Horizon Zero Dawn proved itself to be one of the most popular PlayStation 4 exclusives when it was released in 2017. The brand new IP from Guerrilla Games introduced a world that blended both ancient tribalism with modern AI to create a stunning post-apocalyptic landscape, where the protagonist, Aloy, must explore and conquer to uncover the answers she seeks. However, Horizon Zero Dawn isn’t without its flaws.
Thanks to the success of Horizon Zero Dawn, a sequel titled Horizon Forbidden West is in development and looks to be one of the most highly anticipated titles heading to the new PlayStation 5. Horizon Forbidden West is set to expand on its predecessor in many ways, particularly by utilizing the PS5’s next-gen technology and bring an even more amazing visual world to life. But there are some issues from Horizon Zero Dawn that Horizon Forbidden West could improve on to make the game an even better experience.
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Horizon Zero Dawn introduces a fairly advanced upgrade and skill tree system for each of Aloy’s bows. But on the flip side, this meant her melee combat felt neglected and was limited to a few basic light and heavy strike movements, which resulted in Horizon Zero Dawn’s close combat situations feeling like button-mashing the majority of the time. Giving Aloy a larger range of offensive and defensive moves as well as an upgrade system for her spear would be the easiest way to make the melee system feel smoother in Forbidden West, particularly with the haptic feedback of the DualSense controller being a function most developers are excited to use.
Horizon Zero Dawn also introduced a climbing and parkour system for Aloy; however, this also came with its own issues. When compared with games such as Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Horizon Zero Dawn’s climbing system is fairly basic. Improving the free-running system for Horizon Forbidden West will help eliminate some of the clunkiness from the original and could go a long way in making the new game genuinely feel next-gen.
Many quests in Horizon Zero Dawn require Aloy to traverse the large map in order to get from one location to another. While the world is visually stunning to explore, running from one place to the next does lose its appeal after a while. While fast travel will likely be enhanced in Forbidden West thanks to the SSD of the PS5, there is one extra feature that could be added to really set the bar high.
Horizon Zero Dawn allowed players to call mounts to help travel through the map quicker, but with Horizon Forbidden West’s map set to be even larger, it would make sense to expand the range of available machines to ride as well. One feature that many players are hoping for is that some of the new aerial machines, such as Sunwings, will be rideable allowing Aloy to fly around the map. While this feature may be a long shot, it would definitely be a way to push the graphical power of the PS5 and keep map traversal engaging.
Horizon Zero Dawn had a massive new world and history to set up, hence many of the conversations Aloy has tend to be long-winded information dumps. In Horizon Forbidden West, this should already be streamlined thanks to the player’s familiarity with the world, but the pacing of information can still be improved to avoid overloading on plot. Conversations in Horizon Zero Dawn also offer players choices in how Aloy’s reacts, similar other RPGs such as The Witcher 3.
But apart from small differences in dialogue, the reactions a player chooses never have a huge impact on the narrative. With these conversations also tending to be on the lengthier side, many players tend to just skip conversations altogether, which is something that could be improved on for Forbidden West. It seems that Guerrilla Games should choose to either give more weight to a players narrative choices or just cut conversation trees all together to maintain efficiency with the game’s large plot.
Horizon Forbidden West is currently in development for the PS5.
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