Horizon Forbidden West™ Complete Edition Steam Charts & Stats

Played the first horizon and thought it was great, heard this game was coming out and thought to myself there is no way this is gonna be as good as the first, well I was wrong.

I started Horizon Forbidden West from the beginning even though I had already played part of it before, and I'm really glad I did. The world is absolutely stunning, with incredible graphics, a huge map, and plenty of things to discover. There are lots of side quests, collectibles, machine sites, and activities that make exploration genuinely rewarding. I often found myself getting distracted by exploring instead of following the main story, and I loved that. The combat is another highlight. Every machine has different weak points and attack patterns, so each encounter feels unique. Even though the game offers many different weapon types and ammo, I personally enjoyed using the Hunter Bow for almost everything. Learning enemy weak spots and taking them down with precise shots was extremely satisfying. The story and characters are engaging, and the world is full of interesting lore that makes exploration worthwhile. My only real criticism is that the game sometimes relies too much on climbing and environmental puzzles. Some ruins and climbing sections feel unnecessarily long and can slow down the pacing, especially if you prefer exploration and combat over puzzle-solving. Overall, Horizon Forbidden West is an amazing open-world game with beautiful visuals, fantastic combat, a massive world to explore, and an incredible amount of content. Despite a few pacing issues with climbing and puzzles, I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys exploration, action, and a rich world full of things to discover.

I just can’t bring myself to finish this game. The gameplay itself is good, and in many ways it is a natural evolution of the first game. Movement is much better thanks to the grappling hook and the ability to jump off ledges. Climbing feels more natural because handholds are not painted all over the environment as obviously as before. It is still fairly basic, but compared to the original, it is a big improvement. The visuals are also better. Performance is excellent and I rarely ran into technical issues. Facial animations received a noticeable upgrade, and Aloy's smaller expressions during conversations look surprisingly good. Some quality of life additions are genuinely excellent. Auto loot is one of the best features in the entire game, and the personal stash that stores excess resources removes a lot of unnecessary inventory management. Crafting upgrades at workbenches instead of directly from the inventory also makes much more sense. Unfortunately, those improvements are attached to a story that completely killed my desire to keep playing. Recurring problem throughout the entire experience is that the game filled with long dragged cutscenes. Story missions are filled with lengthy conversations that often feel flat and uninteresting. Many cutscenes go on for several minutes, and some of them look strangely paced, almost as if parts of the animation are sped up. Instead of playing a game, I often felt like I was watching a movie that I did not particularly want to watch. The writing itself does not help. The main story revolves around collecting different pieces needed to restore a larger whole, which is a classic and understandable premise. I also liked the addition of a central headquarters that gradually grows as the story progresses. But the actual characters and dialogue constantly dragged the experience down. The space colonists are some of the most ridiculous characters in the game, speaking and behaving like complete idiots even by the standards of the setting. Some story moments are so absurd that it becomes difficult to take anything seriously, especially when characters start treating historical figures almost like religious icons. Aloy remains one of the most frustrating parts of the story. She constantly talks to herself, explaining obvious solutions out loud as if the player cannot figure out the simplest puzzle without assistance. Sometimes it genuinely feels like she is narrating every thought that enters her head. On top of that, she often comes across as arrogant and unnecessarily aggressive during conversations, which makes it difficult to connect with her as a protagonist. Story missions are easily the worst part of the game. They regularly restrict your freedom and force you to solve problems exactly the way the developers intended. You might be locked onto a platform and forced to shoot enemies from above even though jumping down and fighting directly would be more fun. The game simply refuses to let you do it until a cutscene decides otherwise. Invisible walls, scripted restrictions, and forced sequences are everywhere. The missions themselves are often built around long chains of chores. You need information from someone, but instead of giving you meaningful choices, the game sends you on a series of errands before allowing the story to continue. Even worse, important gameplay features are locked behind story progression. If you want access to certain traversal abilities or underwater exploration tools, you are forced to continue the main quest whether you are interested in it or not. Combat has its own frustrations. Dodging still feels unreliable, just like in the first game. Sometimes attacks seem to pass through you correctly, sometimes they do not. Sometimes Aloy gets staggered, sometimes she does not. Sometimes traversal animations work perfectly, and sometimes they fail to trigger at all. After a while I stopped trusting the dodge mechanic and found myself relying on ranged combat and stealth whenever possible. The game also has a strange obsession with making the player wait. Many interactions require holding a button instead of simply pressing it. It sounds minor, but after dozens of hours it becomes surprisingly irritating. The art direction remains another weak point for me. Machine designs still work because complicated mechanical details fit the concept. But the same design philosophy applied to clothing and architecture often looks awkward and ridiculous. The outfits are somehow even stranger this time around, ranging from bizarre tribal fashion to what looks like futuristic latex formal wear. It constantly pulled me out of the world instead of helping me believe in it. The forced companions do not help either. Story missions regularly pair you with side characters who never stop talking and constantly get in the way. Rather than making the world feel alive, they often become another source of distraction. At the end of the day, Horizon Forbidden West is a game where I like many of the gameplay improvements, but I strongly dislike almost everything surrounding them. The movement is better, the visuals are better, and several quality of life features are excellent. But the story, characters, mission design, and constant need to control how the player experiences the game eventually became too exhausting. I kept waiting for the narrative to give me a reason to continue. It never did.

i love these games very much however for some reason the seconds games game play has me pulling out hairs before even giving my genes a chance to make me bald. for some ungodly reasons i have shouted and damn near busted my PC over the game play of this game, the first one felt way more fluent and that playing the game was the fun part and not the story. again i love these games but holy ♥♥♥♥ did i enjoy more things about the first one.

