Horizon Forbidden West Platinum

 Hello Everyone. I recently got the platinum in Horizon Forbidden West and would like to talk about it.

Overall, it was easier than I expected to get the platinum. It was about par with the platinum in Horizon Zero Dawn. The biggest change I noticed was that there were fewer "collect 100% of a collectible" type trophies. Only some activities like Tallnecks, Rebel Camps, Hunting Grounds, Fight Pits and Cauldrons ask you to complete 100% of their specific activities. Many of the other collectibles only have a "collect just x of them".

So it is possible to get the platinum without having to do 100% of the game. Which I appreciate. Many open world game trophies often drag as they ask you to spend a long time looking for collectibles (I remember God of War 2018 in particular was really tedious towards the end). HFW seems to try and keep the 100% collectibles to activities that significantly reward the player like Tallnecks or Cauldrons, or have a story component like Rebel Camps. Granted, it still takes about as long as Horizon Zero Dawn's trophies though.

 In addition, there's only really one sorta missable trophy "All Machine Types Scanned - Encountered and Focus scanned every type of machine". (Horizon doesn't have the most the creative trophy names) Because of the 43 machines in the game, 2 of them, The Specter and Specter Prime, only appear in certain missions so if you forget to scan them, you miss out. But apparently, in one of the patches, they no longer count since they automatically scanned. I haven't tested this out as my final Machine left to scan was a simple Grazer, one of the first docile machines you encounter. I missed this one because they don't spawn outside the starting areas of the map and there's no quests tied to them. So a little embarrassing there. But at least the trophy doesn't require you scan or even kill every variant of a machine as some machines can have like 3-7 variants.

There are 4 rather annoying trophies to get: "All Acquisition Machines Killed, All Recon Machines Killed, All Combat Machines Killed and All Transport Machines Killed". That's because the game doesn't track which of machines from the categories you've killed. You'll have to cross reference between a machine's entry in the notebook and how many machines you've killed on the statistics page to cross reference.

As for the rest of the trophies, they aren't very notable. They're either "do this story quest", or "do this optional side questline", or "craft/upgrade x things y times". Which are ok. Personally, I think it would have been better if the game swapped out some of the less interesting trophies that you'd get anyway (like "reach level 20/30/40/50") for more gameplay related ones as way of pushing the player towards trying out different tactics and ideas. The game has stuff like "Used all Elemental States- Inflicted every elemental state on an enemy at least once" and "Unlocked 3 Weapon Techniques- Unlocked a Weapon Technique for 3 different weapon classes". I like these types of trophies because they encourage the player to try out stuff in the gameplay which they could use in regular play. If I could suggest some replacement trophies, I'd have one for "Shock a machine's battery pack so they explode" and "Use Purgewater to inflict a status on a machine that it's normally resistant against" and "Inflict maximum damage to an enemy in the Plasma State". Stuff like that as a way to teach players more tricks.

So yeah, if you want a pretty simple platinum, Horizon Forbidden West is a good pick.

As for the game itself, it's good. I feel it's about par with the first game. HFW does have a lot of improvements like the new weapons and enemy types, and more customization. But also feels more bloated in places which drags down the experience. 

Let's start with the story. I had a really odd sinusoidal time with the story. The opening was great and really hooked me. I loved the idea of Aloy being under pressure and trying to live up to Sobeck and her interactions with Varl. But then the story sorta puts that on hold to deal with Embassy stuff which feels a lot like filler. Even Aloy herself is bored and unhappy at having to do that. Then my excitement picked up with the introduction of the rebels and how they use machines as well as what Sylens is up to. But then it dropped that while Aloy seemed to forget about that and instead helps out the local tribes with their problems. Then it picked up with Far Zenith etc.

Compare this to HZD. In that game, I found the story a lot more consistently engaging from start to finish. I think part of that is due to the premise of HZD. You were learning more about the world, and Aloy and the mystery of what is going on is introduced quite early on and involves a lot of these threads. This meant any new revealtion or plot point carried more weight and felt more special. Plus the main story was a lot shorter than HFW so it had a greater concentration of interesting missions.

HFW starts off at a disadvantage because the mystery of the world and Aloy's character is already known. The blight doesn't feel new or threatening enough to be interesting. Sylens and his time with HADES is interesting but that gets resolved surprisingly quickly. The story does pick up considerably when Aloy first encounters Far Zenith. They present the story with the mystery and intrigue it had been lacking but it comes around 1/3 into the story and even then, doesn't really get going until much later.

