towards the end of humanity
At the end of Horizon Zero Dawn , we learned that Sylpens, the Aloy Amateur Road Companion of betrayals, had recovered I.A. Hades , not really extinguished after the final fight, to use it to its advantage. A cliffhanger who left no doubt on the intention of the studio Guerrilla Games to give a follow-up, one day, to his new license. And here we are five years later, with the title Horizon Forbidden West which takes the story left hanging and puts us back into Aloy's skin. The latter became the heroin of his world after saving the humanity of the extinction against the machines and must now run after Sylpens to prevent him from committing the irreparable. A race against the watch, both to find the one who betrayed him, but also to find a copy of I.A Gaia, in order to revive her. The latter, which created Aloy, clone of his designer, could be able to revive terraformation programs of the earth to give a chance to humanity to survive in the face of a world. If the story of the horizon is still also alambled, it remains no less touching in this second episode, whereas Aloy is more humane than ever, she who finally understands little by little the need to count on her allies. The story of the game insists a lot on this notion of mutual aid, with many secondary characters who come back or that we discover and who are getting closer to Aloy to help him in his quest. Secondary characters to whom the game writing finally gives more room, with dialogs, but also more pronounced personalities, more interesting, in a title that made a good good qualitative on his narration. Indeed, if the first horizon was sometimes very relevant, especially in his collectibles who let out an lore extremely searched on the background of ecological crisis, the game sometimes struggled to arouse the empathy for his heroes. It's something on which the studio seems to have worked a lot for the rest, since Forbidden West is finer, smarter and more nuanced in his way of approaching the qualities and the wrongs of different characters and peoples that we meet Here and there in the West forbidden. Peoples are discovered with different customs, the game multiplying the themes and issues of interest to each tribe, each with its own concerns.
In a way, Horizon Forbidden West is a dense science-fiction work, stuffed with good ideas, which is a real invitation to the trip to discover unknown lands, peoples who are trying to get by and have worries. many different from those of heroin and his earth's history to save. And for that, we must linger on the secondary quests of the game, often interesting, much more (and better) written than those of the first game. If we do not wear the FedEx quests and rarely captivating hunts, the Game offers a large number of appended quests that give more scope to secondary characters and road fellowships that join us the time of a quest. These moments give body and spirit to villages and protagonists who in the space of a few minutes immerse us in their world and their concerns, on how their societies work. It is a real tower that was done by the studio on that one, by offering a lot more depth to a universe that tended to stay on the surface, not fully exploiting its lore which already presented to pretty Things. Aloy, too, wins in interest, since it comes out of the framework of the unidimensional heroin which exists only through his quest, by questioning a little more about the meaning of what it does and on the impact of his actions on the people who surround him and help him. Horizon Forbidden West is infinitely more successful than its predecessor and we are damn packaged. However, it is necessary to pass a slightly long introduction where, for five or six hours, the game holds the hand on a small fraction of the map the time that the stakes are (painfully) in place.
old reflexes and new artifices
If Horizon Forbidden West made a real good forward on his narration, his fighting system hardly evolved. But how do you blame him? Her elder was already shining for the fascination of her terribly pleasant clashes to play, thanks to a very responsive heroin. The use of traps was all the more interesting as the animal behavior of the machines was a success. And his suite takes up these same bases, making it up with some additional weapons, although the discretion remains the best way to get rid of the machines. If we come to a direct confrontation, the different types of arcs are back (which one prefers to fight short or long distance), while the traps are regenerable. The machines for it still enjoy great animations that make you want to discover again and more new machines, new bosses (often inventive) and this in order to observe their behavior and be able to find new ways to put them on the ground the as soon as possible. We are always in a true spirit of trapper, where we prepare the ground to better trap our prey, even if the game is always hesitant to mix the different types of machine: we usually fall against packs of The same type, the game most often avoids mixing the air and terrestrial enemies, perhaps to prevent the fights from traveling too (knowing that, depending on the difficulty mode, the confrontation can already last). To facilitate things, there are a number of skills, much more than in the previous title, to unblock by gleaning skill points at each level passage. There is, unlike the first when one could a little unblock, a real need to specialize in the first half of the game, that we prefer the close combat, discretion or remote shooting.
