Although Horizon Zero Dawn provided a lot of exciting machine combat, the battle system wasn't without its flaws. Human battles left a lot to be desires, and some of Horizon Zero Dawn's most important story battles were either underwhelming or repetitive. Horizon Forbidden West naturally made a major effort to fix these problems, and in some areas, it succeeded. Greater enemy variety and more weapons at Aloy's disposal opened up a new range of tactics, even if humans still struggled to be as interesting to fight as machines. Importantly, though, Horizon Forbidden West made a major effort to include compelling boss fights throughout its story and side quests.
Horizon isn't necessarily structured for unique boss battles. Few humans can put up a fight against Aloy, both in terms of martial skill and intellectual power, and machines belong to broad, inflexible categories that don't leave a lot of room for special enemies. However, Guerrilla Games managed to find a lot of creative ways to structure and set up boss battles in Horizon Forbidden West that inspires hope for the next game. While there's still room for improvement, Forbidden West's boss blueprints are leaps and bounds ahead of Zero Dawn and set a good precedent.
Why Zero Dawn's Boss Fights Struggled
Some of Horizon Zero Dawn's boss-like battles were fairly unique. For instance, the game sometimes introduces Aloy to a new machine type in a boss-like format, such as her first encounter with a Corruptor. However, later in the game, Horizon Zero Dawn started to focus on Deathbringers as mechanical boss encounters. Deathbringers were an understandable choice as far as repeated enemies go, since they're some of the biggest machines that the Eclipse could excavate, but they got repetitive nonetheless. The final battle against HADES was especially disappointing, since the Deathbringer acted essentially the same as all the others; HADES and Zero Dawn's finale deserved a more unique encounter.
Similarly, important human battles often turned out to be a letdown. For instance, thwarting Dervahl's assassination attempt on Carja Sun-King Avad was pretty anticlimatic; players could likely drop Dervahl in just a few hits, and then the fight was padded out by a flock of Glinthawks. Altogether, Dervahl didn't come across as much of a threat at all. Similarly, Helis' final confrontation with Aloy felt like an afterthought at the end of the game, since she just had to blow up a few barrels on him. It wasn't the kind of epic duel that avenging Rost deserved.
Despite these disappointments, Horizon Zero Dawn's The Frozen Wilds DLC did contain one compelling example of a boss battle. At the end of the DLC story, Aloy and her allies delved into a cauldron to expel HEPHAESTUS from the area, and along the way, players could hear the AI commanding the Cauldron's machinery. The Frozen Wilds' final battle was Aloy's first encounter with a Fireclaw, a newly invented machine that began appearing in Zero Dawn's wilderness afterwards. While it wasn't the first time that a boss fight introduced a new machine, its impact on the overworld and implications for HEPHAESTUS' future role made it memorable.
How Forbidden West Pushes Boss Fights Forward
Guerrilla Games showcased a lot of good if basic ideas on how to improve boss fights. For instance, it combined machines and humans in fights with more intent. Vezreh's boss fight in "Shadow of the West" empowered him with a heavy firearm while keeping him safe with an overridden Ravager. The machine served as a good distraction that allowed Vezreh to be more of a threat. Sons of Prometheus leader Asera had a similar fight, pelting Aloy and Erend with elemental arrows while holding them back with tripwires and Clawstriders.
While some boss battles in the main story introduced new machines, Guerrilla Games worked harder to make these machines feel special overall. Even after Aloy fought them during story beats, Grimhorns, Tiderippers, and Slaughterspines remained relatively rare in Forbidden West's overworld, preserving an element of their boss status. Apex machines were also a major blessing for Horizon's big fights. Since they often had completely different elemental affinities and weapons than their original forms, Guerrilla Games could present a good challenge by making an Apex machine into a boss, even if Aloy could encounter it many times after that.
Perhaps most importantly, though, Horizon Forbidden West's Far Zenith antagonists gave it an excuse to have a couple entirely unique battles. Aside from the very rare Specter battles, fights with Far Zeniths themselves were very special. Aloy's fights with Erik Visser were entirely unique, both when she had to avoid him and seek escape and when she got to fight him head on. Horizon Forbidden West also had a far more compelling final boss than Zero Dawn; Tilda van der Meer's betrayal and the menace of Specter Prime added up to a moving, challenging duel found nowhere else in the game.
Horizon 3 Should Lean Into Guerrilla's Boss Battle Ideas
While the concept of Horizon still makes entirely unique bosses hard to design, Forbidden West shows that there are ways to make boss fights work. For instance, any human fights ought to take Erik and Tilda's route. While Aloy probably won't encounter any other invulnerable humans, machine overrides and other advanced technology are becoming much more public knowledge in the Horizon universe. Through this, Horizon 3 could establish humans with unique fighting styles like Erik's, rather than just making humans wear plate armor and fire an ancient gun at Aloy. Human bosses could dish out elemental damage in ways Aloy can't, suit up in mechanical gear like Specter Prime, team up with modified machines, and so on.
Horizon 3 has more than enough groundwork for unique machine boss battles as well. The malevolent AI NEMESIS is on its way to Earth, and odds are it'll hijack some Cauldrons to produce machines far more advanced than Aloy has ever seen. Similarly, HEPHAESTUS likely feels very defensive after its near-capture, so it might feel compelled to produce some extremely dangerous war machines. Both of these avenues hold plenty of potential, but it'll likely be a while before fans see what Horizon 3 has to offer. In the meantime, though, Horizon Forbidden West's Burning Shores DLC teases new machine threats and even implies a fight with a Horus Titan, so it could be the next step in Horizon boss battles.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now on PS4 and PS5.
