Horizon Zero Dawnwas released in 2017 exclusively for the PlayStation 4 console and ended up being one of the most successful new IPs of the generation.Horizon Forbidden Westis set to release sometime this year, and from what can be gleaned from the trailer, it definitely looks like it could be a worthy sequel. As one of the biggest games coming out for the PS5 generation this year, it needs to be.Horizon Forbidden Westwill take Aloy to the West Coast of the United States, where she’ll face new tribes, machines, and shoulder the weight of the world once again.
Despite the overwhelming success ofHorizon Zero Dawn,it did have a few shortcomings. No game is perfect, but there are five specific things thatHorizon Forbidden Westneeds to improve upon if it wants to blow the original game out of the water. The sequel is one of themost highly anticipated games of 2021, and improving these things from the original game would go a long way towards making sureHorizon Forbidden Westlives up to the hype.
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Climbing Mechanics
Aloy’s climbing skills almost rival Nathan Drake, but theclimbing mechanics inHorizon Zero Dawnare very simple: find the yellow handhold and tilt the joystick to keep going up. Climbing never had real stakes because Aloy doesn’t really fall, she mostly moves on her own, and there was never much questioning where to go next. It was always pretty straightforward and felt like it could have added more to the gameplay.
InHorizon Forbidden West,players are hoping that Aloy will be able to climb everything,Assassin’s Creedstyle, without having to look for the yellow handholds. Being able to climb everything would add a lot of opportunities for exploration, which is already a huge focus of the game. In addition, eliminating the bright yellow visual cues would make the world seem a little more natural.Horizonis known for its stunning visuals and art direction, but the handholds are a small detail that takes away from the overall impact. In theHorizon Forbidden Westtrailer, Aloy is seen climbing a rather imposing mountain, so hopefully, the inclusion of that shot was meant to hint at improved climbing mechanics in the game.
Transportation
Aloy is a fast runner and has the ability to override machines, which she can then ride. She can get where she needs to go with or without a steed, but running gets old and the available mounts aren’t always worth the effort. There are only a few machines that Aloy can ride, and players have to keep hunting down and overriding these specific machines if they don’t want to run or fast travel. As a result, the mechanical steeds weren’t utilized as much as they could have been and didn’t contribute much.
Players are hopeful that in the sequel, Aloy will be able to ride more machines than before. It would also be exciting if not all those machines looked like horses. Fans have been asking for the ability to mount a wider variety of machines, including flying ones. It would be amazing ifAloy could ride the Pterodactyl-inspired Sunwingthat was featured in the trailer. Riding will almost certainly be an element ofHorizon Forbidden Westbecause Aloy rides past the ruins of the Golden Gate Bridge in the trailer, but hopefully it will be more impactful.
Meaningful Choices and Dialogue Options
Horizon Zero Dawnutilized “flash points,” where players could choose which side of Aloy’s personality to express in a given situation. Aloy is compassionate, intelligent, and strong-willed, so these moments gave players the opportunity to personalize their experience just a little bit. Those options would result in different dialogue as NPCs reacted, but they didn’t change any outcomes. Apart from choosing to kill or spare Olin- which doesn’t even change that much- there aren’t anymeaningful choices inHorizon Zero Dawn.
Allowing players to make impactful decisionshas become a huge part of open-world RPGs. Big titles in the same genre likeThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Red Dead Redemption 2,andCyberpunk 2077all implement dialogue and action-based choices that can change the available missions, relationships with NPCs, and the ending.Horizon Zero Dawnwas great without letting the player customize their journey much, butHorizon Forbidden Westshould let players take the lead a little more.
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Melee Combat
In the first game, the primary focus was ranged combat. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it’ll be exciting to experience Aloy’s bow and arrow with the PS5’s DualSense controller, but Aloy also had a powerful spear that allowed her to override machines and use all of…two attacks. If players ended up too close to a machine, they could hack at it with either a fast or slow spear attack, but that was it.Melee combat didn’t really exist in Horizon Zero Dawn.
Guerrilla should keep the primary focus on Aloy’s trademark bow and arrow combat, which was amazing in the first game, but it would be nice if there were a few more options for melee combat. It would add a whole new layer toHorizon Forbidden West’scombat systemand give players who prefer close-range combat more options. Every machine inHorizon Zero Dawnneeded to be taken down differently, and adding a couple of machines that require a melee approach would be refreshing. It’s nice to change it up sometimes, so hopefullyForbidden Westcan add to the combat system without taking away any of the elements that worked in the first game.
The Final Boss
Even the most amazing games can be brought down by an unsatisfying final boss, and unfortunately,Horizon Zero Dawndidn’t deliver in the last act for a lot of fans. The final encounters featured a unique human boss and an exciting battle against an army of machines, which was great, but it should have led up to an epic new machine. Thefinal boss inHorizon Zero Dawnwas a Deathbringer, which would be scary if Aloy hadn’t already fought several of them. It was especially disappointing because the game spent a lot of time teasing the Metal Devil.
Metal Devils are the largest machines that exist in theHorizon Zero Dawnuniverse. They were the leaders of the Faro Plague that wiped out humanity, and their ruins can be seen protruding through mountains throughout the map. Aloy rides past a sunken one in theForbidden Westtrailer as well. If fans don’t get tofight a Metal Devil inHorizon Forbidden West,no matter how great the rest of the game is, it might fall short of player expectations. The final boss is one of the most frequent criticisms ofHorizon Zero Dawn,so hopefully Guerrilla took notice and made it a point to endHorizon Forbidden Westwith a bang.
Horizon Forbidden Westwill release for PS4 and PS5 sometime this year.