These skills bring special blows that can be pest, such as mortar shots, shots with several arrows or shots loaded with the spear. But the heart of the gameplay remains the search for weaknesses of the machines, whether they are their weaknesses in the face of certain elements (acid, fire, ice...) or points on their body that can be attacked for weaken or open access to their weak point. Very similar to Horizon Zero Dawn on this point, this new episode does not revolutionize anything, but continues to enjoy the excellent work done by its elder. If the game never gives the feeling of spent speed on its clashes, it consolidates the good things already seen in the first game and takes the opportunity to offer clashes against even more gigantic, agile and impressive bosses, to The image for example at the beginning of a huge machine-snake that lays down the basis of what the title offers throughout the adventure. The bosses, too, benefit from the verticality of the map by always trying to take the ascendant, while the game constantly encourages us to take up the height to be in better position. This more vertical mobility is also felt in exploration, with the possibility now to climb the different walls in a more interesting way, without being too limited by high-ended color hooks. The game does not miss it, nevertheless it also allows to circumvent these points there with the possibility of clinging to the rock, at the Breath of the Wild , for little that the wall is not too smooth. There is also the appearance of a very useful grapple at a time to climb and win some elements that strike us the road. To facilitate the descent, there is still a mechanics inherited from the last Zelda, since we quickly recover a glider that allows to throw up a little anywhere and to fall on the ground smoothly. Moreover, it is also possible to overlap flying machines, a new welcome in a world that includes some waterborne extent on which one can not naturally move quickly.
A world full of secrets
All this brings a welcome verticality to a game that offers a very diverse card, with radically different atmospheres depending on the place where one dragging. From a first zone with the autumn colors to the desert via a snowy mountain, Horizon Forbidden West makes us travel thanks to a very successful artistic direction, which offers a real pleasure to discover each area, every people and their atmospheres. It is a great shriveled west of this world where one discovers a completely different world of the first game, where the remains of our civilization are sugranged in the middle of cultures that try to rebuild the world. There is something enchanting, fascinating, well-helped by a band-original capable of it also to surprise and offer great moments. Horizon Forbidden West still suggests, to make us discover unexpected things in a world that has so much to offer, within a ravaged America where peoples have rebuilt according to customs that you like to discover. This involves villages and cities with a unique design, where there is a real pleasure to walk there.
Horizon Forbidden West is not perfect, and because you have to find something to blame him, it is on his technique that the title impresses less. Suffering from an aliasing quite present in "Performance" mode (which allows you to play in 60fps), the game offers all its visual qualities in "fidelity" mode, provided you accept the idea of playing in 30fps. The fault also perhaps at lower resolution. If the other PlayStation titles showed less evident differences from one mode to another, Horizon Forbidden West suffers from a real visual gap between the two modes. This is mainly explained by the omnipresent foliage, especially in the forest areas, which are the first attacks by this aliasing and the decline in resolution that makes the overall less pleasant to the eye. And if that belongs to everyone, we must admit that we have trouble coming back in 30fps once having discovered the beauty of the animations of the machines in 60fps. The other concern is the expressions and looks of the characters: the eyes sometimes have a strange air, especially on some dialogues, where the characters seem to look in a vacuum. A worry that was to be set with the Day One patch, but it's not perfect yet. It's something that can sometimes come out of immersion, however for the rest, the game remains very beautiful despite a game engine that has not changed so much as this since the episode PS4 five years ago despite the Evident technical advanced on the characters. But the visual direction, particularly with regard to the colors and light, made a real leap forward, which makes it most of the time subjugated by the beauty of the decorations and characters.
The PlayStation 4 version for it is a good surprise. The first title was already illustrated for the strength of its performance with a rather stable framinerate at 30fps, and this Forbidden West follows the footsteps of its big brother with stability at all events. Certainly, the game is visually very close to its elder, but the few graphic improvements, especially in terms of particles and light effects, remain quite appreciable to the eye on PS4. If this version is limited to 30fps, like Horizon Zero Dawn, it does not have less pleasant to go and should be able to confuse people who have not yet been able to get a PS5 , while the 'It was feared to have a discount version.
Conclusion
Guerrilla Games has become aware of the immense qualities of the world they created five years ago with Horizon Zero Dawn. A world that suggested immense possibilities, but remained stuck in a quest that sometimes lacked finesse, despite its great qualities and ability to fascinate whenever the game evoked the past, that is to say, our civilization. Forbidden West gums these few defects and brings the title even further, develops the lore of his universe and brings a finesse and a real relevance in his treatment of the various subjects mentioned. More successful than his eldest, it is the result that we hoped. Even though we would have liked a little more novelties on her gameplay, it's hard not to be carried away by her good storytelling ideas and her universe more fascinating than ever.
_Test directed by Hachim0n on PlayStation 5 following the sending of a code by the publisher.
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