Last fall, Sony announced that it’s working on the so-called “complete edition” of Horizon Forbidden West. It came to PS5 already last year (October 6), and as of this spring, players on PC will also be able to enjoy it. Horizon Forbidden West has been announced to arrive on desktop machines on March 21st. The complete edition comes with the base game and the Burning Shores expansion. The PC version is being worked on by Nixxes Software, the Dutch studio behind phenomenal PC ports such as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
Horizon Forbidden West For PC
The third-person action game Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition will finally be available on PC in March. Nixxes Software Online Community Specialist Julian Huijbregts announced in late January in a PlayStation Blog post that Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition will be available for PC on March 21. The PC version has several features, such as compatibility with triple-monitor PC gaming stations and ultra-wide support for resolutions of 21:9, 32:9, and 48:9.
Forbidden West’s PC version will support a wide range of controllers alongside the mouse and keyboard. Thanks to adaptable triggers, users with a DualSense controller may accomplish things like feel the strain on their bow’s string. Players will be able to have a sensation of the impact of battle thanks to the haptic feedback on the controller. It has also been verified that Steam Input support exists, enabling players to remap and personalize their game controllers to their liking.
Although NVIDIA had previously said that Horizon Forbidden West would integrate DLSS 3, which enables PC gamers with an RTX 40 series graphics card to get a better FPS in the game, no PC requirements were disclosed. Though Huijbregts didn’t indicate which generation of FSR Forbidden West will support, the latest blog post also disclosed that Horizon Forbidden West will additionally be compatible with AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) and Intel’s XeSS super-sampling techs.
Horizon Forbidden West Becomes Another Video Game on the Expanding List of DLSS 3-Supported Titles
As previously mentioned, NVIDIA declared that, upon the game’s release, it will be backing DLSS 3. Thus, add Horizon Forbidden West to the expanding list of games compatible with DLSS 3!
The third iteration of NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Super Sampling technology, known as DLSS, was released last year and can boost frame rates for compatible PC games. The restriction is that DLSS 3 is only compatible with GPUs from the RTX 40 series, including the recently revealed RTX 40 Super series.
The PC version of Horizon Forbidden West is one of a growing variety of PC games that are going to support DLSS 3 or already do. It has also been reported that Diablo IV and Tekken 8 will soon support DLSS 3. Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and Fortnite are among the other titles that have already included the technology. Of course, the last we mentioned has spread over the entire planet in terms of popularity since launched in 2017. By March 2023, Fortnite had 500 million gamers worldwide! Although it’s still struggling to break through the eSports scene given that games such as CS2, LoL and several others dominate, Fortnite has the potential to attract the competitive gaming community in greater numbers as its tournaments, such as Fortnite Champion Series, are known to have over two million peak viewers. Not to mention that the game has found its way into the eSports betting world consisting of both “old schools” platforms and bookies enabling up-to-date payment systems, e.g. the best Zimpler bookmakers in 2024 here. These numbers are for now unattainable to Horizon Forbidden West, which had its peak of 224,509 at one point but the number has fallen to a three-figure viewership. The PC version of Horizon Forbidden West will hopefully improve the game’s reputation.
The Evaluation of the Horizon Forbidden West
Once more, you can assume control of Aloy, the red-haired warrior, in Horizon Forbidden West, which picks up six months following the finale of Horizon Zero Dawn.
Aloy is trying to figure out how to stop the planet’s ecology from deteriorating after shutting down the rogue AI known as HADES. Aloy discovers that her supplies have been compromised. She receives a call from an old ally, who tells her that she must go west to solve this new enigma.
The Narrative Is Fine but Not the Ideal Ever
Forbidden West has a decent story, but it isn’t all that interesting or memorable. There were plenty of entertaining moments scattered throughout the discussion, and we never actively desired to skip any of it, but there were also plenty of moments when we were quite bored and eager for it to end. Regarding the storyline of Forbidden West, the nicest thing to say would be that the voice acting and face animations are excellent. Almost every single individual you encounter delivers their lines genuinely and convincingly. Unfortunately, most of the time what they were conveying wasn’t all that intriguing.
