I'd give it a very solid 7/10 or a 7.5 if you did half points. I loved the first one, and on its merits alone Forbidden West is a great game with a little bugginess and the well-worn trope of an open world list of icons looting, crafting, and collectibles. Where this game fails for me is its lack of innovation. Sure, there's things like the hang-glider but on a fundamental core mechanic level this game did not update or improve anything. It looks beautiful on my PS5, but it plays and feels like a game from 2017. A perfect case study in this is the looting system, which requires an animation every. single. time. Ghost of Tsushima felt a little more next-gen in terms of eliminating this specific problem. And I do see it as a problem — I would argue that the repetitive system including but not limited to the animations actually breaks immersion in its frustratingly rhythm-dropping repetition rather than promoting immersion. I could go on, but if you've read this far then you probably get the idea. This is a good game. A really good one. But it doesn't feel like a new one. I love the Horizon series and can't wait to see where it goes next.
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Re: Horizon Forbidden West (PS5) - Aloy Returns in Superior PS5 Sequel
I'd give it a very solid 7/10 or a 7.5 if you did half points. I loved the first one, and on its merits alone Forbidden West is a great game with a little bugginess and the well-worn trope of an open world list of icons looting, crafting, and collectibles. Where this game fails for me is its lack of innovation. Sure, there's things like the hang-glider but on a fundamental core mechanic level this game did not update or improve anything. It looks beautiful on my PS5, but it plays and feels like a game from 2017. A perfect case study in this is the looting system, which requires an animation every. single. time. Ghost of Tsushima felt a little more next-gen in terms of eliminating this specific problem. And I do see it as a problem — I would argue that the repetitive system including but not limited to the animations actually breaks immersion in its frustratingly rhythm-dropping repetition rather than promoting immersion. I could go on, but if you've read this far then you probably get the idea. This is a good game. A really good one. But it doesn't feel like a new one. I love the Horizon series and can't wait to see where it goes next.