Horizon Forbidden West: New Gameplay And Mechanic Features

Just like most videogame sequels, Horizon Forbidden West introduces fans of the series to many new gameplay and mechanic features to help make the game stand out from its critically-acclaimed predecessor, Horizon Zero Dawn, and to help PlayStation fans across the world experience an even better journey.

Guerrilla Games have implemented these new game mechanics into Forbidden West to further enhance gamers’ enjoyment and engagement throughout their new Horizon journey, implementing features to help the game feel more freeing, natural, interesting, and fun. From applying the PlayStation 5’s new Dualsense haptic feedback features to adding ways for gamers’ to adventure in their preferred playstyle, these new mechanics truly elevate Forbidden West to become one of the PS5’s greatest games yet.

Weapon Upgrade Workbench

Throughout players’ journeys across the Forbidden West, adequate weaponry and armor are essential for every gamer if they wish to survive. Luckily, a great and convenient new feature introduced in Forbidden West is weapon upgrade workbenches, which can be found in Settlements across the map.

Weapons, pouches, outfits, potions, and special gear can all be upgraded at the workbench, increasing their base stats, and making them better for Aloy overall. Furthermore, these upgrades can also improve specific skills the player may have unlocked, as some of Aloy’s outfits were specifically crafted for skills in mind. If the player does not have the required materials to upgrade, then they can create a small quest to collect the materials – a neat feature that’ll help tonnes of gamers throughout their journeys.

Lots Of New Machines

One of the Horizon franchise’s most defining factors is the machine enemies that travel across the overworld and have become Earth’s dominant race in this tragically beautiful dystopian future. Although Zero Dawn featured many types of machines, they were quite similar – so Forbidden West has introduced a diverse range of new machine types.

These new machines are great additions to the franchise, adding a whole new level of difficulty and a plethora of new challenges for gamers to face, due to the new machines being a lot bigger, stronger, and smarter than the old ones. Ranging from the huge snake-like Slitherfang to the aquatic Tideripper, these beasts force players to rapidly strategize and approach with extreme caution and are a fun new mechanic that keeps the gameplay fresh and exciting.

New Combat Mechanics

One of Horizon Zero Dawn’s biggest criticisms was its boring and repetitive combat, so naturally many fans were rightfully worried about Forbidden West’s combat mechanics. However, Guerrilla Games managed to make Aloy’s fighting very exciting in Forbidden West, adding many much-needed new combat gameplay features.

Alongside many new moves for Aloy to perform, such as the Resonator Blast, which relies on landing multiple melee hits and charging up Aloy’s spear to cause an explosion, Guerrilla Games also added Valor Surges. This fantastic new addition is a way for Aloy to release very powerful attacks by achieving strategic goals, such as knocking off certain parts of enemy machines. There are 12 valor surges available so they can fit any gamer’s playstyle, helping make combat situations more intense and diverse.

The New Skill Tree

At its core, both games in the Horizon franchise so far are RPGs, and share elements with other RPG games, such as obtainable skills. Just like in many similar games to Forbidden West, a structured skill tree has been introduced to help players keep track of their skill progression and chosen playstyle.

There are six skill classes the player can choose from in Horzion Forbidden West: Warrior, Trapper, Hunter, Survivor, Infiltrator, and Machine Master. Each class presents a different playstyle that gamers can proceed with, offering unique ways for fans to experience their journey as Aloy across the dystopian Forbidden West, and adding multiple different reasons as to why players should consider replaying the game.

Mounted Combat

Another feature of Zero Dawn that was highly criticized was its human enemies. These enemies were boring to deal with, easy to fight, and just downright silly, wasting gamers’ time more than enhancing it. Luckily, Guerrilla Games have massively improved human enemies in Forbidden West, even allowing humans to mount tamed machines to face off against Aloy.

Many Reddit fans agree that Zero Dawn’s combat was boring, so it’s fantastic to see Guerrilla change it up in interesting ways. Furthermore, human enemies have their classes and their behavior is reflected even when they ride upon the machines, so for example Champion class enemies will make eye contact, remain calm, and look for Aloy’s weaknesses. Mounted enemies create a whole new challenge for players to experience, ensuring Forbidden West’s combat stays exciting throughout the game’s duration.

New Weapons And Weapon Upgrades

Although expected, some of Forbidden West’s best new gameplay mechanics come in the form of Aloy’s much-needed game-changing new weaponry and weapon upgrades.

Players can upgrade Aloy’s weapons at workbenches to increase their base stats and make them overall more powerful, giving players the edge over both human and mechanical enemies. Furthermore, Guerrilla Games has given every one of Aloy’s weapons multiple ammunition types, such as the Blast Sling’s new Adhesive and Cluster Grenades – helping to revamp Horizon’s combat even more and make conflicts much more exciting for gamers. Excitingly, Forbidden West introduces multiple brand new weapons to Aloy’s arsenal to keep fighting fresh and fun, such as the deadly Spike Thrower, which damages enemies by launching explosive javelins at them. Brutal!

Gliding

Seemingly inspired by The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of the Wild, gliding makes its long-awaited debut in the Horizon series with Forbidden West, allowing Aloy to get to tricky-to-reach locations with relative ease.

Forbidden West is one of the PlayStation 5’s most visually stunning games yet, and the Shieldwing Glider allows players to soar high above the beautiful open world and witness its breathtaking craftsmanship, as well as allows players to reach specific locations quickly that they could not previously climb to. The Shieldwing was a much-needed mechanic, can be obtained after the game’s fourth mission ‘The Embassy’, and helps gamers truly appreciate and respect the amount of effort Guerrilla Games have put into Horizon Forbidden West.

Underwater Exploration

Horizon Forbidden West expands upon its predecessors’ open-world map to include multiple new areas, some of which happen to be underwater – allowing gamers to explore a previously-uncharted part of the world.

Underwater gameplay was something that many fans expected to see in Forbidden West, so it is understandable as to why Guerrilla put so much effort into the game’s underwater sections. On top of enhancing players’ freedom, the underwater section also elevates combat mechanics to a whole new level, by having Aloy face off against machines whilst underwater, helping to make Forbidden West’s combat gameplay even more exciting and intense.

New Traversal Mechanics

Alongside Guerrilla’s huge Horizon map expansion, it’s only right that there was a big expansion in traversal mechanics, to help players travel across the open world at their own pace, in exciting new ways.

Forbidden West’s traversal mechanics were designed from the ground up to be interconnected, providing the player with the tools and skills necessary to travel around the world with ease. The new Pullcaster tool, for example, allows players to grapple from grapple points, allowing them to gain height with ease, through climbing or swinging. The tool also allows for the destruction of the environment – adding another layer of immersion. This mechanic, mixed with Aloy’s free-climbing and other methods, combine to create a seemingly natural flow of movement for the player, increasing that feeling of freedom and exploration that Forbidden West does so well.

Dualsense Features

Although rumble mechanics have been around for multiple gaming generations, the PlayStation 5 takes it to a whole new level with its haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.

These Dualsense mechanics are intended to increase immersion – and Forbidden West takes advantage of them. For example, when Aloy prepares to fire an arrow, the player will feel that tension build up in the trigger, and feel the quick release of the arrow. This occurs with everything Aloy does throughout the game, such as fighting and climbing, and helps deliver an unrivaled feeling of satisfying immersion that elevates Horizon Forbidden West from just a videogame to an experience.

About The Author