The recent Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC addresses a major issue fans have had with the base game, and players are just noticing now. Last week, Guerrilla Games released Horizon Forbidden West’s major story expansion, which took Aloy to the remains of Los Angeles to track down a rogue member of Far Zenith. There, she meets up with the Quen, a sea-faring tribe that first appeared in the baseline Horizon Forbidden West, and even finds a new ally (and potential love interest) in the form of the warrior Seyka.
Aside from building upon the already rich lore of Horizon Forbidden West, the Burning Shores DLC expansion contains a host of new features and technical improvements across the board. Aloy can now take command of the sky and sea at once thanks to Burning Shores’ new Waterwing mount, players can strike at downed enemies using a new grappling hook attack, and the DLC takes full advantage of being exclusive to the PlayStation 5 with impressive visuals that were only possible on Sony’s newest console.
There is one improvement that Horizon fans might not notice right away while playing through Burning Shores, but it is something that many have been hoping for since Forbidden West launched last February. Reddit user smjdale recently noted that upgrade requirements for Legendary weapons like Burning Shores’ new Specter Gauntlet have been lowered, meaning that players won’t have to hunt more dangerous Machines to gather the necessary components. Other users in the comment section have been celebrating this change, as grinding for weapon upgrades was one of the more frustrating aspects of Forbidden West for many.
Not everyone has reacted as positively to Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, as the expansion has suffered a massive review bombing campaign over the past few days that has prompted Metacritic to reevaluate its moderation practices. This wave of hostility thankfully hasn’t prevented Guerrilla Games from continuing its support for the Horizon franchise, as it recently announced that a third mainline installment is in the works on top of the previously confirmed multiplayer spin-off.
In the meantime, Guerrilla is still releasing patches like this week's Horizon Forbidden West Update 1.22, which fixed a few bugs reported by players. These players are also probably enjoying the fact that Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores has lowered the number of upgrade components required to boost the game's powerful Legendary weapons, meaning that Aloy doesn't necessarily have to hunt down a towering Slitherfang to bring her hard-earned bow to that pivotal next level anymore.
Horizon Forbidden West is available on PS4 and PS5.
