Toil, toil, and toil again. That’s how I experienced the last hours of Horizon Forbidden West and because the game generally gets very good marks (an 88 on Metacritic is not anything), I think it is an excellent candidate for the ‘Criticize’ section. For the IG visitors who are not familiar with this section: Criticize was once created by Docter Caspari to put games that are acclaimed by the majority of the media and people under a magnifying glass and to be a bit more critical. Today it’s Horizon Forbidden West’s turn.
The standard open-world trap
I fell for it again, while I told myself beforehand that I also fell in love with Horizon Zero Dawn. ‘Fear of missing out’.. it doesn’t really bother me much in my real life, but if I play a game that starts strong, I’m afraid I’m missing something, or that I’m not strong enough in the end. This is especially important in open-world games. With linear games, you can just keep going without looking, but with open-world games, I start every mission I come across in the beginning. First, do nice side missions, then once the main mission, again a number of side missions, and so on.
You understand that a game has to be of phenomenal class if you want to go for the full 100%. Horizon Forbidden West was not. In the beginning, I did a lot of side missions, chores and other assignments, but after about twenty hours it felt like work, but I persevered for a while. Go to that point on the map, climb up that mountain, defeat some robots or a group of warriors and go to the next point. It went on like that until I got to a point where I just put the game aside for a week or two. There were simply too many of them to keep it attractive to keep playing the game. Moreover, in my opinion they were not varied enough. I even thought about Marktplaats, because I really didn’t feel like it anymore, but in the end I decided to pick up the game again and I started playing the main missions like crazy.
Way too much and unnecessary
The problem with Horizon Forbidden West is mainly the quantity. There is so much to do, there are so many weapons, there are so many ways to kill enemies and there are tons of machines to take over, but none of it is necessary. I’ll tell you that I’ve beaten almost the entire game using almost only a long-range arc with breaking damage and a standard arc for the shorter range. Of course, I did shoot a few acid arrows, or if it was really worth it an ice arrow, but I defeated most of the enemies on autopilot, without looking at their weaknesses. It wasn’t always easy, but it was possible. ‘What am I supposed to do with a rope thrower? Get lost!’
Another example are the machines that you can take over. In the lab you will see that there are quite a few of these. You can even create assignments for it (yay, even more extra missions), but you don’t need them. My first kind of mount has been my only one until just before the end. Then I got a dull bird, with which you could fly around the world a little faster, but it was excruciatingly boring. Moreover, you can also simply travel quickly via the campfires.
The same applies to all upgrades and materials. Except for a few times I have not had a single meal cooked and eaten, I have not expanded most of the pouches once, and I have hardly improved my clothing either.
By the way, each mission is accompanied by a number of cut-scenes and the necessary discussion material. The cutscenes are of varying quality, mainly because there is clearly more time spent on the main characters, but there is no shortage of dialogue. In many cases you can make your own choices in the conversations and then you can even go through a list of suggestions to get even more depth into the story. As with many things in Forbidden West, I did that a few times in the beginning, but if at some point you’re ‘talking’ for a few minutes each time… pff
Boring level design and clumsy
If you’ve seen the videos and screenshots of Forbidden West, you can’t deny that it looks beautiful and that a large open world has been set up. However, I missed the really cool ‘levels’. On location during a mission, Guerilla Games tried to mix up the fights with puzzles and some climbing and scrambling, but in general, I feel like they did it just as quickly, because otherwise it’s just fighting would be. In my opinion they lacked the quality like the levels like Elden Ring and Breath of the Wild had (about the shrines in BOTW can be discussed). Removing two grids, charging a battery, moving a box, placing the battery… it wasn’t much more of a puzzle than that.
The climbing and scrambling also feel a little clumsy and stiff. You have quite a bit of freedom to climb up all kinds of buildings and mountains. Scanning will help you find the ledges to hold on to and often a grappling hook will help you move to a higher or more distant platform. In some cases, it feels nice, but remains a bit stiff.
An attempt has been made to integrate this in the battles so that you can quickly ‘fly’ away from that big boss. However, due to the somewhat awkward camera position and lack of the ability to lock in enemies, I found that this puts you in a more difficult position vis-a-vis the enemy than it gave you an advantage. Somehow, more than part one, I was disturbed by the overview you have during the battles. It just wasn’t all that in my opinion.
Done with whining
Now that you’ve come to this paragraph, I suspect you’ve read through my complaint list in its entirety. I myself am curious if your blood is boiling now, or if you can find it somewhat in my criticism of this gigantic game. And… I have to say it: I really enjoyed this game, but unfortunately, the game didn’t quite live up to my hype.
More to Read:-
https://telegra.ph/Fortnite-C2-S8-How-to-Win-a-Game-in-Fortnite-Chapter-2-Season-8-01-19
https://infogram.com/all-leaked-fortnite-skins-and-cosmetics-in-chapter-3-1h8n6m3kmwmdz4x
https://zlidein.com/read-blog/49941_fortnite-welcomes-two-time-gold-medalist-chloe-kim.html
https://www.setuppost.com/fortnite-guide-2022-10-easy-fortnite-tips-and-tricks-for-beginners/
https://eyeball.blog/read-blog/1217_the-removal-of-fortnite-building-has-split-the-community.html
https://acgochat.com/read-blog/1658_fortnite-update-3-49-what-039-s-new-in-fortnite-battle-royale-chapter-3-season-2.html
