[thatswrong0]

It was kind of an impossible task for Forbidden West to replicate the experience of Zero Dawn.. to me the magic of the first game was entirely based around the discovery of why the world became the way it did. The mystery of the second game is not about the state of the world, but instead one cliffhanger aspect from the last game (what caused Hades to go rogue?).

But I’m in complete agreement about with the OP about the “overpolished” aspect of Forbidden West.. just check out the Horizon subreddit right now. They just released a patch that nerfed the legendary weapons in the game. There was no real reason to do that. They didn’t feel horribly broken (especially for how much grinding it takes to upgrade them and how expensive their ammo is to craft). And come on: it’s a single player game. No idea what’s going on at that studio right now.. maybe gearing up for DLC.

[jsemrau]

I platinumed Forbidden West yesterday. It is a beautiful game. But it lacks the magic of the first one where I was walking around slowly around the world wondering what might have happened. Now I know. And it can't be replicated. It's hard to follow-up on such an experience and what the team has achieved is nothing short of amazing. Of course, there are a bunch of things that don't work well. The weapon- and armor- tiers don't relate well to the progress in the game. They nerfed the legendary because everyone was skipping the purple ones making them entirely irrelevant. Sometimes the moral justification / social justice police is a bit heavy handed in a game that is set 1000 years after a full-reset apocalypse. LGBTQ+ representation, Climate change (Lombard street), Handicapped acceptance (Kotallo) etc you name it. I get it, I don't really mind.

Also the game follows the bigger evil fallacy which leads to the main character needing to become a super-hero to "win". I mean Aloy is already at that point, I guess. For example there is a several ton heavy fireclaw that jumps on you at every occasion. I don't see how a person would survive that. Hence it is a bit immersion breaking.

[CSSer]

I just picked up Forbidden West but haven't had a chance to play it much yet because of a big work push (no spoilers, please). I completely agree with basically everything here. The game is a blast so far but I'm not sure how they could top the first game so I've been trying to measure my expectations.

I was talking to a coworker about it and the first thing he asked me is, "What about all that amazing gear you get by the end of the first game?" which I think perfectly illustrates your point. They took Aloy to the top and although they managed to make it work so far it does feel a bit awkward, like they may have jumped the shark. But hey I'm just excited to have a cool game to decompress with. I guess in the end it's not that different than a sequel to a movie. People who loved the first will more or less come back to see the second.

[acomjean]

My partner is playing through forbidden west right now. As a spectator it’s fun to watch her explore. It’s actually Amazing to me how they created the worlds. I did enjoy watching zero dawn as well.

The game developers conference releases a lot of great talks. Some on horizon zero dawn where pretty interesting.

https://youtu.be/TawhcWao9ls

Character development:

https://youtu.be/2QRCwY382ck