Horizon Forbidden West: A Year Later, The PS5 Gem Feels Forgotten

The Horizon series has a knack for bad timing. When series debut Horizon Zero Dawn released, Breath of the Wild came out mere days later. Last year, when Horizon Forbidden West came out, Elden Ring was on its heels days after. Now, it seems, Horizon is overshadowing itself.

It’s been just over a year since Forbidden West came out and, aside from the recently released Horizon Call of the Mountain for PlayStation VR 2, the franchise is largely sitting idly.

[Nyxus]

"The Horizon series has a knack for bad timing. When series debut Horizon Zero Dawn released, Breath of the Wild came out mere days later."

So what? Horizon sold 20 million copies.

[Vits]

I think the point is that Horizon is a successful series. However, it's also one that fails to leave any sort of legacy, short of the release periods the conversation around the games is basically non-existent.

[isarai]

I loved the first to death, but forbidden west while much prettier, did not feel as well crafted, and certainly not as polished as the 1st game. I uninstalled the game without beating the final boss fight cause it's so insanely cheap and op. And by that point my frustrations with the game had built to the point where i was just done with it.

[Crows90]

Not true. Heavy conversation around the game post launch. How many linear story games without pvp have any conversation a year after release?

@isarai
So you got to final boss and said it's op??? Umm you are super dishonest.

[EverydayJoe]

My only issue with Forbidden West was at certain point the map started to feel a little over whelming. I got the platinum trophy for it though. You didn't have to do everything that shows up.

[Redemption-64]

Not everything needs to leave a legacy. When Horizon 1st came out and people kept saying the game was going to be killed by Zelda, then it sold 20M, now same excuses for ER. Am sure devs prefer people buying their games than having a legacy that doesn't lead to more sales. For example FromSoftware games such as Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro have what you call "Legacy" yet more people have played Horizon Zero dawn than most of the sales of these games combined. Aside from Elden Ring most of FromSoftware's games have not been sold as much Horizon and I expect Forbidden West to end up outselling most of those games.

Legacy as you call it, only matters on social media, most in reality do not care about them

[Vits]

@Crows90

You do realize that is not an argument, right? That just means that the majority of those types of games fail on the same thing.

Probably because of the same reasons, they are mostly very straight-up affairs that take very few or zero risks and just try to be fun for the moment. That makes them safe bets for folks that don't really like to go out of their zone of comfort which means that sales will be solid especially if paired with a good marketing push.

@Redemption-64

"I think the point is that Horizon is a successful series. However..."

Very few devs have contracts that add a bonus to the total number of sales. So honestly? Most of them probably don't care about how many copies the game sold as long as they are not thrown out of the building. And many people care about games leaving a legacy, which is why some games regardless of age are still being talked about and played by generation after generation.

Horizon is simply not a series that will go down in history like that. It's more of a "popcorn movie", a fun seasonal game that will be enjoyed by a good number of people exactly because it's easily digestible content.

[isarai]

@Crows90

"Super dishonest" lol ok, sure bud

[GamingSinceForever]

@Isarai…That’s the biggest crock of $h!t I’ve heard in a minute. If you didn’t like the game fine, but to say that it lacked polish in comparison to the original is cap. C’mon now.

[isarai]

It wasn't a secret that the game was quite glitchy for a couple months after launch. Patch notes dont lie.
https://horizon.fandom.com/...

And several new robots are ridiculously lacking in balance, you can see thousands complaining about the final boss just like me, hundreds of youtube videos showing you how to get through it by cheesing it with toxic element, but f@ck you if you didnt have any going into it.

I fkn love sony and their 1st party, loved the 1st game to pieces, even got the platinum. But this one just did not feel as good to me at all. It's certainly bigger, and many things are better, but not the polish, not for me

[GoodGuy09]

Horizen has generic characters, gameplay, open world, and story that are all forgettable. Visuals are really all what these games have going for them. It's a game similar to the typical Ubisoft formula so... doesn't surprise me nobody talks about these games a week after release.

The current RPG AC and Farcry games sell a ton but nobody talks about and forgets about them as well. Number of sales doesn't automatically mean it's a good game lol, look at minecraft and mario kart 8. Open world appeals to the masses and sells. Many don't even complete these games, forbidden west has around a 10% compared to memorable more linear games like GOW and LOU2's beautiful 50-60% completion rate.

Go ahead and give me the downvotes.

[crazyCoconuts]

done

[ApocalypseShadow]

It's because Sony has so many things to talk about. One minute it's Ratchet and Clank or Spider-Man, next it's Horizon, then it's GT7, then it's GOW and now it's PS VR 2 that wowing the industry.

