Horizon Forbidden West PS5 review: Dutch-made adventure

A top game of Dutch origin, you don’t see that often. Horizon Forbidden West on the PS5 is a gem and in this review you can read why.

A new PlayStation exclusive is on the agenda for this month. Horizon Forbidden West! The game will be released on both the PS4 and PS5. Of course you have the best and most beautiful game experience on the latter. That’s why we grabbed Horizon Forbidden West for a review on the PS5. And what an adventure this was…

Guerrilla Games

The Horizon games are produced by the Dutch Guerrilla Games. Horizon Zero Dawn appeared in 2017 and now, in 2022, it’s Horizon Forbidden West’s turn. To understand the story in Forbidden West it is recommended to have played the first part, but it is not a must. The creators understand that many gamers are probably first introduced to this world with Forbidden West. There is also a flashback in the menu to understand all events from Zero Dawn in one fell swoop. That way you are immediately informed.

As mentioned, the game is made in the Netherlands. A rarity. And yet something to be proud of. Mainly because it’s a really nice game, but more on that later. Guerrilla Games comes under Sony Interactive Entertainment. As a result, the developer was able to make perfect use of the PlayStation architecture. And fair is fair. games that are developed on a native platform simply play the best, Forbidden West is no exception. The game makes grateful use of all the beauty that the PlayStation 5 has to offer, although the game also appears on the PS4.

Horizon Forbidden West review

Time to talk about the game itself. In Horizon Forbidden West you will travel to the forbidden west with the tough main character Aloy. As the title of the game gives away. The forbidden west in this case is the west of America. Several American states and cities are the scene of the apocalyptic world in Horizon Forbidden West.

You have no doubt already seen some trailers of this game if you are interested in it. But the experience is even more intense if you haven’t seen much of these trailers. You see many things for the first time and you are really impressed.

Horizon Forbidden West is an open world RPG. Guerrilla Games has absolutely not skimped on the graphical splendor. The world is very alive. Not only because of the dangerous and very diverse machines that run there, but also the environment itself. There is a lot of variety, so it is never boring. The soundtrack fits in nicely with the gameplay and you can also hear all kinds of effects in the world itself, so that you are sucked into the game, as it were. It is recommended to play the game with headphones, so that the 3D effect also comes to the fore. The leaves of the trees move with the wind, you can actually see footsteps in the snow. It’s an experience in itself.

Don’t think you’re just done with Horizon Forbidden West. The game contains many, many dozens of hours of content. With the main missions you are busy for about 25 hours. Easily add double if you also include the side missions. In my case, it took me much longer just for the main missions. That’s because of the distraction, in a positive sense. Discovering the world takes time and is also fun to do. Think of hunting animals, encountering machines, human opponents, the challenge of defeating them and so on.

Another reason why you will spend many hours with the game, especially in the beginning, is the ‘mandatory’ discovery. The world has yet to be fully discovered. Along the way you will come across all kinds of campfires. These unlock the ability to fast travel. Once you have been somewhere, you can in principle always quickly return to this location. So nice.

Guerrilla Games also gives you a lot of freedom in setting the gameplay of Horizon Forbidden West. The difficulty level, but also all kinds of other things to make the game easier for yourself. This way you can decide for yourself whether you want a challenging or a more difficult game. Example. It is possible to climb in the open world on various things. You need to use your Focus to map out exactly where to climb. If you prefer to always have in view to see where you can climb, you can just set that. I had done the latter, just like ‘always run’ when I push the joystick on the DualSense forward. Little things that make a great RPG game much more enjoyable to play in my opinion.

Unlike Zero Dawn, you can swim in Forbidden West. And you notice! Swimming is an important part in this new game. Sometimes that can really be a nightmare if the gameplay doesn’t work well, but here too it is just well and pleasantly put together. The underwater world of Forbidden West is at least as impressive as the upper world. Added together, you can spend quite a few hours underwater if you are going to explore everything calmly. And there are machines here too, so be careful!

Playstation 5

Forbidden West on the PS5 is different in a number of ways when you play the game on the PS4. And that’s not just the very short or lack of loading times. The latter is a nice aspect by the way. Criticism of the previous part was mainly that the loading times were annoyingly long. That is now a thing of the past. At least on the PS5.

The haptic feedback also adds something to DualSense. For example, opening or getting a door feels a bit heavier with R2 compared to other applications. And the 3D audio is an important aspect of the PS5 experience in my opinion. While the game is also coming to PS4, I’d definitely recommend waiting your experience until you own a PS5. All these unique additions give the game the gaming experience it deserves.

Conclusion

I can conclude from this review that Horizon Forbidden West on the PS5 is a great RPG game. But I can also imagine that this game is not for everyone. Below is a brief summary of what to expect.

Craft weapons and armor, craft special items
Large open world with many items to pick up
Combat system that can be expanded based on skill points

The world is overwhelming and grand. Perhaps too big for gamers who prefer to play a platform game. And believe me. It’s a shame to let Horizon Forbidden West dust in your closet halfway through because you don’t feel like it anymore. Take your time for this game and let yourself be impressed I would say.