Horizon Forbidden West was a much bigger journey for Aloy than Zero Dawn, and to see her grow alongside friends close to her, both new and old, gave us so many more reasons to care. While Burning Shores might not make huge leaps and strides beyond the base game, it does give us a deeper and more significant look into Aloy as a person, and concludes in what I consider a new high point for the series.
Most of Burning Shores is extremely familiar: you explore island ruins that feel less like Los Angeles and more like an extension of the main game’s San Francisco area - a city is still a city and might very well look the same after a few centuries unattended, but it would have been nice to have it feel a little more refreshing. There are lava streams and volcanic environments scattered throughout the Burning Shores, and while the game is still beautiful, it all feels a little too scattered.
What does feel refreshing is the newly introduced boat. After Aloy arrives in the Burning Shores, she is unable to summon her Sunwing to fly, and in place of this, the game offers a motorized boat to get around. Sailing between flooded ruins actually makes exploring the map a little more exciting and encouraging, which is great - right up until one mission later and you have your Sunwing back. Forget sailing and climbing and seeing daunting ruins loom over you, why not just fly again? This made the boat feel a little pointless, and while I could just not fly and choose the new option, why would I? It would have been good to be stuck on the ground (and sea) for a while longer.
Picking up directly after the end of Forbidden West, Burning Shores shines in its narrative with one character in particular, Sekya, who steals the show and sets her part to play in future games. After Aloy and Sekya meet, they are quick to engage in an entertaining dynamic as they work together, bouncing off each other in ways that are a joy to watch; they bicker, they joke, and they grow closer. While we’ve seen Aloy work alongside friends and strangers in both Forbidden West and Zero Dawn, Seyka takes it one step further. As a bold and intrepid character, she matches Aloy’s sense of wonder and adventure, and it shows in their nuanced relationship.
Burning Shores doesn’t do much new or exciting, but does bring in some mechanics that are fun but lack substance, and only introduces one significant new character - so is it worth playing? Absolutely. While I’ll leave the specifics for you to discover yourself, Burning Shores’ ending is easily worth the price of admission given how it will factor into the series’ future.
Aloy and Seyka come together in a final battle that not only rivals that of the base game, but surpasses it remarkably. It rivals boss fights in so many other triple-A blockbusters out there right now, setting a new bar for the biggest upcoming current-gen games. It made the whole journey worthwhile, and while the otherwise standard experience didn’t lean too heavily into a motivational build-up, it all but immediately had me encapsulated with a climactic battle that, even if I had imagined it, still wouldn’t have come close to what we actually get to see.
Burning Shores first seemed lackluster in comparison to previous expansions in the series. Frozen Wilds was a refreshing addition to Zero Dawn, and Forbidden West was an even bigger step up, so the slow start in treading familiar territory made me feel like Horizon had potentially lost its flame. I’m so glad to be proven wrong, as it still burns as bright as ever, and with a dauntless new character taking part in one of the most momentous fights we’ve ever seen Aloy face. After this, I’m even more excited to see where the story goes next.
Horizon Forbidden: West
Horizon Forbidden West again follows Aloy as she navigates a post-catastrophic world populated by mechanical fauna. She must travel west into unknown territory in order to find a GAIA backup and save the planet's biosphere.