Aloy does a great job with her voice acting, although occasionally she comes up as somewhat unlikeable. She speaks matter-of-factly in almost all of her lines, and she generally gives off the impression that she doesn’t want to be disturbed. Considering how much branching dialogue she has and how willing she is to help everyone in need, this just feels a little strange.
Two Parts of Gameplay
Forbidden West’s gameplay may be broadly divided into two sections, the initial one of which we’d refer to as exploration.
This particular one plays a major role in the game, whether you’re going off the established route or completing the main goal. It mostly centers on a gadget that Aloy wears called a Focus. She may view a wide range of objects in the surroundings, including opponents, treasure, collectibles, sites of interest, and more, thanks to this tiny device that may pulse out. The Focus is a great tool for solving puzzles, determining which parts of the world can be scaled, and finding out how to move on with most quests in general.
Aloy gets quite a few specialized gadgets to aid with environmental traversal, which is another important aspect of Forbidden West. She will discover a Pullcaster early on that allows her to grapple with specific items and explore new sections. This gives the platforming portions of the game a little more variation, but if you’ve played any third-person action game in the past 10 years, including the original Horizon, you’ll know what to expect. At this point, it’s conventional fare for the genre. Nevertheless, we think that this kind of gameplay is becoming a little stale and isn’t that enjoyable, specifically when you’re required to keep doing it throughout the game.
Forbidden West has far too many underwater areas, and much like the majority of other games featuring this gameplay aspect, these aren’t very enjoyable to explore. Because Aloy can only breathe underwater for brief periods at the beginning of the game, some of the longer sections were pretty boring. Although she eventually acquires equipment that enables her to remain underwater indefinitely, this doesn’t make the tedious or slow-paced portions of the game any less.
Fortunately, battle is the second main gameplay feature in Forbidden West and it provides a little more enjoyment. Aloy will occasionally engage in fights with people, as in most games in the game genre, but the Horizon titles truly shine when it comes to their machine combat. The world is filled with a vast array of various machines. The majority of them are modeled after various creatures, including kangaroos, crocodiles, birds, and snakes. Every machine has different strengths and weaknesses and is clad in armor and other parts that can be removed during combat. Additionally, there are certain devices that you may eventually gain control of on the battlefield by overriding them.
A Decent Selection of Weapons
You’ll need weapons to engage in combat, and Forbidden West offers a respectable selection. There are several bows with varying degrees of effectiveness, tripcasters that set up tripwire traps, blastslings, which are essentially large slingshots, and more. Additionally, other varieties of ammunition are unique to particular weaponry. They include elemental (frost, fire, shock, etc.) that can be employed to take advantage of enemy weaknesses, impact (ranged damage), and tear (needed to rip off armor and components). Combat becomes significantly more strategic because of all of these factors, which also prevent it from becoming monotonous.
Aloy has a spear, even though it’s obvious that the game wants you to concentrate more on ranged combat. This is helpful for stealth kills and for delivering critical strikes on opponents you’ve already taken out with a status effect. While melee combat does feel like a secondary choice in most battle circumstances, there are a few combos that can be employed.
Aloy can also obtain a variety of attires that will enhance her fighting efficiency. These can build on a number of passive talents and provide her melee, range, and elemental defenses with a variety of buffs (and occasionally debuffs). Even if it’s not that significant, we always appreciate how each piece of clothing has a distinct appearance while it’s in the game.
You can modify all weaponry and attire by gathering different components from damaged machines. As your equipment gets stronger, these upgrades, as one might think, boost your damage, defense, and other stats. Your equipment can also be enhanced with outfit weaves and weapon coils to change their stats even more.