No game is talked about 365 days a year. PS VR 2 will continue to be talked about, then Sony's summer and fall games will be talked about.

So, all of Sony's games that sell 10-20 million or more, don't mean they're good games. Lol. Who are you kidding. Horizon has made a name for itself just like Killzone did. But even more so for Guerrilla Games.

[EvertonFC]

Coming from someone who's probably never played it.

[Crows90]

Except horizon was released over a year ago...and yet here's an article on it. Go figure.

[Nyxus]

Nice rant.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

You've obviously never played the game lol

If it was as generic as what you are saying it wouldn't score high and this article wouldn't exist.

[dmonee]

Not sure why so many disagree. Horizon Forbidden west is bloated just like later Ubisoft games like, Valhalla, Fenix immortals, far cry 6…..Guerilla did a good job of making an open world game for everybody snd thats no easy task. I too was overwhelmed by the shear scope of the game. I finished it indeed but left alot of the side stuff behind

[P_Bomb]

@GooGuy09
I gave you a downvote for lying.

HFW has a completion rate of 29.7%….not around 10% as you stated.

“Not sure why so many disagree..”

See above.

[SurgicalMenace]

@Apocalypse

Exactly, with so many talking points of excellence it is very seldom that an individual remains focused on one. Where as BotW hasn't had another title as monumental since its release, hence everyone talking about its sequel constantly. Sony has the formula to do well in every genre that they release. I couldn't imagine only having one title to discuss on the PS platforms because they are the only company of the 3 that offer so many unique ways to play. They don't only innovate with their gameplay, graphics, and sound they also make their accessories complementary to the experiences that they offer. Recently, the PSVR2 has the same haptic feedback seen in the controllers. Shooting a pistol and a 12 gage are two totally different experiences which makes for a very standout showing. They know how to add to what they're already doing great.

[Ninver]

That's extremely disrespectful to the devs who worked tirelessly to provide a polished game through out.

[Abear21]

The Valor Surge allows for varied gameplay at least. Plus there’s a decent skill tree that allows different strategy paths. Characters and dialogue is all top tier too. On ps5. Not sure we played the same game.

[GoodGuy09]

Fanboyism at it's finest on N4G as expected lol. I did play the first game but have no reason to return for the sequel. Its a generic fluff fest compared to linear games like gow, uncharted and last of us.
I loved GG back in the Killzone days and their storytelling was far superior back then. The only games that do open world well I've really liked is botw and elden ring. If you're really a fan of sony or anything else, you need to criticize them guys, don't let the fanboyism blind you lol.

[senorfartcushion]

The Zero Punctuation analysis of Aloy as a character says everything

[-Foxtrot]

And personally…I felt it was a little better

Great characters
Character development
Voice acting
Soundtrack
Graphics / Visuals
A world that felt alive
Decent story
Robot dinosaurs

Zelda had some good things aswell but it was always the small little things that are usually forgotten about in other open world games but it didn’t outweigh the other things Horizon had going for it

Just sad it got overshadowed at the time

[ChasterMies]

The Venn diagram of Switch owners and PS4 owners didn’t overlap as much as the gaming media thought it would. Elden Ring does overlap with the open world audience that likes Horizon Forbidden West, but the casual audience does not overlap with the souls audience. I’m in that casual audience and I haven’t bought Elden Ring. I might never buy it.

[goldwyncq]

It's the type of game people buy because it's a pretty exclusive that shows off what the console is capable of, not because it's actually a great game. Elden Ring was pretty much the talk of the town back when it released and this game got forgotten almost immediately.

[outsider1624]

Article says forgotten..and here it is talking about it, and we're talking about it.

[PrinceOfAnger]

Zelda won the goty award over horizon and sold more.

[senorfartcushion]

It goes up against games that more media people tend to focus on. It’s not really something people can disagree with.

I’ve never played a Horizon game and that’s because of Zelda and Elden Ring.

[TheGreatGazoo30]

It's not bad timing, it's just a good not great game. That's OK. Not everything has to be the best ever. It's pretty, but isn't the best use of an open world and the story is straight sci-fi cliche.

[SonyStyled]

Agreed. I couldn’t get into Horizon, it seemed corny as hell. Regardless of my initial impressions I gave in and was convinced by coworkers to play it. I wasn’t left impressed.

Though I’ve had the same avatar for 10 years so that might influence my lack of appeal to the Horizon series, though I’m pretty certain I’m not the target audience for action rpgs regardless of the studio.

