If you’ve never stepped into the fascinating world of Horizon Forbidden West, PC may be the best place to do so. The game, which forces console players to choose between frame rate and resolution, is now more eye-catching with the successful port of Nixxes Software.
Have you ever felt like you were all alone in the world? Or that when the fate of the world is in your hands, no one can help you but yourself? If your answer is no, it means you haven’t played. Horizon Zero Dawn. This is exactly what we felt in Horizon Zero Dawn, where our main hero Aloy embarked on a great adventure to save the world in a post-apocalyptic time. Yes, Horizon Zero Dawn was a truly amazing game, both graphically and in terms of storytelling. Therefore, for the sequel to do justice to its predecessor, it had to offer something different – so that it would not be subjected to criticism from the players.
As you know, when it comes to sequels, there are very few games that remain faithful to the original or improve themselves by adding something to it. We can’t blame the developers for this, after all, it is not easy to achieve success in Assassin’s Creed 2. However, Horizon’s sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, is very close to the same success, although not as much as Assassin’s Creed 2. And even better, although two years have passed since its release, it has now been released on PC with the inclusion of the Burning Shores add-on package under the name “Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition”; And it’s perfectly ported.
Horizon Forbidden West is exactly as expected on PC. Nixxes Software, which Sony bought to make PC ports of Playstation games, did its job so well that the game is almost identical to the PlayStation version. Graphics quality and performance completely depend on your hardware. Of course, the graphics settings are naturally more detailed. If you have a powerful enough computer, we can say that, first of all, it will leave your mouth open with its graphics. So we can say that PC is now the best place to experience the second part of Aloy’s journey.
Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition Story
First of all, we need to briefly talk about the story of the game for those who do not know. The reason is that Forbidden West continues the story of the previous game. “Can’t we play this game before we play the first game?” For those who say; Our short answer is yes. You are even shown a summary of the first game at the beginning of the game. However, we definitely recommend that you play the first game to become fully familiar with everything. However, let’s talk a little about the story without giving spoilers.
The first game is set in the 31st century after a technological disaster in the mid-21st century caused war machines to destroy all life on Earth. Although a project called Zero Dawn has been launched to restore life and pass it on to future generations, this project is being sabotaged. As a result, people begin to live in tribes with little technology knowledge. But while humans live peacefully with the machines in the 31st century, an unknown signal causes them to become unstable and attack tribes across the land. Our hero, Aloy, embarks on a long adventure to stop this bad trend.
Forbidden West takes place approximately six months after the end of the first game. But Aloy is no longer in familiar territory, but in the old United States of America, referred to as the Forbidden West. His aim here is to find a copy of the artificial intelligence called GAIA. Because he thinks that activating this copy will save the world from the disaster that devastated it. To do this, he needs to restore GAIA to its full capacity and repair Zero Dawn’s terraforming system. By the way, for those who don’t know, let us point out that GAIA is a helpful artificial intelligence supported by 9 subsoftware designed to perform certain tasks in the Zero Dawn project.
Now, from this point on, we won’t go too deep into the story so as not to undermine your enjoyment of the game. However, we can say that one of the things that form the essence of the story is Aloy’s relationships with other characters. Those who played the first game know that Aloy doesn’t have many meaningful relationships because she grew up being ostracized by her tribe. However, in Forbidden West, he begins to form strong bonds with other characters. After all, he can’t save the world without help. But Aloy is still as we know her; cold-blooded and composed.
Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition Gameplay Mechanics
In terms of gameplay, Forbidden West builds on the open-world formula of the first game and improves on some aspects. As in the first game, we can hide in tall grass, if we find the right tool, we can stay underwater as long as we want, or we can ride some machines to travel faster. We can even fly with a pterodactyl in the later parts of the game. By the way, don’t worry if you don’t have your robotic bird with you, you now have the opportunity to glide down the slopes with an electronic parachute. In short, the game offers you many options so that you can travel comfortably.
