Topic: Horizon Forbidden West

@KilloWertz you get a reward if you do the whole lot once you go back to the main contractor.

@MightyDemon82 Yeah, I did that today. I'm wearing that outfit now, although it is a bit of an adjustment losing the weapon stamina bonus I had with the previous one.

I just put the difficulty down to 'story' and blitzed through the arena trials to get all of those weapons and outfits. Sure, it felt like cheating but it was so much easier and a lot better for the blood pressure.

Platinumed today, such a great game! Still got plenty to do for the 100%
Hope there is some DLC planned, was hoping the same for R&C.

@Jswift56 congrats. I hope we get new game+ and maybe a story DLC similar to frozen wilds as well. Still got about 8% to go to 100% but I've been playing some SpongeBob 😂

Deleted the 90 odd GB as it was taking up way too much space for something I wasn’t really enjoying. I’ll come back to it in a couple years, same as I did with the first game.

@nessisonett You're dead to me....

Hi All... bit of advice would be appreciated here. I'm currently pushing towards the ER platinum, only a few trophies left to mop up and finish.

Upon completing ER, next move is to tackle the Returnal DLC (Can't wait!) but I am sure I'll soon be ready for another open-world masterpiece.

I got the platinum on Ghost earlier this year, and have loved my time with ER also.

I'd really love to jump on HFW, but have 2 main questions:

1) My gaming time is limited, and I am slightly hesitant as I have not played HZD. I actually have this already (PS+) but with limited time I am unsure I want to invest 40+ hours in HZD, and would rather jump straight into the sequel. If I researched the story (YoutTube?) would I still appreciate HFW?
2) Difficulty - after Returnal and ER, I would like to challenge myself somewhat. I played Iki Island on 'Lethal' difficulty, which I felt was actually a really nice balance. What is the hardest difficulty on HFW? And is it ruthlessly brutal, or 'do-able' with some effort?

The game looks really cool, and right up my street, but I just want some opinions before I committ! Thanks

@CJD87 I absolutely would not recommend playing Forbidden West without first playing Zero Dawn. The story is pretty out there even when you've just played Zero Dawn like I had, and I can't imagine going in blind. You can also get Zero Dawn for cheap so it's a way better option for a game you're not sure about anyway.

Difficulty wise, it can get pretty spicy on the higher levels, but I don't think it's what I would say is fun, well balanced difficulty. Like, Elden Ring is hard in parts but it's built that way. It makes sense that way. Horizon on hard always seemed like okay let's just make everything take two weeks to kill and hit real hard.

My advice: pick up Horizon Zero Dawn and play it on normal as a chill(ish) game between bigger, tougher games.

@johncalmc Thanks for the tip mate, I actually already copped a free download of Horizon via PS+ (some months ago I think?) and found this on my SSD drive whilst doing som PS5 housekeeping ha.

Considering I already have HZD, you're probably right that this is a good move. Also I understand there is now a PS5/60FPS patch? Whilst I chip away at ZD, I suppose also there is every chance that FW might get a sale/discount I can keep an eye on

Appreciate the feedback and thanks!

@CJD87 Yep like @johncalmc says no way should you play HFW without first playing ZD. The story from the first part is so important to how things play out in the second, and without it you will have no idea of the back story to any of the characters or society.

I know there are plenty of people that wouldn’t agree but for me the world of Horizon is way more interesting than any other open world game and I’m including ER in that. Maybe it’s just because I’m a sucker for a good sci-fi story but there’s something about the way it all unfolds and the locations that just do it for me.

You could always just mainline the story in ZD as that won’t take you too long. You could then decide if you enjoyed it enough to go back for that ultra hard difficulty trophy that’s in the additional set.

Hope you enjoy it if you do play 👍

@render I actually do agree with this. I think Horizon is one of the best sci-fi worlds in any video game. I'm always surprised that people don't seem to be excited about the lore. Even in reviews for Forbidden West recently, hardly any praised the story which I thought was fantastic. But I do think the series asks a lot of the player as you have to find optional stuff to shed light on some of it. And if you're just racing through or not paying attention to audio diaries etc. then I can see how you might find it confusing or lacking context or whatever.

@velio84 @render - cheers guys, I am now convinced that HZD is definitely the way to go.

I'll kick it off under the plan that I'll tackle main story only... but potentially look at side-content also, if it grabs me enough.

I might double-dip on this whilst playing the Returnal DLC! Appreciate the feedback, will let you know how I get on!

@johncalmc Yeah you are right regarding the audio logs etc. They did a better job with those things in HFW as a lot more was told through interactions with other characters but the problem wasn't completely removed and quite a few of the optional conversations did drag on. I enjoyed that side of the game but I can imagine a lot of people just want to crack on so will just skip over a lot of it. I don't know myself how best to present that stuff but at least it's there if you want to dig deeper.

@CJD87 definitely like the others have said already, play Zero Dawn first. The Horizon series is my favourite of all the Sony first party stuff although I love them all.

Also like @render and @johncalmc have said It's one of the best sci-fi worlds in gaming and I can't wait for more!

@MightyDemon82 I'm convinced mate! Elden Ring platinum hopefully wrapped over the weekend... then HZD here I come

@CJD87 I'm jumping into Elden Ring once I've played some smaller games after spending 140 hours in HFW.

@CJD87 I dunno, I sense that you're only 99% convinced, so I'll give one more recommendation to playing Zero Dawn first. Or I just want to add myself to the list of people since I'm late to the "party".

Enjoy

@KilloWertz How are you getting on in the game?

I'm well convinced thanks to the unanimous feedback @RogerRoger !

And there was me, on the cusp of foolishly rushing out to buy HFW without tackling its predecessor..

Thanks to everyone who chipped in, I have full confidence to kick of with ZD - really looking forward to it