Recent reviews by Extemn

With my favorite game of all time being Horizon Zero Dawn, I came into this game with extremely low expectations. Not only did Zero Dawn have the best story in a video game, it also had an incredible combat system unlike anything I've ever seen before.

With this in mind, only a couple of hours into Forbidden West, I already realized that this game has not only preserved the outstanding combat from the first instalment, but actually managed to enhance it. The new skills system, as well as several new combat abilities change up the combat just that little bit from the first game, just enough to make it fresh and even slightly better.

As for the story, of course nothing will beat the original, but to my surprise it was actually an enjoyable ride. It still had some mystery and managed to draw me in just enough for me to get the feeling of the first game again. Many call the story mediocre, but I would argue that this is still one of the best stories in any game. I also enjoyed most of the side quests, maybe even more than the first game, so that was a great surprise.

Gonna start telling my boss that my sanity is low so I can sleep during work

The Stone War was more intense than the Battle of Helm's Deep.

A2 > 2B

You might be wondering, just like me, why this game had such a low score for a long time. Unfortunately the port was pretty bad for a long time and a lot of people had constant crashes. I can assure you that if you have a decent PC, this will not be an issue for you after the latest patches.

Horizon Zero Dawn never really appealed to me. I remember seeing the game back when it was released and I had zero interest in playing it. I had the completely wrong impression of it as I didn't know what it was actually about. After playing this game for only a couple of minutes I realized how wrong I was about my judgement of the game. This was nothing close to what I had imagined or expected this game to be.

After traversing the world for a couple of hours and seeing the huge map, I thought the game would eventually become boring or stale, or that the story would become dragged out considering the huge scope of the main quests and the characters accompanying it. Oh boy was I wrong. The further I got into the game, the more engaged I got. There was one point in the game during a huge reveal where I previously thought I would finally get the answers I was looking for and that the story would become redundant afterwards, where I realized that I only wanted more lore and more gameplay. I can't even describe how incredibly well written and in depth the story is and how well most, if not all of the characters are introduced and developed. The story made me feel as if I came out of a movie theatre after watching a movie for several days and I can honestly say that for me it was one of the best plots that I've ever witnessed in both movies and games.

Apart from the incredible story, the combat is also some of the smoothest and fun experiences I've had in a game in a long time. The systems are quite in depth, but at the same time very easy to learn. The skill tree is medium sized and mostly has abilities and traits that are actually meaningful. Too many times I see games adding a billion skills that are completely irrelevant or feel pointless, but almost all the skills in Horizon feel well crafted and thought through.

Again, I want to point out for those that haven't really followed this game or have any idea of what this game is about: I went into this game almost 4 years after its original release on PS and had zero expectations for it. I came out of this game having a new favourite game of all time. To be completely honest, even without the superb gameplay, this game would be more than enough for me if it only had the story. If you are hesitant like me to buy this game because you've seen some clips or trailers of it, I can assure you that no trailer will do this game justice. Try it yourself and I can assure you that you won't regret it.

PS: I played this game with a 3080 TUF and had zero crashes throughout my 80 hours of gameplay. Not only that - I NEVER went under 60 FPS playing in 4k at absolutely maxed out settings. I started off the game in 1440p for about 10 hours or so being at a stable 100-110 FPS, to then go over to 4k for the rest of the playthrough and even then I was hovering around 65-80 FPS consistently. Now of course not every person will have a 3080 or better GPU, but my point is that most semi-decent PCs should be able to run this game on decent settings with no problem. If you are afraid of the performance issues in previous patches, I can assure you that this is one of the best optimized games I have played in a long time after all the updates.

I want to start off by saying that I usually hate games that make you control multiple characters. I knew coming into this game what I was getting myself into, but even so I just couldn't get myself to play the game for a week or two after I had done the first (real) mission. The second I had to control a second character I just wanted to quit the game and never think about it again. Still, that week or two where I was not playing the game I was constantly thinking about the amazing sound, voice acting, graphic style and the small bit of gameplay that I had gone through and what the game might offer if I just force myself to play it for a little longer.

Fast forward a week or two and I finally sit down and get myself to play the next mission, this time telling myself that I would go through that mission no matter what. Well let me tell you that was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Not only did I start enjoying both the gameplay and story, but I basically got addicted to the game. Even though I was playing on hard and sometimes got stuck it usually just got me more excited and determined to finish that mission. It's been a long time since I've actually played a game to enjoy it and not wanting it to end, instead of mindlessly rushing towards the end.

If you enjoy the tactical stealth genre there is no question that you will enjoy this game. It provides a good bit of challenge on the higher difficulties and has some nice extra challenges in each mission if you want to challenge yourself even further. For those either new to the tactical stealth genre or are like me that either don't like the genre or don't like controlling multiple characters; try it. If you are playing it for the gameplay I very highly suggest playing on either Hard or Desperado difficulty as it becomes a completely different game. Other than that - just enjoy the ride as I have.

Completed all achievements, finished the game 4 times and looked at almost every easter egg possible. Would still play through the game again and again.