This overview of Horizon: Forbidden West contains as few spoilers as attainable—and leaves a lot of the sequence’ first recreation unspoiled, as properly.

Any overview of latest PlayStation-exclusive recreation Horizon: Forbidden West might make a case for the sport’s greatness just by itemizing how a lot stuff there may be to see and do. Extra distinctive biomes. Extra intense monsters. Extra modes of traversal. Extra weapons, extra traps, extra skills. To not point out better plot stakes that construct on the implausible basis of the 2017 unique, Horizon: Zero Daybreak.

However for me, this sequel is memorable much less as a bullet-point record and extra as a synthesis of the efforts of so many sensible designers, engineers, writers, artists, and animators. H:FW is maybe the best triple-A gaming journey I’ve ever seen due to how all its components match collectively in methods each apparent and refined.

I wished to go there—so I did

I warmly recall the primary time I noticed the sport’s titular Forbidden West area open up, filled with visible and gameplay potentialities. The area’s fields, mountains, and enigmatic wreckage of a bygone period stretched out so far as my PlayStation 5 might render. Each pixel regarded exactly painted; the scene mixed the deep blues of a river-riven panorama and the wealthy orange glow of a sundown.

Then the “digicam” swung round to intention at sequence hero Aloy, her face rendered in actual time with extra telling particulars and finer animation than ever earlier than. She needed to cope with a cantankerous excessive priest, and the ensuing dialog was a triumph of gaming function play. Aloy’s confidence as a world-saving warrior shone by means of in equal components humor and coronary heart, and I could not think about tapping the “skip dialogue” button. I wish to be this hero, I believed.

After that dialog, I regarded round a wide-open panorama. One goal was clearly marked on an in-game map, but loads of different landmarks have been seen once I put the map in my pocket. Specifically, I noticed a half-destroyed constructing on the high of a steep cliff—and it had a few yellow markings subtly positioned round it. I wish to go there, I believed. So I did.

I clambered, climbed, found out delicate traversal puzzles, and reached the highest of this mountaintop fortress. I regarded out on the large world beneath, lined with acquainted and brand-new robo-dinosaurs. These beasts would want taming, trapping, and killing—and after gathering some promising treasure, I tapped a “rappel” button to dramatically decrease myself and start the hunt.

A unique form of online game “season”

The sport repeatedly leads gamers into brilliantly staged moments of discovery. Typically these moments are cheekily hidden in a nook of the map that contains a stunning cavern crammed with puzzles and plot reveals. Typically the discoveries happen on H:FW‘s wide-open plains, the place memorable sneak-and-trap monster encounters play out subsequent to the gorgeous, sky-filling relics of a previous civilization.

Each time the sport’s distinctive mélange clicked, I discovered myself pausing to look at how the items match collectively seamlessly—and coming away impressed. No open-world journey recreation has ever performed a lot to repair the style’s problems with bloat and aimlessness. H:FW organically leads gamers by means of dozens of hours of tales as an alternative of barreling towards a single major aim.