A reader regrets buying Horizon Forbidden West and is disappointed that despite the graphics the game itself is not holding their attention.
It’s my own fault. I knew exactly what Horizon Zero Dawn was like and I knew there was little sign that Horizon Forbidden West was going to be very different, but I bought it anyway. There are two main reasons for this: 1) I own a PlayStation 5 and it feels ages since the last exclusive and 2) I saw the gameplay demo last year and the graphics really were pretty mindblowing, especially the waves on the beach.
I’m doing okay money wise, and knew the trick about buying the PlayStation 4 version and getting the free upgrade, so I took a chance and… it was okay. It was exactly the same as the last one but with slightly better graphics and proper side quests. And that’s it. That is literally the total of their ambitions.
As GC pointed out in their review, the artificial intelligence seems like something out of the PlayStation 2 era, the role-playing elements are just boring busywork, and the stealth is the same old hiding-in-the-tall-grass nonsense we’ve seen in a hundred games before, including lots from Sony.
What gets me though is how a game with robot dinosaurs, which are really nicely designed and show a lot of imagination, can be so boring. I think it’s obvious that it’s a misguided attempt to be ‘grounded’ and more serious, as they didn’t want to come across as too silly. Because god forbid a video game has an outrageous premise and just plays it for fun (do you remember the good old days when that was the norm?).
As a result, the game’s story and characters are so boring you could drill your way to the Earth’s core with them. Aloy is held up as this strong female role model but she has no discernible personality at all, other than she seems to be mildly irritated by everyone she meets, as she constantly grumbles under her breath but never has anything to actually say – even though she knows for a fact that all their made-up religions are nonsense.
The other characters are even worse and are almost impossible to describe, since they barely even count as one-note. Varl is… chirpy? His girlfriend, who’s name I’ve forgotten but I think begins with a Z is… practical? I mean that’s all I’ve got, they’re such non-entities and yet they’re the main characters, so you can imagine what the rest are like.
The combat is probably the best part of the gameplay but while there’s a lot of options in terms of the weapons it’s all a bit of a smokescreen for what is still some very simplistic action. It’s very easy, with the only real difficulty being when you’re badly outmatched in terms of the level of the robot you’re fighting. It’s okay, but I had had enough by about the 10 hour mark and the game was struggling to offer more reasons for me to continue.
The worst thing is that despite being technically impressive the graphics just don’t make the impression you’d expect. The game world is a bit more interactive than before, but it still feels like you’re exploring a film set rather than a real world, in complete contrast to something like Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, which is running on vastly inferior hardware.
Occasionally you stop yourself to admire the scenery and think that this really does look like a next gen game, until you remember it still looks pretty much identical on the PlayStation 4.
The problem with Horizon Forbidden West is that it’s really not much more than a pretty face. The gameplay is all right but it quickly becomes dull and repetitive, while the story starts that way and only gets worse. Like I said, it’s my fault for buying into the hype but after this I really do feel like I’ve had my fill of Sony formula third person story adventures, and maybe open world games in general.
Perhaps Elden Ring will prove me wrong, but I feel so jaded about modern gaming all of sudden that I’m struggling to work up the enthusiasm for anything.
By reader Ultro
The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. As always, email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk and follow us on Twitter.
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