This is a spoiler free review.

I let out an audible gasp as I transitioned seamlessly from sprinting into sliding down a track crusted with red sand and dotted with lush green desert foliage. Spotting the prompt for an attack from above on a machine I was suddenly rapidly approaching, Aloy leapt onto its back and slammed her spear into the back of its metal skull. This is but one of a thousand moments where my jaw dropped and settled in my lap, though to the game it’s another effortless endorphin rush it tosses me during almost every minute of gameplay.

The highly anticipated sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn has finally released for PlayStation 4 and 5: Horizon Forbidden West. Not only a continuation of the hugely successful robot dinosaur slaying 2017 PS4 title, it’s also another experience built from the ground up to showcase the enormous power of the PS5 system. I can state immediately that within the first moments of gameplay it achieves this, all while the stoic white powerhouse sits silently beneath my TV, making barely a whisper as it creates mesmerisingly stunning scenery for my eyes and brain to gush over.

Retaking control of Aloy, players pick up where Zero Dawn left off: attempting to bring the world back to the condition we are essentially living in now where technology rules everything and you can go to the shops without fear of being mauled by a fire-breathing robot stag.

One factor I found a very welcome surprise early in the story was that I had to abandon every theory I had formed about the game’s plot prior to starting the game. Following the intriguing endgame story from Zero Dawn, as well as some of the red herrings within Forbidden West’s marketing, this is no paint-by-numbers sequel made predominantly to shift units. The story I have experienced so far has been packed with exceptional twists, character introductions and development as well as the vital environmental story-telling you may remember from the first game. Combat has also been thoroughly overhauled, and every arrow fired feels heavier than before as they shear pieces of machinery from your target or thunk into a human enemy’s skull.

I am still a way off unlocking all the available weapons in the game, and new and surprising instruments of death are still being provided to me at occasional intervals throughout gameplay. That said, I am already impressed by the sheer variety of bows and arrow types I have access to already, meaning virtually every encounter plays out in entirely different ways. New weaponry types such as those which corrode machine armour with acid immediately adds a new way to bring foes down which wasn’t an option in Zero Dawn, with new methods offered to the player as the story unfolds.

Open world traversal has also been bolstered with the mix of a glide ability through what looks like a luminous blue Mary Poppins umbrella, with vertical ascension assisted in contextual parts by a grappling hook. It’s a simple fact that all games should have a grappling hook. It would certainly liven up all of David Cage’s games!

The variety of machines has also swelled for Forbidden West, with the mechanical adversaries now comprising of different variants for each type as opposed to the one-and-done designs from 2017. Returning players will be pleased to hear that the days of being terrorised by a Thunderjaw are dead and gone, and now you can look forward to being annihilated by an even bigger, more heavily armed and armoured Apex Thunderjaw!

I have encountered several occasions of graphical pop-in from the word go on PS5, as well as an often unsettling issue where character eyes don’t seem to register what they’re seeing. There were numerous instances early on where something would happen, or a character would move out of the eyeline of whoever was speaking, only for the avatar to remain staring into the distance as if their conversation partner were still occupying that space. A petty gripe I’ll grant you but as I kept noticing it, I think it warrants mentioning.

I remember that the opening segment of Horizon Zero Dawn was an incredibly linear, yet necessary, experience as we quickly grew to know Aloy and her mannerisms and personality. It planted key plot points early on which would flourish and bloom as the game progressed, secure in the knowledge players recall what is happening as we learned about them along with Aloy. The first gameplay in Forbidden West is equally as linear, but in nowhere near as much of a successful way. Combat and traversal are re-introduced, but for the lion’s share of players like me who will have played Zero Dawn, I found this entire section overlong and pretty boring.

There was a moment in the opening where Aloy says ‘I need to climb that’ while looking at a tall structure and I audibly sighed, exclaiming ‘Of COURSE you do’, as I was already weary of the climbing at this early point in the game. Never fear though, as I can confirm the boss fight with a new machine at the end of the introduction is incredible and well worth the slog to get there.

My biggest issue with Horizon Forbidden West comes in the form of the aforementioned climbing. Credit where it’s due, as clear effort has been made to move away from the yellow marker following some players lamented in Zero Dawn. Frustratingly, we seem to have overshot the desired destination of interesting climbing to a place where Aloy is too keen to lose track of where she is meant to be going, frequently flinging herself into empty air and falling back down to where she started so the climb must begin anew.

Within my first two days of playing, I had to quit the game in frustration after missing a clear handhold Aloy appeared to not notice despite me hurling her at it a couple of times, only for the correct place to grab onto to be revealed as a piece of generic wall texture in the vague vicinity of where I was leaping. This has happened so many times now that I dread story missions directing me to climb something, and has made me pine for the days where I could just spot something yellow and make a beeline for it. I have abandoned a couple of side quests where the main objective is to climb something, as I don’t want to sour the experience for myself where it is avoidable.

The world of the Forbidden West feels as vibrant and lived in as you could wish, whose inhabitants truly bring across the feeling of really living in as opposed to just surviving in until the pubs open. That’s right, there are pubs now! The map is massive, varied and begging to be explored. Whether you are in the mood for some robot hunting, photo snapping or just meandering around, you are guaranteed to have your every whim accommodated.

Horizon Forbidden West is a triumph through the majority of its video game design choices, whilst also committing the erroneous mistake of tarnishing part of the experience through an attempt to fix a trivial complaint from the first game. The vexing climbing isn’t enough to spoil the experience, but if I’m greeting certain gameplay sections with a weary sigh within launch weekend that really doesn’t bode well.

There is more than enough substance and enjoyment to be had here that I can robustly recommend Horizon Forbidden West, but unfortunate design decisions bar me from granting it a perfect score. When all is said and done, it is a must-play for owners of PlayStation hardware and I score it

9 / 10

Guest edited by Catherine.