Edit: I’ve only played HZD and it’s not for me

[antikbaka]

not bad timing? Lol, they competed with Elden Ring and were forgotten

[Crows90]

So ummm...what about red dead redemption? Halo? Gears? Pretty much every IP that's released a year ago....what about them?

[RpgSama]

LOL, it's that time of the month again, the time where we see daily articles bashing anything and all things PlayStation, Horizon FW feels forgotten "only" 1 year after launch? First of all this not a live service game, there should not be an expectation for continuous updates to the content like I do not know... The forgotten Halo, second an expansion is literally coming out this year AND third if you really want to talk about the franchise, a VR full fledged game JUST came out.

The levels of stupidity I have to read on these forums is just incredible.

[Si-Fly]

Full fledged 😂

[anast]

You got my upvote.

[senorfartcushion]

Defending PlayStation is the only thing you can find in N4G comments.

Someone has been downvoted to hell because they said that the game had to patch some bugs. It did. People apparently disagree regardless.

[goldwyncq]

People still talk about RDR2 and often consider it as one of the greatest games ever made.

[Crows90]

Well... considering I haven't seen an article on red dead....yeah I don't think so. I could say the same. People still talk about forbidden West...which they do...but this article claims or makes an assumption that they don't.

[rogerrus3]

Currently working on my 3rd play through. The game is a masterpiece.

[S2Killinit]

I dont know you can say that. They literallly chose it to be the spearhead of the new PSVR headset. How can you call that forgotten? Weird.

[RpgSama]

And do not even mention that an expansion is coming out literally this year, LOL.

[Duke19]

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the newest Horizon, but outside of the jaw dropping visuals - the overall story felt flat. It’s so odd for a game with such incredible production value to leave such a little lasting impression on me personally. Idk how to describe it

[josh-eh]

I agree. It was such a forgettable game. I honestly don't remember one thing about the story. Yes, the visuals and new location were great (just like the first one, but a bit more refined) but we deserved a true "next-gen" Horizon game. Hopefully, either the DLC or the next full game will be the big leap we were all hoping for.

[Duke19]

Forgettable sounds so harsh haha, but in this instance I do agree with you. For a game I literally platinumed/put over a hundred hours in and really enjoyed exploring its world, I feel like I moved on from it really fast. (and basically forgot about it if Im honest).

Some games stick with you - this one just didn't for some reason.

[Knushwood Butt]

Isn't the DLC out in a month or so?

Forgotten?

Oh, it's kotaku.

[P_Bomb]

I’m definitely getting the Hollywood DLC! I had a great time platinuming HFW.

[LoveSpuds]

Agreed PBomb, a really fun Platinum. I only had 1 criticism of the game really, I would like to have gotten access to the flying mount much earlier in the game. By the time I got it I had almost finished the game and earned the plat.

[Takwin]

Horizon is my top 5 Playstation series. In no particular order: TLOU, Uncharted, Spider-Man, Horizon, and God of War. To me, the only game more *fun* is Spider-Man, but that's hard to beat. These are all obviously opinions and I mean no offense.

[Tzuno]

Gem? not in the slightest, mediocre sequel

[Crows90]

Well I didn't particularly like the 1st one like most did ...so in my opinion it's a much better sequel

[MadLad]

I highly prefer the original. Completed both it, and the expansion.
Have yet to finish the sequel, honestly. Just doesn't do it for me.

[Crows90]

@madlad
Just doesn't do it for you isn't saying anything.
Graphics, combat, enemy variety, open world, traversal, voice acting....all these are much better in the sequel.

[jznrpg]

Game is awesome . All the legacy it needs imo. If you are into difficult games , try playing Horizon Forbidden West on harder difficulties . Really enjoyable to me as you have to use all of your tools and really think about your upgrades .

[Traecy]

Waiting for the expansion next month.

[jznrpg]

Lots of “gamers” chiming in for a series they haven’t played .

[jambola]

are you trying to say they're not gamers if the haven't played it?

[rippermcrip]

Franchise is sitting idle? Last game was a year ago. VR game just came out. Expansion coming out next month. In what universe is that idle?

Game sold 10+ million. GOTY nominations.

People in here trying to bash the story, it literally won awards for the story.

[lucian229]

first was pretty stale story wise. It was great in the first half hour when stuff actually happened....then the rest of the story was just standing in front of holograms as they talked. Combat was kinda fun but very little enemy variety.......so when i played the 2nd game and was fighting the SAME exact enemies......i was turned off, kept falling asleep....then eventually just stopped. Least the melee got better.