We Have Some Gripes with the Combat
We do have a few complaints about the combat, even if it’s arguably the most exciting aspect of the game. The first point is that locking on to an adversary isn’t possible. Some fights would’ve been far less annoying with this little addition. Almost all of the machines in the game’s arena move quickly and erratically when they are engaged, making it quite difficult to keep track of a particular machine. The worst foes are the ones that fly above and behind you a lot. Before you can even adjust, they are diving bombing you to deal serious damage.
The firearms’ power level is our other concern. Regardless of how much we changed or improved a weapon, it never seemed to feel that much different. Because of this, we felt like we were underpowered for most of the game. It’s somewhat of a letdown when you spend a great deal of time upgrading your gear only to feel like it was basically a waste of time. Again, maybe this is by purpose so that strategy plays a larger role.
There Are More Traditional Side Quests
There are a ton of other things to do in Forbidden West besides exploring and fighting your way through the main mission. Though those are by far the only side quests available, you can also discover more conventional ones throughout the place. There are a variety of game types to choose from, like Melee Pits which challenge your spear skills, enemy strongholds that need to be liberated, Cauldrons that function essentially as self-contained dungeons, and more; in fact, you can even play Machine Strike, a tabletop strategy game. There are almost a dozen distinct side activities to choose from. The bad news is that we only truly decided to deal with a very small number of them. While playing the game, we completed a few of them, but after finishing the primary narrative, we weren’t really motivated to finish the ones we overlooked.
Throughout the game, all of this questing and battling will earn you XP and let Aloy level up. Aloy will gain more skill points and an increase in HP as she levels up. Six distinct skill trees, each concentrating on a distinct facet of the game like combat in close quarters, ranged combat, stealth, and more, can be used with these points. In addition to giving distinct fighting mechanics, each tree provides a variety of passive talents that are beneficial to those characteristics.
You’re going to eventually be able to unlock different weapon skills that apply to particular sorts of weapons as you progress along a skill tree. These allow you to execute a variety of tasks, including shooting numerous arrows at once, raining down arrows across a vast area, using your blastsling to launch bombs, and using the tripcaster to penetrate foes without entirely retracting back. Another ability is called Valor Surge, which is essentially a final move that temporarily raises several of Aloy’s characteristics and weapon stats. Valor Surge and weapon tactics are both excellent strategies for changing the tide of difficult battles.
Concerning Accessibility…
Regarding accessibility, Forbidden West provides a plethora of choices to personalize your visit. There are five difficulty settings, from Story to Extremely Hard. Additionally, there are two ways to find waypoints and quests. While the “explorer” option leaves it up to you to navigate the planet, the “guided” option will ensure that you always know where to go next and point out locations of interest. Additionally, there are other adjustments you may apply to different battle settings. This means that you can truly adjust the difficulty of the game to your preference, which always serves as a positive in my opinion.
It’s also important to mention that we used a basic PS4 that we purchased in 2015 to play Forbidden West. We thought it looked fantastic overall because there were so many breathtaking views. Although we didn’t feel like we had been missing out on anything in the absence of a side-by-side comparison, we’re sure the PS5 version looks much better. Regretfully, though, we did run across some performance problems. Significant pop-in was observed in several locations, and there was also a noticeable slowdown in a few other regions. Another problem we had was that, when the game began loading a saving or cutscene, the screen would abruptly go black. This was quite unsettling and led us to believe that our game had crashed multiple times. All of these problems happened rarely enough to be considered a small annoyance. Except for the fan sounding like an airplane engine, which, by the way, is standard for most games these days, the performance on a basic PS4 was fairly good.
Final Thoughts
We find Horizon Forbidden West to be a little strange. When we go back on our experience with it, we can’t say we particularly enjoyed it, but we also can’t say we hated it.
The game feels a bit predictable and “by the numbers”, but that’s about the only negative aspect of it. You’ll know what to anticipate if you’ve played any of the recent PlayStation-only third-person action games; otherwise, we don’t think there’s anything particularly noteworthy or novel. It’s decent enough if you can get a cheap copy or you just really wish to know where Aloy’s narrative goes, but if not, you should feel okay about passing on this one.
