Horizon Forbidden West Review - Sony's Answer to Zelda

[victor83fernandes]

Qwark said:

Horizon has its own merits which makes it stand out. Enemy design or better said the machines are among the best enemies ever created in an open world game. Also where the main quest is linear the game gives you a lot of freedom how to deal with enemies, it's not just shooting or slamming them with a stick and every option is always available.

A Thunderjaw would make a good boss fight in most games, Horizon just have them as a regular enemy. The story is pretty interesting and characters have much more character than in HZD. Comparing this game with Elden Ring and Zelda is pointless because they are massively different.

Story wise Zelda and Elden Ring don't offer much, unless you count a few cutscenes and a recycled plot (within the same franchise) as a good story. Combat is an area where mostly Elden Ring is very successful, but in a totally different way. Where Horizon offers freedom galore in ways of taking enemies down, you specialise a build in Elden Ring to take down enemies with either Heavy slow weapons, Light and fast weapons or with magic.

Each of these games have their own pros and cons. Horizon doesn't offer much in puzzles and mostly relies on its combat, story and presentation. Elden Ring and Zelda go for freedom. Elden Ring has its difficulty and learn by doing concept nailed it's tough, but also fair. Zelda relies much more on its puzzles and exploring. Each great games in their own regard.

I thought story was not only better, but also better presented in breath of the wild, more memorable, presented with its own style. Where in horizon is just generic story telling just like assassins creed or any other open world game. Gameplay is not even close, in zelda he gets out of stamina climbing stuff or swimming etc, also temperature of the world matters in zelda, you might die of heat or cold if not dressed appropriately. There's a much bigger sense of survival in zelda you need to cook and eat and stuff. Also there's no map littered with fetch quests, its your own adventure, you put the markers on the map yourself and you have to discover stuff yourself. Characters also have a lot more heart and individuality, unlike the boring characters of most open world games including horizon. Bosses also are way different from each other and you tackle them very differently, unlike horizon which is always the same, attack weak spots until you kill.

Zelda never gets boring, while on the last third of horizon I was getting bored of doing the same stuff all the time and the dialogue was boring me to death.

Also, zelda tends to be more difficult, which I love, I thought horizon was too easy on hardest. While I still haven't beaten a part in Zelda which I haven't figure out how to do damage on a boss. I never look on the internet for clues, I like to find out for myself, it makes it exciting and you feel rewarded.

With that said, I love horizon, finished the first one 3x but its nowhere near zelda.

Nintendo just has a way of making their games special, magical, same with pikmin or advance wars, they do strategy like no one else, its unique games with a lot of heart put into them, unlike most other games that are just by the numbers, only improving graphics.

Take out graphics and most modern games would be horrible.