In Riddley Walker, the 1980 science fiction classic by Russell Hoban, the protagonist of the same name tries to make sense of a world that has long since disappeared. 2,000 years after the atomic apocalypse, Riddley and the survivors explore the remains and use them to reconstruct their own new reality.
Former cities become mythical places, dolls found in the rubble are chosen as deities, the language consists only of fragments of English and old machines are one of the most important resources, although their origin remains a mystery to people.
There are parallels between Riddley Walker and the computer game series Horizon, because here too "the old ones" are just as omnipresent as they are intangible. 1,000 years ago, self-replicating machines took over the world, throwing humans back to pre-industrial times.
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These then lived more or less in co-existence with the machines, which they, like the people in Riddley Walker, occasionally cannibalize for their components, but whose existence they neither can nor want to explain. Until one day, a threatening event forces them to understand their past and the history of the "elders" correctly.
With this premise, the open-world adventure Horizon: Zero Dawn began in 2017. And with this premise continues Horizon: Forbidden West, which will be released next Friday, February 18th, exclusively for the PlayStation 4 and 5. It is the first gaming highlight of the year and the expectations are correspondingly high after the success of the predecessor. Can the game fulfill them? zaviewsports was able to test it two weeks before release and draw an initial conclusion.
With bow and arrow against robosaurs
Horizon: Forbidden West picks up just a few months after the events of its predecessor. The uprising of the machines, brought about by a mysterious signal, could be repelled for the time being thanks to the brave young protagonist Aloy.
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But the danger is not over; a world-spanning artificial intelligence called GAIA, created by an earlier civilization at the last second to stop the machines destroying the world, has splintered and partially corrupted. Instead of keeping the world and its flora and fauna in balance, the machines are gradually wiping them out. To stop this, Aloy has to rebuild the GAIA system.
However, between the protagonist and the data centers scattered around the world are not only countless hostile machines and impenetrable ruins, but also different peoples who do not get along well with each other. In the course of the game, it is not only Aloy's task to save the world from the machines, but also to reconcile the people and win allies.
Aloy, the "savior of Meridian", as she is known in every small camp after the events in Zero Dawn , succeeds , of course, not only because of her down-to-earth approach and youthful charm.
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With the help of a special chip, the "Focus", she can see things in the world that remain hidden from others; Thanks to him, she can access old computers and thus gain knowledge about her own past as well as the present: For example, which weak points have which machines and how best to kill them with a bow and arrow, spear or crossbow.
This contrast between Stone Age and hypertechnology already fascinated in the predecessor. And in Forbidden West , too, it's great fun to have killed a giant machine after a ten-minute skirmish and pocket its iron tusk as a trophy. The machines once again look impressive, regardless of whether they are comparatively harmless electric horses or fire-breathing metal colossuses reminiscent of dinosaurs.
Each machine has special components that Aloy in turn needs to gradually improve her equipment. With around a dozen different types of arrows, an arsenal of bows, slingshots, traps and a complex system of skills that you can gradually unlock, it's not always easy to make the right choice. And especially for players who are not yet very familiar with this type of game, the numerous combinations and actions within the game can be challenging.
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Especially since the fights are tough: Horizon: Forbidden West is an action game, and even if it is sometimes reminiscent of a " Red Dead Redemption in the future", the constant fights with machines and rebels stand for exploring the game world, which is the west of the USA is modeled in the way. Because while in the western epic Red Dead Redemption the game world itself took on a leading role in the sense of " nature gaming " and with its rough ubiquity encouraged the players to explore even the darkest forests, it is in Horizon: Forbidden West above all, something that needs to be bridged: you literally rush from one box of old junk hidden in the ruins to the next and try to avoid machines.
There are certainly places that invite you to linger. The further you progress in the story of Forbidden West, the more you get amazed: There are settlements that were built by the indigenous peoples like a giant orchid in the landscape. There are mountain peaks from which to watch the sunset over the canyon. There are skeletons of machines of yesteryear, standing like warning monuments in the wilderness, rusted and overgrown. And at one point, the sand-covered ruins of Las Vegas are lit up once more, like the neon-colored slideshow of a bygone civilization.
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This looks fantastic, especially on the PlayStation 5 and in combination with a 4K TV. Nevertheless, there is always a distance between the game world and the players. This is mainly because there is simply too much to do.
Like its predecessor, Horizon: Forbidden West falls into the trap of many open-world games that give the players as many tasks as possible so that it doesn't get boring. You can still overlook the usual bring-A-to-B missions, puzzle passages and mini-games. But the background story is so overloaded that it could easily fill five science fiction films - or five video games.
The pieces of GAIA that Aloy must find are only part of the story. It is also about Aloy's personal origins, about planets millions of light years away, about space travellers, about clones and about conspiracies between companies, billionaires and hackers that took place 1,000 years ago. Not to mention the conflicts that exist between the different peoples in the present and that Aloy also has to solve on her way.
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Sounds like a lot? It is. It's a lot of information to understand. No wonder the protagonist sometimes seems like a driven person who leaves her best friends and companions at one point, literally somewhere in the desert between bloodthirsty machines, to tackle the next task. Only after about 15 hours in the main story does the game find a long overdue anchor in the narrative that makes the story more personal and therefore more tangible. For spoiler reasons, it should not be revealed at this point.
"Horizon: Forbidden West" is pleasantly diverse
What we can reveal is that Horizon: Forbidden West attracts attention not least because of its diverse cast. The protagonist, who stands out with her mixture of physical strength and charismatic swag, is joined by numerous strong women who don't just play supporting roles. One of the game's main antagonists is a black rebel who uses the machines to try to wipe out the various tribes. In general, it is often the women who show the men the way in Forbidden West.
There are also white, black, thin, fat, young, old, and disabled people that Aloy meets throughout her adventure and, and this is the good news, aren't singled out for their phenotype. They are just there. The apocalypse may not have done away with warfare and cheating among humans, but it did do away with some prejudice.
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While Horizon: Zero Dawn was still a surprise hit, expectations are high for Forbidden West as one of the PlayStation blockbusters of the year. The game can largely fulfill this, because it builds on the strengths of the predecessor almost seamlessly and at the same time goes even further in terms of scope and bombast.
The game world and its contrast of technologies and epochs is uninterruptedly captivating, even if the story sometimes runs the risk of wanting to take all the tropes of science fiction history with it, and the search for explanations of the past degenerates into archiving sound snippets and a permanent hunt for machines. On the other hand, if you have 1,000 years of history to discover and the end of the world in front of your eyes, you may not have time to marvel at the sunset.
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