The reason there are so many travel options is that there is a big map to explore. The best part of the map is that each environment is beautiful and different from each other. There are tons of places to explore, including mountainous forests, snowy peaks, deserts, and coastlines. There are also many puzzles to solve here. The puzzles are neither too difficult nor too easy. If you’re having trouble, the game will quickly offer you a solution.
Speaking of the game’s battle mechanics, there are a few improvements here as well. Many weapons have been added to the game that are useful in different scenarios, such as a spear thrower and a boomerang-throwing gauntlet. However, we mostly use spears and various arrows on our bow. However, we can craft elemental weapons, and each machine has weaknesses and strengths against different elements. Therefore, battles are now much more enjoyable. Additionally, the variety of enemies has increased and they all behave differently from each other. For example, one robot can jump into the air and swing its tail towards you, while another can go underground and come out behind you. Since this forces you to think and strategize, the game does not repeat itself.
The last thing to mention on the gameplay side is the renewed skill tree. There are now 6 categories in the skill tree, instead of 3. The most exciting part here is the new Valor Surge system. We can simply call Valor Surge a superpower that develops over time and can change the course of war in an instant. Some of these grant extra health or shield, while others increase ranged or melee damage.
Are Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition Controls Comfortable on PC?
Perhaps the biggest drawback of the PC version of Horizon Forbidden West is that the mouse and keyboard controls are weak compared to playing with a DualSense controller. Frankly, it takes some time to get used to the controls. For example, the CTRL key is used both for rolling and for performing some platform movements. Therefore, you need to readjust the controls to suit yourself.,
However, once you get used to the controls, playing with the mouse and keyboard does not cause any problems. However, for those who have experienced playing with DualSense before, the lack of features such as haptic feedback and adaptive triggers may create some space. Of course, if you have a PS5 DualSense controller, you can also use it on PC. Although some users stated that they experienced performance problems while playing with the controller, these problems have most likely been resolved. We managed to run it stably without any problems while playing.
By the way, let us point out that there is no cross-save feature in the PC version of the game. This means that you do not have the opportunity to continue the game from where you left off on your PS5. I guess Sony’s focus is only on PC players who haven’t played the game before.
What Does Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition Look Like on PC?
Let’s get to the most important part. Since we’ve reviewed the PS5 version of Forbidden West before, we won’t go into too much detail. As we have already stated the game offers a visual feast with the power of PS5. However, with its advanced graphics settings, the Forbidden West looks much more fascinating than on PS5. Vegetation, settlements, apocalyptic ruins around, robots, and characters; It is magnificent in every detail. Character models are detailed and beautiful, just like on PS5. But above all, the best part is that we can see everything at a high frame rate.
We played the game on a laptop with an RTX 4090 graphics card and got an average of 120 fps with all settings at the highest. However, Nixxes has made the PC port so well that the game can be played comfortably even on a computer with RTX 3060 Ti with all settings at the highest. So, if your computer has very high hardware, do not be afraid, Nixxes has been very meticulous in this regard. Additionally, in the settings section, there are all the settings a PC user could want; There are many things like widescreen support, DLSS, FSR, and triple monitor support.
By the way, it is also possible to play the game on Steam Deck. Of course, we can say that some fine-tuning is required. The frame rate it offers at the default resolution of 1280×800 varies between 25-45 depending on the environment. Don’t be fooled by the very low resolution, the game still looks very nice.
Conclusion
To sum up, Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition is a prime example of how a PC port should be done. Nixxes needs to teach other companies a lesson on this issue. You no longer have to choose between resolution and performance like on the PS5. We hope that all console games coming to PC from now on will be optimized in this way. If you haven’t played Horizon Forbidden West on PS5 or PS4 before, the best device for it is now clear; Of course, if you have sufficient equipment.
Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition System Requirements
Minimum System Requirements
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i3-8100 / AMD Ryzen 3 1300X
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB / AMD Radeon RX 5500XT 4GB
Storage: 150 GB available space
Recommended System Requirements
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher)
Processor: Intel Core i5-8600 / AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 / AMD Radeon RX 5700
Storage: 150 GB available space
