Horizon Forbidden West is a superb elevation of the common open-world trappings and Monster Hunter influences that Horizon Zero Dawn had, though it excels beyond them as well with new mechanics and traversal options. Forbidden West arguably lacks the same narrative punch that Zero Dawn has, but that is only because the original game’s climactic reveal is so staggering and rich. Regardless, improvements made in Forbidden West’s gameplay are excellent, showing how much the franchise has reinterpreted its design and evolved in only two installments. Ideally the Burning Shores DLC will drive that flexibility home further.
Players may enjoy Zero Dawn and Forbidden West for their own reasons, but a big proponent in why the Horizon series has not quite reached an absurdly high critical reception is due to its chosen release windows. Neither Horizon game is undeserving of praise, but they are overlooked wholly when some of the gaming industry’s most colossal titles happen to release around the same time. Fate seems especially cruel to Horizon now since another massive game will be launching close to HorizonForbidden West’s Burning Shores DLC.
The Horizon Franchise Can’t Catch a Break with Release Dates
Horizon Zero Dawn was eclipsed by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Horizon Forbidden West was eclipsed by Elden Ring, and there is an almost inevitable likelihood now that Forbidden West’s Burning Shores expansion could be eclipsed by Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has been somewhat of an imperfect game for fans since it launched with a lot of terrible performance issues, but since then it has come around as a landmark Star Wars experience deemed successful enough to warrant a sequel.
However, Jedi: Survivor already looks quite impressive from what little has been shown from it, and marketing it slowly while preserving an air of mystery could work in its favor now that its release date is so soon. One of the features that makes Jedi: Survivor popular is that it is essentially a Star Wars Soulslike, and that could be enough of a pull for a lot of fans.
Based on how players felt about Horizon Forbidden West, it would not be surprising if fans decided to put its Burning Shores DLC expansion off until at least after they have had an opportunity to play Jedi: Survivor. Of course, neither will have a ton of time to truly stand on their own before the discourse about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrives shortly after.
Burning Shores Might Be Short Enough to Leave Room for Praise
If the recently revealed price of Horizon Forbidden West’s Burning Shores expansion is any kind of signifier, the volcanic Los Angeles DLC could be relatively short. There could be a bunch of optional content that takes players much longer, but if the main story content is a little on the shorter side, then that could leave enough of a gap between it and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor for its praises to potentially be sung.
This harkens back to the age-old debate about whether quantity lives up to quality, and how many open-world games have suffered extreme bloat from either filling their environments with shallow content or not filling their environments at all. Because Burning Shores is a DLC expansion, it would be great to see Guerrilla’s approach to an open world diluted to a granular design where only the most substantial content is there for players to peruse.
The story content can certainly be short yet fulfilling, and the shorter the DLC is, the better chance it has of not colliding with Jedi: Survivor a week later. Either way, it will be exciting to see how these games fare in the amount of time they have to themselves before the next big thing comes out.
Horizon Forbidden West is available on PS4 and PS5, and the Burning Shores DLC is scheduled to release on April 19 exclusively for PS5.
