creatures designs that are straight up wicked it makes me want to explore more to understand sometimes we don't want to know how robot dinosaurs are made we just want to fight them and imagine they come from a womb lubed up with 50 weight engine oil and are spit out by some ancient machine that never tires but it can't be ignored just how much detail exists in every single creature take one down and look at it then use the camera and circle around that creature the armor the hides pistons which move gears connected to liquid pumps on their legs watch them graze on the land chewing it

up and collecting it into resources on their backs and then spitting those resource canisters out so they can be collected by others and these vistas

stretch out in front of you they're occluded by sandstorms and wind and rain snow fog that chokes everything into a 20-foot sight line where suddenly the

most normal sounds all seem to be huge monsters waiting to eat you that draw distance and the sheer amount of detail has also been pushed out on all the

consoles a bit from the original game i won't spoil it here either just when you think you've seen everything forbidden west does something i did not expect and sort of says oh you think that's good what about this there's a number of times where ailoy's eyes bug out i don't know how to describe it other than a

show you hear it's like they flip into the back of her head originally i thought it was height differences of characters but it also happens in

moments where the character she's talking to is either even with her or below her gonna be honest though halo's eyes can do whatever the hell they want

because 99 of the time you're not looking at them and you're running for your life from some robotic underwater monstrosity that added cavewoman to itsdiet speaking of diets i like to supplement my diet of sci-fi shows and terrible rom-coms with some awesome youtubers i don't do sponsors but i have

no issues telling you about one channel i do check out all the time and that's kyle hill a science youtuber that's also a gamer on youtube incredible stuff you should check them out and if you want to subscribe to me that's okay too what's better than okay is the audio though um [Music] we're done for

i thought the chorus would help us i thought we all sprouted from the same earth but it seems an outlander is the only one who'll even listen to me

nicara and the marshalls have crafted a delicate piece and now he looks to the future who knows maybe that future will include cooperation with the carja

the carja talk about hikaru as if he's a monster the carja feel compelled to demonize him if only because he swept them from the field first musically the soundtrack is pretty exemplary though it's a bit different than the original game and its constraints its contrasts and themes playing as you explore the intro music in the main menu is a solitary voiceover with percussion and synths that layers out starting with a piano in pipes and then melts into a vocal female lead piece mixing in this awesome synth side to side and some strings then it reaches a midpoint and it just goes straight up epic for a moment and then changes out it's a unique main theme that actually took me a couple listens to really be able to parse the game has more nuanced percussion in some of the sections that resonates very well for action with more primitive tribes that you come into contact with and battles always have a nice souped-up feeling to those moments and then it fades back into the background as you run from some angry brontosaurus robot shooting you with knock-off drones i like the soundtrack a great deal there were times though where i was traveling around and i was sort of wondering exactly what the music was trying to parse to me and then it would fade into a battle moment it's almost like those stingers are a little bit separated from what i was expecting and sometimes didn't alert me prior to a battle i got to admit that's actually not a negative we've seen a lot of games ruined where you're getting ready to go into a battle or you think there might be one upcoming and when that battle music hits you're sort of spoiled you already know something's occurring so that's not necessarily a complaint when it comes to the audio i test on headphones from the controller through the av setup 5.1 7.1 and a general set of 2.1 speakers throughout all of them the direction audio was there though i would say in some places a bit tighterthan i expected especially with enemies in battle all around you environmental audio floats around and up from caverns with robots training around below you or above you the game does seem to have a small weak spot with sounds directly in front of you appearing more loudly than they probably really would be this went away with headphone settings and 3d audio in the ps5 settings but without that and even using a non-center channel speaker system that was one of the things i actually noticed luckily horizon has a number of settings for audio not just the typical general settings like tv headphones and theater but also the ability for you to trim off high level volume moments and adjust some aspects discreetly that's huge and i do find myself in there fiddling with it depending on which of the audio systems i'm using and i did have a couple bugs but i'll talk about that in the bug section when it comes to voices just as in horizon zero dawn and it had good voices so too does forbidden west a number of your favorites return and a huge number of newcomers show up including someone who either sounds exactly like tim russ who was tuvak from star trek or it is him but his internet movie database just hasn't been updated audio voices and sound are so important and despite some bugs that i'll talk about later i do feel that this is a high mark a lot of people weren't incredibly happy with ailoy in the prior game i can see that sometimes it feels like the character was told to whisper through every single moment but overall i think it fits the character now especially with the decisions that

