Horizon Forbidden West review: a large world you've explored before

Our Horizon Forbidden West review reveals a PS5 game with big ambitions but old ideas.

Horizon Forbidden West review; a woman rides a mechanical machine across a desert
(Image: © SCEE)

Our Verdict

Horizon Forbidden West is the PS5 and PS4 game for anyone who loved Horizon Zero Dawn. On PS5 it's a visual spectacle, and I'm still wowed that Sony has managed to get this running on a PS4. But even though it sands down its predecessor’s rough edges, I'm left feeling it's a little too similar to the original and doesn't really take the series in any new directions.

For

  • Another great performance from Ashly Burch
  • Visually arresting art direction
  • Plenty to see and do

Against

  • The script is lacklustre
  • Very similar to the previous game

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Half a decade after her first adventure, Aloy returns as the only person with the system admin privileges to save the world in Horizon Forbidden West. This time the magic bullet lies further afield, far beyond the Nora Sacred Land and the Carja Sundom – though bigger, badder machines and data corruption are the least of the red-haired huntress’ problems as she heads west.

The land is being ravaged by storms and plagued by a suffocating blight. The people living out west amid all this are the Tenakth, a huge tribe split into smaller clans, all with different ideas about what their future should look like. Aloy’s allies in the Carja Sundom, which borders Tenakth territory, are quick to condemn them, saying they’re bloodthirsty and aggressive, though naturally the reality is more complicated. 

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The Verdict
8

out of 10

Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West is the PS5 and PS4 game for anyone who loved Horizon Zero Dawn. On PS5 it's a visual spectacle, and I'm still wowed that Sony has managed to get this running on a PS4. But even though it sands down its predecessor’s rough edges, I'm left feeling it's a little too similar to the original and doesn't really take the series in any new directions.

Jess Kinghorn