[SeTTriP]

"First was pretty stale story wise".

I stopped reading after that.

[lucian229]

i know, you're ignorant lol. I beat the game, but if you find talking to holograms exciting, that's on you

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

So the reasoning behind 'the franchise is largely sitting idly' is no DLCs until a year later. What about Elden Ring then? Same release month, DLC announced recently, no trailer, no date. Is Elden Ring largely sitting idly?

I get it. No one talks about HFW. Plenty of good games went under the radar in the past. HFW isn't the first and won't be the last.

[Demetrius]

Givin a 2nd playthrough on this gem for the ps5 I just got recently I swear the 60 fps breathes more life into games

[MadLad]

It came out alongside Elden Ring.

[wiegraf]

An actual gem

[MADGameR]

I have SO many PS5 games to catchup on X__X Work and gym is occupying my life. I still have a couple of sealed PS5 games that I haven't even unwrapped yet.

[JokerBoy129]

Something about the game holds me back. I fell in love with the first game and poured tons of hours into it. The sequel just felt off to me and I couldn't get into it the same way...

[IanTH]

It's odd, but I agree. I *loved* the first one. I bought HFW on release day - a very, very rare thing for me to do. And while I enjoyed it, it didn't hit the same as the first one. It felt bigger, but lesser? And when they gave you puzzle rooms to figure out, but Aloy started talking to herself seconds later about the answer, I wanted to smack the game designer.

I still beat it, still enjoyed it. Looking forward to the expansion, and I'm hoping that captures some of HZDs magic, and they change the pace up a bit from HFW.

[X-23]

Horizon is cool, but I think Aloy has to go, probably a hot take, but whatever. I suppose to go more in depth as to what I mean is that the world of Horizon seems well thought out and is unique and it has loads of potential, but there is something about the characters and a bit of the writing that seems not only unrelatable but somewhat generic at times?
Nothing seems to really stick and it always seems like while playing you're just going through the motions to get to some place with a character who really isn't impressed, shaken up or caught off guard by anything.

Essentially even since the first Horizon game it seems like you where given a well off established hero who could do tremendously well in a world that was completely foreign to us right out the gate without much character development, which is strange because the beginning of the first game where it establishes Aloy as an outcast trying to learn, grow and be a bit of a brat was interesting, but she doesn't get disciplined for her choices and essentially just runs wild.

Aloy needed to be presented with people who where better than her at what she had been taught to from her "Father" while in her adult life so that she could further develop into a better protagonist or hero. Maybe this can be realized in another game, or another main character can come along and be a bit more solid?

[jambola]

Tbh after this one I think I'm also ready to forget this franchise going forward

[IanTH]

Man, that's harsh. There are game sequels I haven't liked as much as the first, or even outright disliked, but never so much that I pretty much was hopeful/ready for a series to outright die because of it.

[jambola]

I dunno
I think it just drove me away too hard
Unless the next one looks way more interesting and has a way to shut aloy up, I really can't see me going back

[Ronmaest]

Meh, subpar story and characters. Everything else, especially graphics was top notch - best looking game out there, so far. Aloy is an annoying Mary Sue with zero sexuality. She’s probably asexual but the writers are too afraid to even delve into that.

[IanTH]

........does she need to have sexuality? Is sexuality a primary requirement for game protagonists? Write off a lot of those games where the male leads lack sexuality?

[Ronmaest]

Is she a human being? Do you not think of sex? Don’t women think of sex, too? During the entire game, not once did she ever express a desire more anything, sexual. Not even a passing gaze. She’s empty. Sexuality drives all animals, without it our species would’ve died out long ago.

[IanTH]

@Ronmaest

...that is truly a puzzling response. I don't think that asking if a protagonist requires sexuality is in any way analogous to saying that people don't think about sex, or some weird thing about not having sex and everything on Earth becoming extinct.

Sure, I think of sex. Sure, women think of sex. In general, I think we can agree, women think about sex quite a lot less than men do. But do you also not think there are SOME people out there where sex is not much of a motivation? Or isn't a motivation at all during specific portions of their life? And even if they do, is that a thing you're necessarily going to see - or need to see - in their day-to-day life? Do you walk around all day at school or work, and have your sexuality on outward display for all to see?

Plenty of books, movies, and games have characters where sexuality is not conveyed, and when it is it serves the story the writer wanted to tell. If you want a story where sexuality is the primary focus, with some good ol' TNA, those games are out there. They just don't tend to have a lot of overlap with AAA games in general. Those aren't the audiences they tend to aim for, or the stories they tend to want to tell.