character is facing now and those decisions and those environments those exploration bits and those battles are what make up game play six months after the original adventure you play again as alloy piecing together the mystery the machines they're makers and the malevolent forces behind the terraforming projects on the planet th opening couple hours of within a prologue area before you even travel to the forbidden west it is huge coming inas a brand new player there is a pretty  detailed summary of the prior games events that hit the broad strokes but i got to tell you if you're brand new to this explore that open area that first part is massive and you can explore and sort of play around with the systems and understand what you're doing because as the adventure continues aloy seeks answers as well as a cure for a plague that's now sweeping the land and forbidden west opens up the game is friggin massive ailoy has to investigate the forbidden west this is this massive land fought over claimed and lost by a number of tribes some of whom you see in prior games and others you haven't questioning for them against them traveling taking out enemies to build up your arsenal as well as your defenses is the name of the game forbidden west doesn't stray far from that course introducing a huge number of new creatures to fight people to meet and locations to investigate and

take over but it's all built from the cornerstones of the prior title even though it throws a couple loops in here the first is that the ability to

traverse especially climbing has been changed one of the first things you're going to notice is that there's a mor free-form climbing system in this kind

of game allowing you to travel and move around much more than the original game however they still retain the familiarity you need for the platforming that you can expect in locations such as cauldrons as you perform puzzles and deep down robotic construction factories turning out enemies by the moment and in

that way it's almost a dual climbing system outdoors and natural as well as indoors and a little bit more artificial horizon's original play played off the

dichotomy of caveman and cyber dinosaurs nailing it honing that feeling to a razor's edge making sure that almost everything in the game had a use from

the parts you could crack off a dinosaur's back to various plants and animal life you could scavenge for upgrades and healing forbidden west does the same thing though this time it adds some elements that are more like zelda than a lot of people probably expected though we had some hints in the trailers

for example eloy has this energy shield as a glider it's just one more narrative nod to the caveman trash salvager gameplay that you get that dual use of

everything even her trying the shield out realizing it's not going to protect her but it can be used to glide is this connection to the game world's narrative it means that no matter where you go there's almost always something worth doing or seeing exploring or collecting later unlocks not to be spoiled here augment this beyond what you probably expect combined with that eloy can now use work tables at locations modifying her weapons and armor by raising their levels with different versions each having different bonuses that they can add combine this with the crafting she can do outside while on the go as well as more stuff on the table and you have this really cool system it's sort of just minutely there you can jump into it if you want and if you don't want to well you don't have to but you're goin to miss out on a lot of the bonuses for that armor or those weapons and speaking of both of those aloy feels at ease here in combat at least a little bit more than the prior game horizon always had a very interesting and dynamic way of handling battle encounters designed so that some creatures have single weaknesses while others had a series of lesser ones those changes and combinations throw that player into

state of adjusting strategies between ranged up and close and setting static ones in the form of traps it creates encounters that for the most part can't be easily muscled through eloise skill set has grown as she's explored as well taking up six skill trees warrior trapper hunter survival infiltrator and

machine master which are pretty much exactly as they sound over 100 skills boosts abilities or valor surges are available here now skills boosts and

abilities prices escalate in skill points as you go down the list while the  new valor system tracks aloy's basic renown they're unlocked when you buy

items around them those skills they give huge bonuses to alloys combat abilities but you can't have them all outfitted at once you sort of have to pick one this offers incredible flexibility when you realize that the difficulty settings in the game are also adjustable and you can dial the game up to insane challenge or take away one particular thing that you don't like about the title with the skill purchase or a change in the hud or the difficulty another improvement we see here is the alloys focus and the readout for creatures makes data hugely easier to come by when you're looking atbthe various creatures in the world youbcan also now carry more weapons as aloy traps make their return but they're still the missionary position of weapons effective yet pretty much boring as hell bows crossbows bolt slingers and the assorted fling death at your enemies weapons all feel good they hit pretty punchy when you combo them right i like that part ranged battle has had some changes the valor system augments that beyond my expectations but up close still feels a tiny bit wonky nothing's better than spanking a couple robots that look like they're from like a 1980 cartoon with a staff of dj beats but aloy has always been about swinging a light spear as white as possible and just sort of hoping it hits here you can get skills that you build up energy on your enemy's body and then it's set for overload you can leap away and shoot it and have it explode as well as various other combos of light and heavy attacks but it never feels exactly tight one of the caveats here is that aloy is constantly going against creatures that are the size of two-story buildings with

 the dexterity of spider monkeys and also somehow have multiple rocket launchers on their backs but the camera its closeness to ailoy does result in those

moments where alloy's just hanging out completely defenseless because the creature left behind the camera and you can't turn her fast enough and those combos of light and heavy attacks and the special skills that you get are great but range still feels incredible compared to up close which feels a little bit like a last ditch effort but while you're not fighting people you're doing other things for example tracking investigations and a ton of side quests

