Horizon Forbidden West is a big improvement over the original in a few categories even if it does feel more of the same. The combat has more diversity in it, for example. It allows more types of players to approach battles with their playstyle preferences from going all out to killing waves of robotic beasts in stealth mode.
The graphics in Horizon Forbidden West should also be praised. As good as everything is and as high as reviews have been, the game is far from perfect. There are a few small things that could make the core experience stronger. Hopefully, these ideas make it into patches sooner rather than later.
8 Picking Up Materials
Crafting is an essential mechanic in the game. It is possible to ignore grabbing boatloads of sticks and berries as most vendors sell the basics. That still forces players to hunt down robotic beasts for parts to trade instead.
Gathering all these items wouldn’t be so bad if they were seamless like in Ghost of Tsushima. Players could hit the button in that game and it was like magic. Horizon Forbidden West could use a quicker gathering animation or, better yet, a way to send out someone or something out to gather materials for the player.
7 Crafting On The Go
Some skills for Aloy can help craft more for less. What about a skill that would let players craft on the go? Crafting would also be better if players didn’t have to rely on the workbench. If Aloy can craft arrows and traps on the fly then what’s different about upgrading a bow in the wild? It is all a bit hard to swallow.
Let’s not even mention the idea that she is carrying all of these materials on her person. Since this is a very “video-gamey” video game, it would be nice if Horizon Forbidden West broke the rules further and just allowed crafting whenever and wherever.
6 Add Better Saves
Horizon Forbidden West, to its credit, is very generous with checkpoints and autosaves. However, some players like to manually save as well, which is also an option in this game. Unfortunately, it can only be done at fires at campsites or in villages.
Players only get five manual slots too. A patch should be able to grant more slots. The bigger ask would be for the developer to allow players to save anywhere in the game within reason. Not being able to save while in combat would be understandable.
5 Add A Guiding Light
It can be difficult to know where to go in dungeons. Using the Focus should highlight some things but not every quest is as clear-cut. Listening to Aloy or her comrades speak may clue players into where to go next, however, even these clues can be hard to understand.
If Aloy can highlight the tracks of her enemies then why isn’t there a better guiding system for side quests too? It could act as the beacon in the Dead Space series. That will always be the golden example and Horizon Forbidden West should follow suit.
4 Free Fast Travel
One of the more annoying aspects of the original game was the bags used for fast travel. They weren’t expensive, but they were just inconvenient. The same is true for Horizon Forbidden West. With so many of the original game’s aspects being improved, from the quest system to combat, it is baffling to see these bags return.
Players can fast travel for free at fires, so there’s at least that. Nevertheless, fires and bags shouldn’t be needed. It would be great to see true free fast travel in an update. At least the Shieldwing and mount travel is good pretty early on.
3 Use Enemy Weapons
Aloy gets a few new ranged weapons and elements to play around with. The combat was one of the best aspects of the original title and the same is true for this sequel. That’s stated with a bit of an asterisk because melee combat could use some work. Aloy gets the spear albeit with some new moves.
More weapons could improve the incentive for players to check out Horizon Forbidden West's melee combat. These alternate melee weapons wouldn’t necessarily have to be permanent. Aloy could use enemy weapons until they break, just like detached robot guns.
2 Add Multiplayer
The biggest addition this series is begging for is multiplayer. There should be real multiplayer and not the weird current “co-op” mode. Horizon Forbidden West may have just ended with the perfect setup for a multiplayer-based sequel. There will be no spoiler discussion here, but the seeds were indeed planted. That’s all that will be said.
While fans wait for the next game, which could take another five years, they might be happy with a smaller multiplayer experience. Ghost of Tsushima had its free expansion, Legends, which basically turned into a horde mode. That may be enough to satiate players in Horizon Forbidden West.
1 Skips And Loads
The loads in Horizon Forbidden West are great. However, there is one little annoyance with them. After the game loads for approximately a second or two on PS5, the game will hang on a static screen. Players have to hit a command to move on. It would be nice if there was an option for players to make sure they just automatically respawn after a load time, be it from death or fast traveling to a new location. All conversations could also use a full skip button. Some do but most don’t. At least there is always a way to skim through conversations.
Horizon Forbidden West was released on February 18, 2022 and is available on PS4 and PS5.