 I think one issue Horizon's world faces is that much of the backstory and lore for what the old World was like was already revealed in the first game and HFW only continues it rather than twists it or shows new sides to it.  Compare this to Fallout Games. Since much of the pre-war world wasn't shown as much nor was the pre-war culture and entities so homogenous, it allows for stuff like Vaults and other areas which reveal new stories about pre-war stuff and if any later survivors interact with it. So reading scraps of documents in Fallout often feels more engaging than in HFW. Which is a shame. I think it would have been more interesting if there were more wacky elements of Horizon's 2060's played more of a role in its present. HFW does have some things like the Embers and how it intersects with 2060's Las Vegas that I wish were more present. Like, how about some tribes take notes from the fictional Superheroes and movies of the time and use their theme song as their own? Horizon's world already has groups like Tenakth, Quen and Nora whose names and beliefs are based on misinterpretations of some past entity like Joint Force 10 and Norad but those tend to only be localized to the main quests rather than side stuff.

 

 Anyway, back to the main story.  Once Aloy encounters Far Zenith for the first time, things are a lot more engaging as they provide a more tangible threat as well as introduce more stakes and intrigue. They also make the interactions with the other side characters in the game more interesting. It's great talking to characters like Erend, Kotallo or Alva and getting their takes on the situation. These side characters also have their own optional questlines which are great and really expand on the cast and even Aloy at times in engaging ways.

 

The way the story juggles and frames many of its threads is handled quite odd though. For example, Regalla and her army are a persistent part in the first half of the story. But are then completely forgotten about until near the end of the game where Aloy decides to make her own plan to save the Tenakth and end the Civil War where that thread is resolved surprisingly fast. Or how Far Zenith feel really important in the latter half but get demoted in the final mission in favour of Tilda and later Nemiesis. It feels quite sudden. Like, it's not bad. I was certainly invested and enjoyed it but it didn't land as well as it could.

I am also mixed on the cliffhanger ending. Generally, I am not fond of cliffhangers in games because games have certain requirements that cliffhangers could hamstring. For one, games take years to develop so any continuation or resolution is a long time away. Even assuming the sequel does get made. The nature of game development is also quite flexible which means ideas that seemed good before may not work as well. A cliffhanger now means a sequel has to address what was set in the past. In addition, there's gameplay to consider. A cliffhanger dicates what the next game's opening would be like which may make it harder to make an interesting tutorial and build on the story at the same time.

But in HFW's case, there are some smart things done to help alleviate some of the issues. For one, nothing specific about Nemesis is known. The story doesn't say much about how exactly Nemesis works or what it looks like or how it plans to destroy Earth. Only basically, what it is in a broad sense, Nemesis is and its broad goals. This gives Horizon 3 a lot more wiggle room in how they want to address this premise without locking them into something specific.

 

But one challenge with the way Horizon handles its continuity is that even with recaps, I imagine it may be confusing for new players going forward. Horizon Forbidden West has quite a few main and side quests that rely on players being familiar with events of main and side quests from the last game. For example, the game makes the big revelation that Nil is the mysterious Red Rider if you complete all the gauntlet runs. I remember being confused for a sec on who Nil was until I remembered "oh yeah, this was the guy Aloy worked with to complete bandit camps with in the last game. And that I chose to kill". And given how many side characters and quests Aloy completes across the 2 games, if Horizon 3 continues this approach, I wonder if even people who've played the games may start having a hard time remembering what's happening?

As for the gameplay, it's good. It's mostly more of the same from HZD but there are a few complaints I have which I feel weaken the positives the game has.

For one, the game feels quite bloated in its design. Like, in HZD, once you completed a cauldron, you got the overrides and could use them right there and then. But HFW requires you go and kill machines to get specific parts so you can actually use the overrides you got from cauldrons. Which makes cauldrons feel less special. In fact, a lot of HFW involves a lot of crafting and looting to upgrade weapons and armour which I feel kills the pace and makes rewards a lot less interesting. Completing a quest and recieving a cool Hunter bow loses some of its appeal if it's worse than the upgraded Hunter bow I already have. I could spend the resources to upgrade said bow to make it better but I feel that kills the pace. Plus, I don't know if the Hunter Bow is better or more useful until I upgrade it and I may find something even better later which discourages really experimenting or trying out different weapons.

