Horizon: Forbidden West is a huge game filled to the brim with story content, and most of it is good too, be it the central plot or the side quests. The game takes place in a well-thought-out world; that said, if players look below the surface, then they might start to question the logic at play.
Most of these things relate to the mechanics of Horizon Forbidden West. They go beyond simple clichés that plague other games too. For example, players may question how Aloy can carry near unlimited amounts of items without a backpack. That’s strange, sure, but there is more to question here. There will be some spoilers.
8 Making Small Talk
The world is on the brink of destruction which makes Aloy cold towards people in Horizon Forbidden West. She has a mission and she needs to stick to it. Aloy won’t even ask for help from her friends. If she is in a rush to save the world then why bother with side quests?
Moreover, why sit down with a stranger and listen to gossip? That is one of the funnier situations players can find themselves in. Aloy caring about gossip is something that does not really seem to fit.
7 Aloy Getting Hurt
Technology is the main source of power in Horizon Forbidden West, but magic goes along with that. For example, the idea that a few berries can heal Aloy’s wounds in an instant is pure magic. She gets hit with claws, lasers, arrows, fireballs, and so on.
This comes at odds whenever the story shows her getting hurt like the Cauldron mission right before Plainsong. She can barely walk, so Varl convinces her to sleep it off. The time that passes is never said. Either way, the healing items should have made things better instantaneously.
6 Running Through Lava
One of the more wild missions in the game sees Aloy head into the tomb of Ted Faro. It’s supposed to be his Vault but he decorated it to look like an old Egyptian tomb. It is even booby-trapped to explode with lava if he does. This guy watched too much Aladdin as a kid.
This is real lava too which people melt into, but that does not extend to Aloy. Players will get damaged from the lava if they run through it but they won’t instantly die. It’s hard to imagine anyone surviving a plunge into lava.
5 Should Have Taken Back Verbena
One of the biggest revelations in Horizon Forbidden West is the discovery of the Zeniths. These people left Earth before the calamity and lived in space for hundreds of years. They surpassed all technology and even the meaning of death.
At first, players only see three of them; later on, Verbena is introduced, and she is fighting off some rebels before she dies. Even though she was a stranger to Aloy and dead, the latter should have taken her body back to base. Imagine the technology she could have cooked up from studying Verbena’s suit.
4 Not Scrapping Entire Machines
Characters not using the materials that lay before them is one of the most senseless things in the series. Verbena was one example in Horizon Forbidden West specifically, and another relates to the machines. Players can collect loot off of their bodies like currencies from RPGs, metal shards. There are also parts used for creating and upgrading gear.
Why aren’t entire machines used for parts though? If they were torn apart from head to tail, these people may have made guns by now. Maybe they could even make Kotallo a new arm.
3 No One Else Could Get The Shieldwing?
Horizon Forbidden West has Metroidvania elements in it. Aloy will get various gadgets throughout the adventure which can help with traversal. One of the earliest upgrades is the Shieldwing. This is a glider that can send players soaring through the skies.
As a small spoiler, players will also be able to fly via a machine mount later in the game. This Shieldwing was originally just a shield before Aloy managed to repurpose it for a glider. Plenty of other rebels have these shields. Why not collect and give them to friends at the base?
2 Accessing Places
Technology going to waste is a rampant problem in this series. This doesn’t just apply to leaving tech on the ground, as it also occurs with gadgets seemingly most explorers in the wastes have.
Aloy has a grappling hook that she uses to rappel down high peaks, and its rope looks fairly long. It’s weird then that players can’t use it to climb more locations. It’s also weird whenever an opening Aloy can clearly get through is blocked by an invisible wall. There are openings in buildings, for example. If Aloy just crouched through them then she could get at items easier.
1 Destroying The Bulwark
One of the wildest things Aloy does in this story is to destroy the Bulwark. This is a massive fortress that has one weakness: there is an explosive material hiding in the rocks. Aloy only saw this because of her Focus. She gets a gun from a machine and then shoots at it thus blowing up the wall.
Seemingly no one got hurt in the explosion, but something could have gone terribly wrong. Aloy endangered those people to the elements. Yes, the leader was being pigheaded but in turn, so was Aloy. Who destroys a city to prove a point? Villains do.
Horizon Forbidden Westwas released on February 18, 2022 and is available on PS4 and PS5.
