Horizon Forbidden West

FUUUUUUCK I wanted to love this so bad because the first game was such a wonderful experience to me but I just couldn’t. I wasn’t compelled by the story, or the characters, or the dialogue, or the monotonous crafting, or the really aggravating climbing. There’s just too much going on that is wildly unnecessary with how streamlined the first one felt. It’s like all the characters were pumped through this criteria that didn’t exist in the first game where everyone speaks in an almost cartoon way I couldn’t take most of the characters seriously. For as gigantic as the map is you are forced through it in a very odd way that doesn’t make it seem as expansive as the first game even though it must be larger by size. I also expected way more of San Francisco since the original gameplay for this game featured it. The pacing just did not do it for me BUT the combat still felt pretty snappy even tho my aim is horrible. The creatures are great and the overdrive system is expanded more in a good way especially all the skills you can unlock you can cater Aloy to a very unique play style even though I didn’t really take the time to do that. This game just overall felt off to me and it was underwhelming, but I will give credit where it’s due, the game is gorgeous, some well staged boss fights, the map is incredible when you take the time to explore. OH and the swimming mechanics I did not enjoy any swimming section I was truly not looking forward to doing. All in all, worth playing if you like the first game and are invested in the characters, as well as for people who like that fallout side mission fetch quest gameplay loop (a majority of this game feels like that).