Horizon Forbidden West

Aloy is back to try to figure how to reboot GAIA, new friends, new enemies, and lots of machines to destroy. The scenery is beautiful, the soundtrack is amazing, and the world even more expansive. I'm not even half way through the game yet, but I am in awe of this masterpiece. If you loved Zero Dawn, you'll definitely love Forbidden West. Oh, and Aloy is still my spirit animal. Now, I must go, there's a cauldron I need to make my way into.

If you like open world RPGs then there really isn't one better than the Horizon arc. It's highly immersive with third person gameplay and compared to the first game in the series, it's bigger, richer with interactions and side quests, and has far more developed gameplay interactions with respect to combat and navigating the social and physical world. The protagonist is Aloy, a clone of the main scientist that developed the means for all life on Earth to be given a second chance after a 'whoops apocalypse' mistake by the 'Old Ones', who was made as a desperate measure by the AI controlling the terraforming system when, for reasons yet unknown, the AI is destroyed and everything starts to go haywire, threatening life on Earth once again. The visible instruments of this terraforming system are machines with a wide variety of terraforming jobs and physical forms from dinosaurs to cattle, which have run amok with no AI to guide them. The machines and some other characters that she meets get in the way of Aloy's mission; and they have to be destroyed, overridden and used for transport, or circumvented by other means. If you've never played it before you're in for a long-lasting treat. If you haven't played the original game, I would recommend you start there, as it is just as enjoyable and will add context.

Absolute Masterpiece of storytelling, gameplay and graphics! As a big fan of the first HZD game and the stellar actually very possible story of mankind I was worried how the development team would translate and link the story into the second game. Now after couple of hours into it I absolutely can tell you they did another masterpiece of game and story here. Well done Guerrilla and Sony! Absolute must have and play for this season. And let the non-gamers be jealous they will never experience this kind of story and graphics pleasure.

An example of how you nail a sequel. Great game. Didn't love playing the first one. But loved this one. I don't even consider myself a single-player gamer. I just historically always play Multiplayer. But this game sucked me in!

With upgrades to every aspect of the game- gameplay, AI, upgrade systems, skill trees, and graphics, Horizon Forbidden West was an absolute triumph. Cauldrons are no longer wash-rinse-repeat; stories you encounter and engage in require real choices; the decisions you make will affect the way the ending plays out. In over 30 years of experience in gaming, I cannot recall any other sequel being as strong a follow up as this. I cannot recommend it enough.