–
Has the game of the year been announced yet? It could be, because ‘Horizon: Forbidden West’ ticks all the boxes. It looks unparalleled, crackles with action, the game world buzzes and the story has the depth of an ocean liner.
–
Roel Damian
–
–
The Amsterdam studio Guerrilla Games has Horizon: Forbidden West really delivered a dyke – and the Dutch have eaten cheese – of an action game. The studio developed the franchise for almost ten years Killzonebut five years ago the games forge took a different tack with Horizon: Zero Dawn. That became an SF epic with the best ideas and story concepts from Star Wars, The Lord of The Rings, Game Of Thrones on Jurassic Park.
–Huge mechanical creatures pose a constant threat across the vast game world. — © RR
–
This sequel was also developed with the powerful PlayStation 5 in mind. The makers have masterfully used the muscle bundles of that new game console. Graphic is Horizon: Forbidden West the most beautiful and impressive game we ever saw. And that’s saying something for someone with four decades of gaming under their belt.
ingenious
Main character Aloy borrows her face from the Dutch actress Hannah Hoekstra, other characters do that from character actors such as Carie-Anne Moss (The Matrix), Angela Bassett (Black Panther) of Lance Reddick (The Wire† She’s still the red one voenk who runs across the prairies of the distant future. Armed with bow and spear and extremely adept at setting traps. That makes her an ideal hunter who can master the 43 (!) different Machines (read: dinosaurs of electronics and steel).
–© RR
–
We are also happy to put a feather in the hat of the costume designers. They really pulled out all the stops so that no character looks the same. And there are some, because the world is populated with different tribes and clans. Each with their own background story, traditions and concerns. Horizon: Forbidden West is so ingenious that it has something in store for every gamer. Steam through the violence at a brisk pace? rather stealth† Micromanagement with skills, outfits and upgrades? Or savor the world and the story down to the last detail by listening to every dialogue (and there are a lot of them)? Everything is possible.
–© RR
–
After 30 hours, the main story is over and the credits roll across the screen. We look at the world map and see that 30% of the immense and extremely varied playing area is still undiscovered. So there are still dozens of hours of side missions and virtual explorations ahead. What a clapper. Five star game.
Horizon: Forbidden Westavailable on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
—
