Now is a great time to hop back into Horizon Forbidden West

Please note this article contains some minor story spoilers for Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West is a fantastic game with a terribly timed launch date. Sandwiched between two of the most anticipated launches of the year, Pokemon Legends Arceus in January and Elden Rings in March, dropping in February was a risky move and one that very much has not paid off.

In fact, as of this writing, only 14% of the people who own Horizon Forbidden West even beat the main story. Especially after Elden Rings dominated the market with people clambering to it for its guaranteed Twitch views.

Now, personally, I can’t get into Elden Rings. I’m not negging it, I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just not my jam. If everyone had to like the same thing there wouldn’t be so many snacks in a gas station. So instead of hopping into Elden Rings, I stayed behind to hang out with my good buddy Aloy in Horizon Forbidden West, and, lemme tell you, as someone’s who’s gotten far in the game, it gets better and better.

In fact, it often feels like every time I’ve gotten a grasp of how far and wide the game world extends, I encounter an event that opens the world up even more. I can’t even tell you how many days I played where all of a sudden something will happen and I’ll be like, “wait…did the game just start? Was this the intro? Oh my god.”

I play for about two hours a night, mostly exploring and saving the main story for last so I’ve been going through the game at a slow clip. If you would have told me last week that eventually, I’d get a futuristic hub base of operation complete with a bar I would have thought you were lying.

I also played this game for days without realizing that Horizon would eventually embrace the technological landscape of the previous world while also showcasing an interesting new problem brought on by the people who got the Earth into this state, creating some of the most punchable new villains I’ve ever wanted to punch. Genuinely terrible, nigh-invincible, hedonistic capitalists.

These characters combine the threatening presence of Thanos with the uncomfortable grossness of the American rich guys from the Squid Games and I never expected them.

Long story short, the fact that only 14% of the people who played this game beats it, tells me there’s a large percentage of people who’ve never even encountered the game truly opening up. Which, to me, is a point in which you have to go track down several powerful rogue A.I. across America including one that lays within the ruins of Las Vegas, a place I was genuinely excited to explore in this setting.

Looking at my trophies, I see that the percentile of people who’ve gotten ones after this point dips significantly and it’s a shame because the game is an absolute blast that offers amazing challenges and wonderful exploration and discovery.

Not to mention it is genuinely refreshing to see the level of humanity almost every character displays. And I personally love Aloy being more realistic in the terms of understanding she’s very capable but also feeling like it’s insane she has as much pressure on herself as she does. Her feelings towards the situation she’s in is such a nice change from the people who are like “*cocks shotgun* let’s do this.”

So, for real, if you got this game or are thinking of getting this game, dive into it. Its story, filled with all sorts of awesome discoveries and twists, shouldn’t be missed out on.