these are spread around the massive world but never really in a messy fashion like someone just use a random collectible generator the main ques branch out in some pretty huge ways but even if that main plot isn't going to surprise you some of the side quests and tribal quests are incredibly good i found myself just playing and exploring finding some bit of environmental storytelling moment to moment with the bones of some wounded man in a cave and trying to piece together how he got there even though that actually wasn't a quest mystery exploration those are some cornerstones of games like this and it's a kudo to the developers that i found myself exploring without quest just sort of happy in the moment it's hard not to compare horizon to its original title as well as other titles like ghost of sashima or zelda especially as all of them hinge on a story that tries to make a relatable connection between man and nature horizon succeeds in its absolute celebration of exploration in quests and side quests that make a habit of being more rather than less investigations turn into wider conspiracies and the smallest moment becomes a single thread you can pull to unravel a tapestry and sure at times it does mean that alloy herself feels like the only needle in a friggin massive bag of yarn making up the world and in a way she is at least horizon goes out of its way though to

make you know that it isn't someone just above the rest or someone who's a bit faster a bit stronger but it's a part of the story for this character both the weaver and what is going to be woven where goes to shishima relishes in combinations of environmental storytelling and guidance that was solidly built on feeling natural horizon cybernetic dinosaur future past offers a different draw an almost masterful mix of futuristic overlays and lends this flavor at odds but sometimes fitting with the prehistoric nature she explore that overall feeling of technology never really intrudes on the mundane and alloy's own natural instincts kick in when those moments occur it's a fine line here one that's drawn almost with a transparent marker and it can fail every once in a while but overall it fails very rarely and just when you think man maybe i need to go to the next spot on a quest or find something new you find a fresh location or a new creature and being completely honest nothing really ever gets tiring about taking on a robotic monstrosity that ultrasonic stuns you and you get that feeling of celebration when you put a period on the end of that sucker's life sentence i tested the game with hud on often dynamic while you can turn most of the settings off to remain on regardless which sort of sucks but the way the inventory works it'd be pretty difficult to have them all off i would have loved a fully off mode to test that though i will say that while some quest givers give you more than enough data to find a new spot some are pretty lean with their information making no hud play a bit more tedious than i would have liked and all this huge world these incredible number of new monsters quests and people comes at a price forbidden west is decidedly a buggier game than the original firstly there's a number of audio issues

i experienced for example in many locations town sounds ring out people walking or talking various sounds of commerce but sometimes it's just one

dude even after quests were done in the area no one was there it's like that spot is now outfitted with some kind of ghost city that alloy just can't see

it's frustrating as well because if you're not aware of it it can cause you to look around thinking you're missing something when you aren't enemies

underwater just standing there collision issues on a number of locations and doors some quests are also super restrictive in how you complete them not

all of them but while playing i counted at least four or five where i found myself in the proper place but because i hadn't gone there in a very specific way the game didn't really click forward to the next step also while graphically the game has some huge improvements as it's also got some other problems i did have it crashed three times in 4k mode this wasn't connected to any increase in fan sound and the ps5 in the environmentals where it is is never

going above 70 degrees fahrenheit no other game causes those crashes and yes we've all heard it before when some abused gamer says bugs make the game ?better sure and being drawn in quarters is just having fun with four horses but fun brings me to fun factor despite the bugs horizon forbidden west is going to be described as a classic by some people it's fun at all times investigating an attack using your sherlock future vision one moment hanging from a tall neck the next and then next riding some massive creature just shouting to the world i own this place the world is alive it always feels that way and many games wish they were like that the exploration the crafting everything it's woven into the narrative the quests are fun even if some aren't memorable and alloy story is backed up by insanely cool locations puzzles and people and alternative moments that you can take depending on decisions the paths are beaten but you're never beaten by taking a path almost always able to look at death and say ah you know what i just need to use acid to dissolve the armor then grab the gun then hit him with some piercing arrows and when that doesn't work you dust off and reverse that plane completely and see if that works i would

love to see the game and the fighting system have a better collision detection  up close though some feedback to alloy and the player is really needed when you hit because right now it's like playing invisible swords with your friends when you were a kid that being said i had a ton of fun when i was a kid doing

that and even more fun playing forbidden west so as you guys know i rate games on a buy wait for sale rent or never touch it again rating system you can tell even at sony's advanced price that we all are decrying there were many times where i sat back and thought my god i'm actually playing this horizon forbidden west is a monster sort of like the creatures that you hunt massive requires all manner of strategies and tactics to beat on the higher difficulties and at times has a few bugs to prove it i will say this it's worth getting absolutely but be aware of those bugs again this is the retail patch speaking of patches why don't you patch in with the acg team join up on discord using the patron and you can jump in talk about video games all that kind of stuff we do live streaming of games pretty much every single day now we talk about morning news about video games and the discord everything on the patron you can jump in for five bucks and hey help out the channel that's it for me i hope you guys have an awesome week and i hope you enjoy this game if you get it make sure to check out the walking the walks too they're coming