Should you buy Horizon Forbidden West? Here’s what reviewers are saying

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

The next blockbuster PlayStation title is arriving on the PS4 and PS5 later this week. Horizon Forbidden West is the highly anticipated sequel to Guerilla Games’ award-winning 2017 title Horizon Zero Dawn.

Horizon Forbidden West takes place a few months after the events of the original game. It is set in the post-apocalyptic western United States in a time where machines have taken over. Playing as Aloy, gamers traverse the landscape fighting back against the machines, and sometimes other humans, using mostly only a bow and a spear.

The sequel will launch on both PS4 and PS5 on February 18. So the wait is almost over. Some critics have gotten an early look at the game and the reviews are in. Here’s what people think of the game so far.

Horizon Forbidden West looks like a great improvement over its predecessor

The first thing that seems to stand out in Horizon Forbidden West is how good the game’s graphics look. Ari Notis of Kotaku said it was the “best-looking console game in the neverending arms race of graphical fidelity.” That’s certainly some high praise.

But looks aren’t everything, and Horizon Forbidden West has also improved upon the world design that began in the original.

The sequel features a bigger, and much more immersive, world that gamers will be able to explore. Nicole Clark of Polygon called the game a “buffet you might graze on forever, filled with quests, characters, encampments, environments, and collectibles.”

And Guerilla Games has also built upon the original game’s story with new characters and settings that help immerse the gamer into Aloy’s world. “I kind of fell in love with almost every character I met in Forbidden West’s opening,” wrote IGN’s Jonathan Dornbush.

And what about gameplay?

With that larger, more immersive world comes new ways to explore. Engadget’s Jessica Conditt highlighted the new Pullcaster grappling hook and Shieldwing glider. She says that the new tools “add a delicious layer of mobility and environmental puzzle-solving to Aloy’s journey.”

The world is much larger in Horizon Forbidden West. And in addition, more of that world is explorable. Nearly every rock face can be scaled. And with your new tools, you’ll be able to reach all kinds of new destinations that wouldn’t have been possible in the first game.

And of course, there are new weapons that build upon Aloy’s arsenal and new foes that present a new kind of challenge. Game Informer’s Kimberly Wallace writes that “Forbidden West allows you to embrace your own playstyle, offering many ways to get the upper hand on machines.”

So far, it looks like people are loving Horizon Forbidden West. The game officially comes out on February 18 for PlayStation 4 and PS5, so we will have to wait to see what the public thinks about it. But if these early reviews are any indication, then it looks like Guerilla Games got it right with this sequel.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Nintendo Direct February 2022: New games, trailers, and everything else announced
• Twitch says you can’t keep that username that references sex and drugs anymore
• What is Lost Ark? And why is it suddenly blowing up?
• Sony is testing “Hey PlayStation” voice commands on the PS5

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.