While Horizon Zero Dawn is a standout PlayStation exclusive that cemented itself as a major IP almost immediately, it still has its issues. The upcoming PS4 and PS5 sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, can improve on its predecessors problems, adjusting foundational elements of Zero Dawn and borrowing mechanics from open-world games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Horizon Zero Dawn's greatest strength is its impressively nuanced and polished world, rife with mystery and wonder. It features different fictional cultures with believable social structures and religious systems. There are multiple biomes with unique weather patterns, and the transition from one to another is so smooth it often takes a second to notice the change. The standout element, though, is its machine-creatures, comprised of a wide variety of species that can evolve based on players' actions to better survive Aloy's hunts.
From the mid-sized Watchers to the absolutely gargantuan Tallnecks, some of Horizon Zero Dawn's machines are awe-inspiring when encountered for the first time. However, as Aloy and the player grow more used to the world and its inhabitants, the awe subsides, and the less polished gameplay elements start to shine through. These are the elements Horizon Forbidden West most needs to improve.
Horizon Zero Dawn's melee combat is unbalanced and clunky. Melee attacks are slow and don't do much damage for the first stretch of the game, even with the damage buff Aloy gets by completing the "In Her Mother's Footsteps" side quest. That said, it doesn't take very long to upgrade Aloy's spear weapon skills which, in combination with the buff, allow her to knock down almost any machine with one heavy attack and deal massive damage. Melee quickly goes from mostly useless to overpowered well before the endgame, and Horizon Forbidden West should balance that disparity.
One of the more annoying parts of Horizon Zero Dawn is that Aloy can scale mountains and walk tightropes but can't climb a ledge that's slightly too high. Lacking any mantling mechanics, Aloy can only climb ledges and handholds that are marked with yellow. Shown to be an exceptional climber, Horizon's Aloy should rival BOTW's Link in in-game climbing skills. The June 2020 PlayStation reveal trailer for Horizon Forbidden West does include a shot of Aloy free-climbing a mountain, which - while not captured gameplay - hopefully means the sequel will give her more freedom of movement.
Hunting is a huge part of Horizon Zero Dawn's crafting system, but finding the right animals feels a bit random at times. Fish are easily the most consistent, since they're limited to water, but rabbits, boars, and other animals are pretty much everywhere. While there is one large forest biome where the chance of encountering these animals is higher, it's not always a guarantee, which can result in wasting a lot of time just searching for an upgrade. Making certain animals specific to certain biomes could greatly improve the frustration.
Likewise, the only biome-specific machine in the first game is the Rockbreaker, one of Horizon Zero Dawn's rarest enemies. Only found in the Rushwash region, the Rockbreaker is a more exciting encounter because of its area specificity. Horizon Forbidden West should include more of these kinds of machines, and it should also explore mounts that work better in certain biomes. For example, Striders could be more useful for quickly traversing grasslands, while Chargers could be better on rocky terrain.
The human enemies of Horizon Zero Dawn aren't very interesting. The only factions were bandits and the Eclipse, and even the Eclipse's Corrupters and Deathbringers couldn't keep the human enemies from feeling same-y. Having no interesting human encounters makes Horizon Zero Dawn's best weapons (and combat, in general) feel less impactful, so Forbidden West's new factions should operate in ways that require specific approaches to encourage the use of Aloy's varied arsenal.
With a bigger map, a variety of biomes, and new machines shown in its announcement trailer, Horizon Forbidden West is set to introduce new ideas and refine old ones. Hopefully, updates and gameplay footage released in the coming months will show what exactly Guerilla Games has chosen to improve and what new ideas are in store.
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