Horizon Forbidden West - reviews, impressions, and reactions!

I always love it when a company removes the review embargo a week ahead of time - Shows confidence in the product! I'm hoping this will be a good one. What are your metacritic predictions, SW? Oh, and if someone wants to make a real hype thread, please do so 😄

9's and 10's inbound....

Phony's got the reviewers covered. lol :P

@SecretPolice said:

9's and 10's inbound....

Phony's got the reviewers covered. lol :P

But I thought MS had way more money. Very confusing 🙃.

No way this game is bad. It will be 89 metacritic.

86-88 on meta.

So that means you'll get the game, right?

Look at how massively they improved the combat :)

I hope so. I found the combat dull and boring in the first one. I would rank HZD below God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, even Days Gone. Hopefully Forbidden West changes my opinion.

Low chance. Ill be very busy with Elden Ring for months. When done, ill have Nioh2 for a while. Then i might get GT7 just to annoy @gym_lion.

97/100 or game is a flop.

Even though it does look great I still don't think I could part with £70 for a game. Elden Ring is £50 so an extra £20 seems a lot.

Surprised to hear a racing fan say something like that, especially since the game is packed with content.

PS4 version has the same content and is £55.

*cancels preorder*

Setting yourself up for the inferior version knowing that the game is right up your alley is not how its meant to be.

Seconded. lol :P

I was mainly adressing the melee combat, but I can understand if you also mean the ranged combat.

I'm playing the PC version of HZD right now and the ranged combat is fantastic: I'm having fun shooting all the bits and pieces off robots and using different types of weapons and mixing everything up. It feels skillful.

You can dish out damage, but then so can the enemy.

Good,I haven't been able to pre order because I need other people's opinions before I spend 70 dollars 🤣

You're stressed out. Calm down. A video game might come out on your Xbox in 9 months.

Maybe its the physics, maybe its the sound design, I felt both the melee and ranged combat were lacking something, mostly a weighty feel...like GoW or TLOU, especially TLOU melee combat

@hardwenzen:

You are emotional,chill,I will be giving my non Sony shilling review once I've completed it.just be patient

GT7 and Horizon2 in less than a month, i am chill, thanks. You have nothing to play until Fall 2022, and you better pray for Startfield to not get delayed to 2023😂

Definitely, but by the time I was in melee combat in TLOU, I was already loading the previous checkpoint, hahah

But yeah the melee combat in HZD has you hitting through enemies, and doesn't feel 'punchy'

It'll get praise across the board because all the bay area gaming journalists and YouTube personalities who flourished as NeoGAF echo-chambers all know deep in their indoctinated souls that Sony has to win the gen so it's only natural for the game to get whatever review is necessary to take the wind out of MS's sails, if that's the case, BotW MC review territory. Basically what industry did for Sony with MGS4 which was a turning point for the PS3 console and boy did that game suck, by far worse game if 7th gen hands down, but an end that justified the means some could argue. Now will Horizon be as bad as MGS4, oh he'll no, in fact it might actually be good. But I suspect these industry shills to put their thumbs on the scale.

It had to be said. lol :P

Get pumped...

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/horizon-forbidden-west-cinematic-trailer-features-a-cgi-aloy/1100-6500598/

lol :P

first game is okay, like a 6/10, might wait out for a PC version for this instead. On the other hand, I could use a looker for the PS5.

Very likely will get a 9/10 here and mid to high 80’s for Metacritic.

@fedor: I'll go further down that rabbit hole and predict Sony will jump that review embargo when the game gets a surprise Super Bowl add on Sunday that will be the typical launch trailer intermixed with praised reviews captions and perfect scores from dozens upon dozens of review outlets.

Makes sense, that's a solid advert.

@hardwenzen:

Patients is called for,I can't give you the review score cows and fake cows crave for until I have played it.

Be warned I'm a completionist so it might be a while what with reclaiming all those camps,bases and shit.

6/10 incoming

I thought about making a hype thread as I did for the first one like 4 years ago. Might not bother doing it for Forbidden West but still, I for one looking forward to playing it myself.

@davillain: you make great hype threads! That Halo Infinite one was classic.

Hmm, I'll consider it🤔

It'll likely do well here on GS -- the home page is plastered w/ Horizon articles. In any event, I'm excited to see where the story goes.

I guess I better pay attention to the review scores because I wouldn't be able to decide on my own... Ooops! I forgot, I am not a Sony fanny, so I can think for myself.😎

Is that why you come to a gaming forum to validate your gaming preferences 😎

I thought the combat, as a whole, was one of the few redeeming qualities of the first game, to be frank.

The whole hunting mechanic and how each major robot felt like it's own boss fight at times, each felt high stakes. You had to set traps, target weakpoints, whittle the enemy down bit by bit, and approach each fight thoughtfully.

H:ZD was an average game outside of the combat; average story, average protagonist, average voice acting, etc.. The combat is what elevated it into "good" status.

Also the art direction, really liked the enemy design, how each tribe looked unique, etc.

hey, stop that! No free thought allowed!

It is like you are unable to read. 😥

@mrbojangles25: Sorry.😔

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sony-says-horizon-has-sold-20-million-copies-ahead-of-forbidden-wests-release/

Wowza, 20 million copies sold!!

PC sales really makes a difference.😎

The first game was bland, but somehow scored well - I'm guessing because it was better than the rest of the PS4's lineup at the time?

So the same thing will probably happen here. Sony is in the middle of a huge drought, so anything half-decent will score 9s and 10s.

@mysticaldonut: " I would rank HZD below God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, even Days Gone. Hopefully Forbidden West changes my opinion."

Between those games HZD is better.

I just started Ghost (PS5) and my main beef so far is the targeting/camera system.

Should be a solid 89. Will get a 10/10 here at SonySpot.

Almost there 😮

I hope it's good. Also, I Hate my OCD because I will buy the ps5 copy just so I have the ps5 case instead of saving myself 10 bucks smh

Mehh will definitely wait for the pc release, first one felt so bad to play with a controller… but yeah personally I expect more of the same, so a solid 8/10 for me!

It will be interesting to see what happens. The game is very likely going to be fantastic and better than the first in many ways , but there might be some obstacles to it hitting a 90 or better Metacritic

I was skimming through some of Zero Dawn's lower review excerpts , and I'm assuming based on those , we'll see some -

• Zelda fanboyism in some media
• Witcher III fanboyism in some media
• Ubisoft-style open world games are seen as "tropey" or "copycat" in some media when it's not teh Witcher III or something else they love
• Some random clickbait low score troll reviews

There's also some high standards of Sony games set by God of War , The Last of Us Part II , Uncharted 4 , Bloodborne - Some of the quality open world Sony games scored - (Horizon - 89 , Spider-Man - 87 , Death Stranding - 83 , Ghost of Tsushima - 82}

But there might be some growth potential compared to the first Horizon -

• 50 - USGamer - they won't troll this badly again, right?
• 80 - Easy Allies- should do better there
• 88 - Game Informer - should do better there
• And a solid amount of 80's or below for the first game that might score higher this time around. Who knows? Only time will tell.

Gamespot and Edge are some key sites. Only an 8 from one or both of those could keep it from a 90+ Metacritic.