To compare it to other games, in Borderlands, loot is technically disposable. As you level up and progress through the game, you naturally gain higher level loot that replaces your older loot which can help the game feel fresh as you may alternate what kind of weapons you use as you play. In Assassin's Creed Odyessy, it's a somewhat similar system, but if you really like a particular peace of gear, you can pay a something expensive fee to bring that piece of gear up to your current level. In Call of Duty Multiplayer, you can customize certain weapons with attatchments which can change how a weapon operates. All of these games make it more fun to go around and find new gear.

I feel Horizon Forbidden West's arsenal would be more fun if instead of upgrading individual weapons and armour, the focus instead is placed on mods and coils. The game already has coils but they seem quite minor. This way, it feels more fun to instantly try out different weapons since mods are easily transferable between gear and you don't need to upgrade a weapon for it to be viable.

Another issue I have is towards navigation and interacting with the world. HFW has a climbing system similar to that of Assassin's Creed where Aloy can easily climb sheer rock faces and buildings with no issue. But unlike AC, HFW is quite arbitary with where Aloy can climb. There are plenty of cliffs and buildings that Aloy cannot climb that look exactly like cliffs and buildings that Aloy can climb. It can feel quite annoying and really break the flow to be climbing a mountain and have to stop because the yellow handholds don't extend any more for no reason. It's worse inside buildings, cauldrons and ruins since many of them turn off Aloy's ability to climb basic walls and railings that Aloy can normally climb right outside for the sake of the puzzle. In addition, many of the solutions to these puzzles are quite obtuse because instead of being able to use Aloy's default abilities to solve them, you need to figure out what obtuse set of actions are required. I remember looking up a few guides on Youtube when I got stuck and a lot of the comments on them echoed how unusual and obtuse the solutions were. For example, one of the ruins in Las Vegas requires you to move a crate across an area after you flood the area. The offical solution appears to be to lower the water again so you can push the crate in position. But the player can use the grapple hook the move the crate over water. Except in this location, the railings seem to block the grapple hook. I found a way to get Aloy to stand in a particular spot to the side to be able to pull the crate but it seemed that wasn't the intended solution despite being a mechanic in other parts of the game. 

Another example was in one of the ruins, you have to stack 2 crates to be able to reach a ledge. Except yo can sequence break it by performing a wall eject. But a similar puzzle later on seemigly disables Aloy's ability to do ejects at all.

I find this design really annoying and it pulls me out of the moment. Why have such cool mechanics like wall jumping and such interesting locations if the level seems designed to disallow such moves? I feel it would be more fun to have multiple ways of solving puzzles using different mechanics.

Speaking of which, the game has 4 kinds of new tools you can use to access more parts of the world. In a bit of Metroidvania-esque design, there are many locations you can't fully explore until you get tools later on in the game. These tools are an explosive to blow up red Firegleam Walls which can open holes in certain walls, special software to cause green Metal Flower Vine's to disappear, and a grappling hook for being able to pull on certain blue objects. These sound cool except they don't really change how you interact with objects. You see a wall with Firegleam? You blow it up. You see Metal Vines? You turn them off. They often feel more like how HMs in Pokemon games work.  The Grapple hook is a little more interesting as you can pull certain objects a certain amount so there's more thought required. But many times, you see a blue object, you grapple it and pull it.

I feel it would be more interesting if these tools had more interesting applications. For example, you could activate Metal Flowers as well so they could grow vines in certain directions. So puzzles could involve arranging certain patterns of vines to either walk/climb on. Or you could use the Grapple Hook to swing across points. Maybe combine the different tools together. I feel that would be more interesting than just "use tool".

The strongest aspect of the game is, just like its predecessor, combat. Fighting large machines using the assortment of weapons is still really fun. HFW makes a lot of effort to expand and improve these parts by giving Aloy more weapons, an entire new melee system with combos and special moves, new enemy types, and new skills and abilities. It's a blast. But much of the stuff around the game still feels like it's a generation old. The stealth is quite basic so Rebel Camps feel less advanced and dynamic than Far Cry 3 in 2012. The climbing feels less intuitive and fun that Uncharted 1 in 2007.

In conclusion, Horizon Forbidden West is a good time thanks to its combat and interesting story, and is an easy platinum to get. But the rather dull navigation and exploration bring it down.

Next up for me is God of War 2. See you then