i had to get my old save file to get the platinum for hfw and had to do some cleanup. i wudve redone the whole game but my biggest issue with this game is theres just alot and nothing at the same time. storys good and the visuals are stunning. just completing it feels tiring at times. I still prefer the first game tho i just adore it

I absolutely loved Horizon Zero Dawn. For me, it's a 10/10 game and one of the best open-world experiences I've ever played. The world was fascinating, the mystery kept me hooked from beginning to end, and I genuinely couldn't stop playing. Discovering what happened to humanity, exploring ruins, fighting machines, and uncovering the story piece by piece was an unforgettable experience. I also played Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, and I loved it just as much. The improvements to the visuals and overall presentation made an already fantastic game feel even better. Revisiting the world of Zero Dawn in the remastered version reminded me why I fell in love with the series in the first place. Because of how much I loved Zero Dawn, I bought Horizon Forbidden West immediately and was incredibly excited to continue Aloy's journey. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I gave the game several chances and restarted it multiple times, but I just couldn't get into it. The biggest issue for me was the gameplay and overall feel of the game. Many mechanics were changed, and while they may have been intended as improvements, they felt worse to me than in Zero Dawn. The controls, weapon management, and interface felt more complicated and less intuitive. Zero Dawn felt clean, smooth, and easy to pick up, while Forbidden West often felt clunky to me. I also had the feeling that the game wasn't running as smoothly as I expected on my PC. At times it felt like I was playing at a much lower frame rate, which made the experience less enjoyable. Whether that was a technical issue on my side or not, it affected my overall impression. I know Forbidden West adds many new features, and I never got far enough to experience everything it has to offer. I know there are exciting additions later in the game, including new ways to travel and explore. But the first impression and core gameplay simply didn't click with me, and that's what matters most. This review isn't coming from someone who dislikes the Horizon series. Quite the opposite. I'm writing this because I loved Zero Dawn so much. That's exactly why the disappointment hit so hard. I wanted to love Forbidden West, but for me it lost some of the simplicity, smoothness, and sense of discovery that made Zero Dawn a masterpiece. Despite my criticism, I still love the Horizon universe and Aloy's story. I genuinely hope the developers continue the series and create another sequel in the future. If they do, I would personally love to see a return to some of the simpler and more intuitive gameplay design that made Zero Dawn so enjoyable for me. Zero Dawn had a special balance that kept me completely immersed, and I would love to experience that feeling again in a future Horizon game. If you enjoyed Forbidden West, that's great. This is simply my personal opinion as someone who considers Horizon Zero Dawn—and especially the Remastered version—an ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE AND HIDDEN GEM.

I was somewhat excited to play this game, having played a long time ago the first one. Unfortunately, I could not get the sound working. I searched for solutions and found this is a known issue. I tried everything I could find. I changed settings in-game and on my PC, different headsets, in-ear headphones, speakers, and even an external audio console but nothing worked. I ended up refunding the game. Its a shame that a title such as this has audio issues that are well known but there are no fixes from the devs. As the game is not being actively developed anymore its likely that these bugs wont ever be fixed.

One of the rare games I dropped. The developers are just too up their asses in this game. The "Open world" is non-existent. You will find a couple blocked paths/missing tool signs minutes after finishing the tutorial. You may think you would unlock them soon? 10/17 story missions and i still don't have them. And it's not just an inability to clear question marks. You can't fully upgrade your pouches until you finish the first third of the story and open the whole map. High-level enemies won't spawn until you finish the two thirds. Unlike in Zero Dawn, where you could see your first Thunderjaw while running to Meridian. And it isn't even for some lore reason, just a pure developer's decision. Combat is so much worse. Every machine is fast, agile, has ranged attacks and can knock you down for a few seconds. They have a lot of weak points, but are all small and hard to aim at even with concentration. And unless you play on easy you are required to shoot the parts off to get a material. All humans are somehow as tough as machines and all wear armor, including helmets. They also designed for purple/yellow weapons, so i needed 6 headshots to kill one with a blue bow. There are a dozen of different weapons, dozens of active skills, combos, valor skills, statuses that you need to juggle during a fight. Meanwhile, Aloy is even slower and weaker than in ZD without the ability to upgrade her equipment and 6 different skill trees. Writing is boring. Your companions now have only marvel like dialogues and the plot is about big bad billionaires that somehow can become immortal but can't figure out terraforming. Puzzles are everywhere, every ruin is now a puzzle, every vantage point, tallneck. Platforming and parkour are vast and shallow. You have many more options to climb, but only if the developers allow you. 90% of places are inaccessible unless you see yellow markers. Unlike in ZD where Aloy could jump on mountains like a mountain goat. I don't understand how they made the sequel worse in almost every aspect. There are a few new features I liked, like autopickup and stash, but not enough to convince me to play this game.

The main game was enjoyable overall, but I had several issues with the DLC. The DLC introduces a character who follows you constantly, and I found her quite unlikeable. I often skipped the cutscenes whenever she appeared. In my opinion, the final boss was underwhelming and lacked excitement. I checked Reddit for other people's reviews, and many were highly praising the DLC. They will call you homophobic if you do not like the DLC or criticize the character in the DLC. My criticism is not related to the character's sexuality; I simply found the story poorly written. The romantic subplot felt forced and lacked believable development. If you plan to play this game, I would recommend skipping the DLC. In my experience, it detracted from the overall enjoyment and was ultimately disappointing.

Initially, I would have given this a positive review, but given that Sony explicitly said that the next title in this series (and all other single player Sony published titles) will not be coming to PC, then I can't recommend this or Zero Dawn unless you get it on sale. The ending is good enough that it doesn't horribly detract, but it's obvious they set it up for another game, which they now refuse to publish here.