The Horizon franchise weaves an intriguing science-fiction narrative through stunning landscapes and machine designs that give it a distinction from other properties. Learning what happened to the Old Ones is fascinating from the unique perspective that the present day people have. Therefore, DLCs in the franchise have always been a fantastic way to extrapolate from the lore established in both Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West.
Horizon Zero Dawn’s The Frozen Wilds delivered on that by exploring a chilling wilderness known as the Cut and showcasing more from the Banuk tribe. Horizon’s IP is currently set to blossom throughout different mediums as a live-action Netflix series is in development, as well as a standalone multiplayer spin-off that allegedly features a unique art style. In the meantime, Horizon Forbidden West’s Burning Shores DLC is the next chapter in the franchise, and its price tag may or may not be alarming to some fans depending on what their expectations have been toward it.
Burning Shores’ Price Tag is the Same as The Frozen Wilds’ Was at Launch
It will not be clear how comparable Burning Shores and The Frozen Wilds are until the former releases and is played to completion, but there is one notable comparison to make about the two DLCs that could suggest similarities between them. Forbidden West’s Burning Shores DLC has a $19.99 price tag, which is the same price Guerrilla Games charged for Zero Dawn’s Frozen Wilds upon release.
Knowing this, it would not have been surprising to see an even larger price associated with Burning Shores since it is a newer expansion and a current-gen-exclusive, and the assumption right now is that it could be an incredibly large DLC with a ton of content. That could still be the case, but since The Frozen Wilds had about eight hours of main quest content at the same price it can be guessed that Burning Shores’ main content will run for the same duration.
Either way, the expansion does not need to be half as long as the main game to be favorable or successful, and having such a small price tag again is ultimately a boon for players considering how expensive modern AAA games and their DLCs can be. Neither the price nor length should have any effect on the DLC’s quality of content, and it will be exciting to see what Guerrilla has cooked up for an expansion taking place after the events of Forbidden West.
Burning Shores Should Channel the Best Parts of Horizon Forbidden West
That is where Burning Shores and The Frozen Wilds are most different at the moment: the former requires players to have completed Horizon Forbidden West’s main story, while the latter allows players to travel to the Cut whenever they want after leaving the Embrace. This creates an obvious restriction on how many players will be able to instantly access the Burning Shores expansion, but it will also hopefully create an epilogue chapter that is fulfilling since all of its narrative-related secrets will be revealed already. Likewise, this expansion should allow for all of Aloy’s upgrades, weapons, and abilities to be carried over from the main game if it is assumed that she already has all of that equipped by the end of the story.
If Burning Shores did not take place after Forbidden West’s narrative it also would not be able to include teases for what might come to pass in a future Horizon installment, making a cliffhanger or post-credits sequence much more likely. Forbidden West’s Sunwing has been at the forefront of Burning Shores’ sparse marketing thus far, and that is a smart decision due to how little of the flying mount players actually got to see in the main game’s own storyline.
Horizon Forbidden West is available on PS4 and PS5, and the Burning Shores DLC is scheduled to release on April 19 on PS5.
