Aloy is one of gaming's great heroes. Her characterization, and Ashly Burch's performance, add up to something so special that these games are almost worth playing just to spend more time with her. She's exactly who she needs to be. And her story here, in 'Forbidden West' is interesting. I love how she inspires characters, all along her journey west, and I love how they come together into one awesome team to face off against this game's interstellar new threat. The strength of this story is nearly exactly the same as that of 'Ghost of Tsushima.' So much so, in fact, that it makes you wonder how direct that inspiration may have been. 'Breath of the Wild' is another clear inspiration, considering how Aloy can suddenly climb any surface and can paraglide down from heights. But I believe 'Ghost' and 'Breath' to be much better games than 'Forbidden West.'
Where 'Forbidden West' trips over itself is in its lore and the communication of said lore. Most of the action that drives the 'Horizon' series took place a thousand years before Aloy was born. We never engage directly with it. It is completely learned through dialogue and the reading of in-game documents. And yet understanding that lore is vital to understanding what motivates Aloy. Vital to understanding what the hell she is doing in either of these games. This might not be such a big ask on the player, but the lore of 'Horizon' is so dense and relies on such much jargon, that I spent hours reading and watching Youtube videos to keep up with it. Across the fifty+ hour playtime, trust me, you will not be able to hold in your memory the nuanced differences among GAIA, HEPHAESTUS, HADES, MINERVA, DEMETER, AETHER, POSEIDON, APOLLO, ARTEMIS, and ELEUTHIA. And those are just the game's artifical intelligences. I have a far easier time making sense of the 'Matrix' movies and that's really saying something. I just don't know why this series chooses to bury the player under so much complicated lore. Too often Aloy is doing something that would only make sense if I still remembered the details of a single conversation, or a single document, experienced tens of hours earlier in the game. I wish each mission did a better job of telling its own story.
The combat action is fun. The graphics are genuinely stunning. Aloy is a peach. But there is a storytelling problem here that gets in the way of complete enjoyment.
Where 'Forbidden West' trips over itself is in its lore and the communication of said lore. Most of the action that drives the 'Horizon' series took place a thousand years before Aloy was born. We never engage directly with it. It is completely learned through dialogue and the reading of in-game documents. And yet understanding that lore is vital to understanding what motivates Aloy. Vital to understanding what the hell she is doing in either of these games. This might not be such a big ask on the player, but the lore of 'Horizon' is so dense and relies on such much jargon, that I spent hours reading and watching Youtube videos to keep up with it. Across the fifty+ hour playtime, trust me, you will not be able to hold in your memory the nuanced differences among GAIA, HEPHAESTUS, HADES, MINERVA, DEMETER, AETHER, POSEIDON, APOLLO, ARTEMIS, and ELEUTHIA. And those are just the game's artifical intelligences. I have a far easier time making sense of the 'Matrix' movies and that's really saying something. I just don't know why this series chooses to bury the player under so much complicated lore. Too often Aloy is doing something that would only make sense if I still remembered the details of a single conversation, or a single document, experienced tens of hours earlier in the game. I wish each mission did a better job of telling its own story.
The combat action is fun. The graphics are genuinely stunning. Aloy is a peach. But there is a storytelling problem here that gets in the way of complete enjoyment.