Every so often, an open world game arrives that is immersive enough to let gamers escape to an alternate world for hours on end. One of the most recent examples of such a game is Horizon Forbidden West, Guerrilla Games' latest offering which continues Aloy's story as she tries to discover the secrets of her post-apocalyptic world. During this adventure, she travels to the Forbidden West to find the source of the blight corrupting nature.
As Aloy explores the Forbidden West, she encounters new dangers that challenge her in novel ways. This includes fierce tribes with plenty of armor and unrelenting weapons, as well as terrifying new machines that make use of different elements and interact with the environment in clever ways. To deal with these obstacles, it is necessary for Aloy to constantly go hunting for resources that allow her to upgrade her gear. Thanks to Horizon Forbidden West's hunting style, the demand for resources forces players to avoid playing in a monotonous fashion and instead employ creative strategies to ensure they knock off the right components from machines.
Machines and Their Components
The machines of Aloy's world are far more than just massive metal monsters. They tote an array of weapons that make use of various elemental effects including acid and fire, to name a few. Furthermore, they utilize many strategies that ensure that squatting down in a single spot is not the best idea for Aloy. Some machines burrow underground and attack from beneath while others are capable of scanning the environment and spotting Aloy even when she is hiding in tall grass. Bigger machines can hurl boulders her way, and even the largest machines can end up being fast-moving predators that are nearly impossible to dodge.
To take down these behemoths requires good knowledge of their strengths, weaknesses, and attack patterns. However, after spending a few dozen hours in the Forbidden West, it is possible to get familiar with most of the common machines and learn the quickest ways to take them down. This gets even easier as Aloy levels up, unlocks valor surges, and gains access to more powerful weapons, and eventually, it is possible for her to massacre machines before they know what hit them.
Aloy can salvage machines for resources and components which are extremely useful because they are used to upgrade her weapons, outfits, and pouches. Additionally, she meets quite a few salvagers who will enter salvage contracts and reward Aloy in exchange for machine components. Retrieving key components can be tricky, because the components have to be knocked off before killing the machine, and if the machine dies first, the components will be destroyed. Consequently, players have to know how to kill machines expediently, but they must also have the skills to tear off components without killing machines first.
Horizon Forbidden West features many accessibility settings crafted to ensure as many gamers as possible can enjoy the game. As a result, the game allows players to turn on Easy Loot, a feature that enables players to obtain all components from machines after killing them. This is a good option to pick for players who are not used to video games or find the game's component hunting system too hard. However, for players who are up for the challenge, leaving Easy Loot off encourages much more creative ways of hunting which can be more hard work, but can also ultimately feel more rewarding.
Weapon Upgrades and the Art of Machine Hunting
Because Aloy requires machine components to upgrade her weapons, machine hunting is never a one-note activity, and the quickest strategies to take down machines may not be the best to acquire key components. Players are forced to think about things differently, and while they may have the weapons to make light work of their target, a well-aimed shot that maims without killing may be better when farming components for upgrades. Players experience this, for example, with Bellowbacks that can be crippled by destroying their sacs, but this results in precious components being wrecked. Hence, what is usually a useful target becomes something to avoid.
The need to remove components also forces players to make daring moves that they otherwise might have avoided. This is seen with the now-iconic Thunderjaw, which features a cornucopia of moves and numerous components. Knocking off its freeze canisters is made easier if one slides under the Thunderjaw, and knocking off the tip of its tail requires attacking the machine from behind instead of going at it head-on.
Most importantly, hunting for machines requires players to make use of the myriad of weapons in Horizon Forbidden West. Although Horizon Zero Dawn has plenty of weapons, Horizon Forbidden Weapon manages to expand the catalog to a startling degree, adding both new elemental attacks and weapon categories. While it may be tempting to ignore many of these new weapons and just stick to a few favorites, the need for components forces players to try the new weapons because different components carry their own elemental strengths and weaknesses. Consequently, for instance, players will need to try out weapons with freeze properties to take advantage of the Stormbird's freeze canister's weakness to freeze, or they will have to use shock weapons when targeting Longleg power cells.
Although Guerrilla Games have done a lot to improve human melee combat, the highlight of Horizon Forbidden West's gameplay is combat with the many creatively designed machines. Their animal-like behavior makes them interesting to observe, and their range of sci-fi weapons is both spectacular and terrifying. To accomplish her goals in Horizon Forbidden West, Aloy has to kill plenty of machines, but she also scavenges them for their components which she uses to upgrade her weapons. The component hunting aspect of the game is a stroke of genius from Guerrilla Games, as it encourages players to make use of creative strategies and new weapons when attacking machines instead of immediately going for the kill.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now on PS4 and PS5.
