Horizon Forbidden West - Review @ RPGFan

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RPG Fan reviewed Horizon Forbidden West:

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Review: Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition

If you've followed my coverage here since 2009, you know I'm a huge fan of indies. I dabble with AAA titles from time to time, like FromSoftware and Square Enix releases, but I typically gravitate toward indies because of their ingenuity and evident passion. Many AAA titles, including the large and cinematic ones, can feel a bit shallow and cookie-cutter to me. A tad hand-holdy and overly polished, gilded with little substance. When we received an opportunity to review Horizon Forbidden West, I honestly went into it expecting little. Open-minded, I gave the game a shot, but the odds were not in its favor. Was I ever in for a surprise.

Clearly, I had never played Horizon Zero Dawn, which gives me a unique perspective on Forbidden West because a question folks frequently ask when entering a franchise in the middle is, "Do I have to have played the first game?" The answer is an emphatic no. Obviously, references to the first game and protagonist Aloy's heroism from the first game are on everyone's tongues, but Forbidden West takes no time moving on to the next story beat, which seems like a reasonable leaping-off point from the first game.

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Horizon Forbidden West is the complete package across all aspects any player will care about. Stunningly beautiful, audibly beatific, challenging yet accessible, and frequently cinematic, I adored my time with Forbidden West the way I rarely do in any other game. Often, a game will excel in one area in particular and falter in others-and that's okay. Here, I struggled to find criticisms to make, and the ones I did, while real, did not meaningfully impact the whole. If more AAA titles conducted themselves as such, I could see myself one day converting.

Score: 94/100