Horizon Forbidden West has shown how sequels should be made, making significant improvements from the first game and carrying the story forward by introducing new threats to Aloy and her allies: Far Zenith and NEMESIS. However, even with all the improvements, Guerilla Games’ flagship franchise still has a lot of room for growth, especially in certain areas of combat and machine mechanics. One of the biggest letdowns in Horizon Forbidden West has been the heavy weapons, which have seen small improvements from Horizon Zero Dawn, but still remain difficult to use in the heat of battle.
Heavy weapons are a great way to quickly dispatch small machines or knock off a lot of health from the bigger ones in Horizon Forbidden West. While the sequel has 21 heavy weapons, they are still difficult to use, especially against the tougher and faster machines, since their weight often leads to players taking considerable damage. From the slow pickup to automatically dropping them whenever Aloy dodges, the heavy weapons in Horizon Forbidden West need to be improved for the next game, especially since NEMESIS will likely be bringing more dangerous machines.
Heavy Weapons in Horizon Forbidden West
Horizon Forbidden West tripled the number of heavy weapons available for players to use, with many of them being parts of a machine that Aloy can knock out. While carrying these weapons, Aloy is significantly slower, cannot jump as far, and takes longer to roll out of the way, leaving her wide open for attacks. Since only the bigger, more dangerous machines in Horizon Forbidden West drop these weapons, using them could be a fatal error, especially since these machines typically have fast attacks that require Aloy to jump out of the way or quickly roll to cover.
This is not to say that heavy weapons in Horizon Forbidden West are completely useless; they still deal a lot more damage than Aloy’s standard weapons. Heavy weapons in Horizon are useful when fighting against multiple enemies, especially in convoys where smaller machines can be dispatched quickly using these weapons. So, rather than using heavy weapons solely on the machines that drop them, their most effective and efficient use is generally to even up the battlefield and take out any smaller machines, allowing Aloy to focus her attention and ammo on bringing down the bigger threats.
How Heavy Weapons Can Be Improved
Heavy weapons in Horizon Forbidden West are a high-risk-high-reward feature that allows Aloy to take out even the toughest machines quickly. Unfortunately, many of these machines also have fast attacks that can drain all of Aloy’s health, sometimes in a single hit, so using these weapons seems to be more high risk than reward. To fix the issues surrounding the heavy weapons, Guerrilla Games should look to Aloy’s mounts, where weapons could be attached and used while riding them, restoring Aloy’s mobility but making it challenging to hit the target.
Mounts are a great way to improve heavy weapons in Horizon Forbidden West and could also bring about new types of missions, such as machine chases or even a large battle where NEMESIS commands an army. Attaching these weapons to mounts will allow Aloy to move around the battlefield and fire the heavy weapons but can also spark a new mount feature that allows it immediately start attacking the enemy machine. Further, most of the mounts available to Horizon Forbidden West players, especially those accessible at the start, do not have any heavy weapons, so being able to attach these weapons to the mounts could make their attacks more potent.
Horizon Forbidden West’s heavy weapons are an important tool for Aloy to use during fights against some of the tougher machines since they can quickly take down a machine’s health. Unfortunately, due to their poor mobility and the time it takes for Aloy to actually pick one up, players can find themselves in dangerous situations when trying to get a heavy weapon. Using mounts may just be the best way to make heavy weapons more accessible in fights, and this feature could be included in the upcoming Horizon Forbidden West DLC, Burning Shores, where Aloy will undoubtedly be up against some of the toughest machines yet.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now for PS4 and PS5.