[josh-eh]

For me, I loved the first one, but the second one had almost "too much". It wasn't as focused as the first. To be honest, I can't remember the story at all, and the fact that they made it for PS4 really held it back from being something special. Don't get me wrong, I still had fun with forbidden west but it was almost too big. I liked a lot of the quality of life improvements, and the visual were nice... but I was expecting a lot more from my shiny new console. I still love the franchise, and I'm really excited to see what they do with the PS5 only DLC, but I also feel the same way about the new God of War. It just didn't live up to it's full potential since it was held back by a really old console.

Hopefully this is the last year of accommodating a system that came out almost 10 years ago, and Sony will start making games for their >$600 new console.

[ravens52]

Great game. I'll have to platinum it eventually, just another reason to revisit it. The frickin Arena on very hard is crazy. I'll put it up to Ultra hard when I do newgame+.

[ibrake4naps]

Not forgotten by me. Probably my favorite open-world game!

[Abear21]

Playing through this right now and the glider is a game changer. Yes this game is every tried and true formula with amazing visuals, and yes it is probably too long like this post, but I’m ready for Burning Shores exclusive ps5 dlc already and I think I’ve basically just scratched the surface of this epic. Amazing game and Horizon is everywhere now dlc a month away!

[plmkoh]

Hey Kotaku how much are you being paid by Wedbush for hate articles?

[Armyofdarkness]

It’s not a great game

[gleepot]

both games are really great... gorgeous visuals, good narrative and solid gameplay

they both just got overshadowed by games that were much more groundbreaking and frankly, better

[andy85]

The franchise is sitting idly? This isn't COD they don't pump one out yearly 😂. The DLC which is built for PS5 only so you can finally see what they can do with the console, it should be amazing and it's out in a month.

[J-DARKnes]

It took me over a year to finish and platinumed mainly because the story was boring to me, had to constantly take breaks from it. Zero dawn on the other hand was the complete opposite.

[FallenAngel1984]

The author doesn’t even know the definition of forgotten

[Nineball2112]

Maybe he just forgot it.

[IRetrouk]

This is pure bs, the ip had a new release last year, a vr release this year and is getting a new next gen only dlc this year too, not to mention the TV show being planned or the fact the game sold really well...
I can go onto twitter right now and see loads of people talking about and playing the game.....

[lio_convoy]

I played it for a while and liked my time with it but as far as I was concerned it wasn't a "must play" title that suckered me in from beginning to end. I put it aside after about 20 or so hours and played smaller titles. It's still installed if I ever want to finish it up. It's a pretty, but average game to me.

[ChasterMies]

The game is amazing. No other game has you fight robot dinosaurs and animals with so many parts and weak points for special attacks. Few games look this hood. 75% of my house played through the entire story. If you want to mainline the story, you easily can. If you want to spend 90 hours on side quests, you can do that too. If you want to dial down the difficulty because you are new to games, go ahead. It’s a no-brainer for any PlayStation owner.

[lellkay]

Only Kotaku can say a series that released a 100+ Hour AAA game only a year ago, with a VR release that's just come out and an expansion in a few months is "largely sitting idly"

Who writes this stuff?

[Notsofast]

I will say I had more fun with horizon then I did with god of war Ragnarök horizon is a good game but people some people will down it with out even playing it and also people who played the first game don't recognize. That they change a lot with the game from horizon zero dawn.

[Nineball2112]

I just didn't enjoy the second game as much as I did the first one. Not really sure why... maybe the dialogue just got on my nerves more.

[Stanjara]

First game did everything for me. I don't need to play the sequel. Maybe with another character.

[Echone1]

I agree with the bad timing, but I don't think Elden Ring was the only problem for Horizon 2. I never really liked Horizon's gameplay, but the first one had the momentum of a fresh new IP on its side, and a big story mystery about what happened in the game world.
The second one doesn't have that on its side anymore, so the game feels like a beautiful-looking but boring patchwork of annoying side tasks and loot collecting.
I went platinum from the first game, but I put the second one away after 15 hours, and I don't really want to finish it. I don't take the fact that the game wasn't heard much at the GOTY awards as a coincidence.

[Vizigoth04]

Not reading the article because it’s from Kotaku but all I’m saying is HFW did extremely well, it’s now only going to get a boost in player activity followed up with the Burning Shores DLC only on PS5. I’m defiantly going through again on NG+ once the DLC is available.

[yoshatabi]

I just really hate the dialog. What's the point of giving us dialog options to choose from if your answer doesn't really affect anything