Horizon Forbidden West arrived on PC in 2024 as the Complete Edition, bundling the base game with the Burning Shores DLC expansion. Continuing Aloy’s story from Horizon Zero Dawn, the game sends her west into new territory to investigate a mysterious blight threatening the land. The Forbidden West spans diverse biomes from lush jungles to barren deserts to underwater ruins, populated by new machine types and human factions. The sequel expands the original’s formula with underwater exploration, a glider for aerial traversal, and an expanded skill tree that offers more combat variety.
Community reception on PC has been positive, with the technical quality of the port and the visual presentation drawing particular praise. The machine combat continues to be the series’ defining strength, and the new machines provide encounters that push players to use the full range of tools available. Criticism centers on familiar open world fatigue, a story that relies too heavily on exposition, and human enemy encounters that lack the tactical depth of fighting machines. The overall sentiment is that Forbidden West is a bigger and more polished version of Zero Dawn, for better and worse.
Machines That Demand Respect and Creative Problem Solving
Machine combat is where Horizon Forbidden West excels most consistently. New machine types introduce behaviors and weaknesses that require different tactical approaches, and the expanded tool set gives players more options for engaging them. Tearing off components, exploiting elemental weaknesses, using the environment, and setting up traps before engaging creates a combat loop that rewards preparation and adaptability. Large machine encounters feel like boss fights in the best way, demanding attention and strategy rather than just damage output.
The world is one of the most visually impressive in any open world game. The biome variety, from tropical coastlines to snowy mountains to underwater caverns, provides constant visual novelty. The lighting, the vegetation density, and the weather systems create environments that consistently stop you in your tracks. The underwater exploration, while mechanically simple, opens up hidden spaces and adds a dimension to exploration that the first game lacked entirely.
The Shieldwing glider improves traversal significantly. Launching from elevated positions and gliding across the landscape streamlines the exploration loop and provides a satisfying sense of freedom. Combined with the grappling hook and improved climbing mechanics, moving through the world feels more fluid and versatile than in Zero Dawn.
The skill tree has been expanded to offer genuine build variety. Players can specialize in melee combat, trapping, stealth, ranged precision, or machine override approaches, and the differences between builds are meaningful enough to encourage different playstyles. The Valor Surge abilities, powerful skills that charge through combat, add dramatic moments to difficult encounters.
The Burning Shores DLC, included in the Complete Edition, adds a volcanic Los Angeles-area setting with some of the game’s most spectacular machine encounters and meaningful character development for Aloy. It’s a substantial addition that’s well worth the included extra.
An Open World That Struggles With Restraint
Map marker density is overwhelming. The world is filled with icons representing activities, collectibles, side quests, and points of interest, and the sheer volume can transform exploration from discovery into checklist completion. Many activities are well-designed individually, but their quantity dilutes the impact and creates a sense of obligation rather than curiosity. Players who ignore the map and explore organically report better experiences than those who systematically clear markers.
The story has a tendency toward exposition-heavy dialogue. Characters frequently explain plot points, technological concepts, and historical context at length, and these conversations can feel like information dumps rather than natural exchanges. Aloy’s tendency to verbalize her thoughts aloud, essentially narrating puzzle solutions and objectives to the player, draws consistent criticism for undermining both the character and the player’s sense of discovery.
Human combat encounters remain the weakest element of the gameplay. Fighting human enemies lacks the tactical depth and creativity of machine encounters, often devolving into straightforward stealth-or-shoot sequences. Human outposts and rebel camps provide adequate variety but never reach the strategic satisfaction of a well-executed machine hunt.
The melee combat system, while improved from Zero Dawn, still feels secondary to ranged combat. The melee skill tree offers combos and special attacks, but the system lacks the depth and responsiveness of dedicated melee action games. It works as a supplementary option but never becomes the primary way most players want to engage.
A Beautiful World in Search of Better Stories
Horizon Forbidden West’s greatest tension is between its exceptional world design and its struggle to tell stories within that world that match its visual ambition. The environments, the machines, and the moment-to-moment gameplay are consistently strong. The narrative framing, the dialogue, and the human elements often feel like they’re working against the game’s strengths rather than complementing them. The world is more interesting to explore than to be told about.
Should You Play Horizon Forbidden West?
If you enjoyed Zero Dawn, Forbidden West delivers more of what worked with meaningful improvements to traversal and machine variety. The Complete Edition on PC is the best way to experience the full package. Players who love open world exploration and tactical combat against creative enemy designs will find dozens of hours of quality content. Skip it if open world fatigue is something you’re actively experiencing, if exposition-heavy storytelling turns you off, or if you need strong melee combat from your action RPGs.
The Verdict on Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West is a polished, beautiful, and mechanically sound open world game that does its best work when you’re fighting machines and exploring its stunning environments. The expanded toolset, the biome variety, and the new machine types all represent meaningful improvements over the first game. The storytelling issues and open world bloat prevent it from fully capitalizing on its strengths, but the strengths themselves are considerable. When a Thunderjaw charges across a beach and you reach for your ropecaster, everything else fades into the background.