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Horizon Forbidden West
Sep. 15th, 2023 01:27 pm I am a sony guy, so I knew I would be picking up the PS5 when they announced it. But not right away, probably several years down the road. My PS4 was chugging along just fine. Then they announced that the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn would release with the PS5, and my timeline moved up. I finally got one this summer--only 2ish years after release--and proceeded to replay Horizon Zero Dawn to fully prepare myself for Horizon Forbidden West. I'm glad I did so, not only for narrative reasons, but because I was able to immediately appreciate the improvements in design.
HZD follows Aloy, who was born into a tribal society called the Nora but was an outcast from birth. She was raised by Rost, another outcast but not her father, and spent the bulk of her life training for a Nora rite of passage called The Proving which, if won, would allow her to finally fully join the tribe she'd always been outside of, looking in. Naturally The Proving brings with it events which destroy everything Aloy thought she knew about herself, and her world, and set her on a journey to learn more.
You, the player, an inhabitant of 21st century Earth, are probably somewhat familiar with some of the ruins Aloy encounters. You realize that she is on Earth, somewhere in the America midwest, some many centuries on from you. You don't know how your world came to resemble hers, and neither does she. You are on a journey together. It's a good journey--Aloy discovers the truth about her origins, comes to know many members of the Carja and Oseram, the other peoples living in the region, and along the way defeats an AI determined to set off an extinction event.
Horizon Forbidden West picks up some months after the conclusion of HZD, and finds Aloy on her own, searching ancient ruins for another AI. Her Nora friend Varl finds her and scolds her for running off after they defeated the big bad, and Aloy is, well. Kind of a bitch to him? It's great. It's the first of many progressions in her character, and it's one that makes a lot of sense. Aloy has seen behind the curtain into the workings which created her civilization. It's understandable how that would distance a person from others, particularly when she was already accustomed to thinking of herself as an outsider. Varl, bless him, refuses to let Aloy take her challenge on by herself, and over the course of the game they gather a group from various societies into a squad of sorts, and Aloy's acceptance of their help and their friendship is one of her personal journeys.
HFW takes Aloy west, as the name implies, all the way to the Pacific Coast. She meets three new societies, but she spends most of her time among--and seems most to enjoy the company of--the Tenakth, a warrior culture which has recently (within Aloy's lifetime) transitioned from warring amongst themselves to being united under a single chief.
( Major spoilers about the Tenakth which I highly recommend not reading if you plan to play the game )
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One of Aloy's new companions, and far and away the strongest of the new characters introduced, is Kotallo. Kotallo is a Marshal, one of 5 of the best Tenakth warriors chosen to operate as the chief's representatives among the tribes and with outsiders. They're a sort of peacekeeping and diplomatic group. I loved Kotallo and wish they'd done more with him! His experience of being an orphan who was driven from his tribe by a jealous chief who then went on to represent the interests of a greater authority--no longer of his tribe, no longer truly able to go home--was such a beautiful reflection of Aloy's and I spent hours hoping that they'd talk about it, and then disappointed when they didn't.
(In the Burning Sands DLC, Aloy meets another character who has grown apart from her tribe for similar reasons, and they do talk about it, which I appreciated. But like...Kotallo was right there.)
But aside from that and some small game mechanics complaints--phenomenal game. Well worth the wait, and the investment in a PS5. It's beautiful, it's uplifting, it's gay as hell. Great stuff.
HZD follows Aloy, who was born into a tribal society called the Nora but was an outcast from birth. She was raised by Rost, another outcast but not her father, and spent the bulk of her life training for a Nora rite of passage called The Proving which, if won, would allow her to finally fully join the tribe she'd always been outside of, looking in. Naturally The Proving brings with it events which destroy everything Aloy thought she knew about herself, and her world, and set her on a journey to learn more.
You, the player, an inhabitant of 21st century Earth, are probably somewhat familiar with some of the ruins Aloy encounters. You realize that she is on Earth, somewhere in the America midwest, some many centuries on from you. You don't know how your world came to resemble hers, and neither does she. You are on a journey together. It's a good journey--Aloy discovers the truth about her origins, comes to know many members of the Carja and Oseram, the other peoples living in the region, and along the way defeats an AI determined to set off an extinction event.
Horizon Forbidden West picks up some months after the conclusion of HZD, and finds Aloy on her own, searching ancient ruins for another AI. Her Nora friend Varl finds her and scolds her for running off after they defeated the big bad, and Aloy is, well. Kind of a bitch to him? It's great. It's the first of many progressions in her character, and it's one that makes a lot of sense. Aloy has seen behind the curtain into the workings which created her civilization. It's understandable how that would distance a person from others, particularly when she was already accustomed to thinking of herself as an outsider. Varl, bless him, refuses to let Aloy take her challenge on by herself, and over the course of the game they gather a group from various societies into a squad of sorts, and Aloy's acceptance of their help and their friendship is one of her personal journeys.
HFW takes Aloy west, as the name implies, all the way to the Pacific Coast. She meets three new societies, but she spends most of her time among--and seems most to enjoy the company of--the Tenakth, a warrior culture which has recently (within Aloy's lifetime) transitioned from warring amongst themselves to being united under a single chief.
( Major spoilers about the Tenakth which I highly recommend not reading if you plan to play the game )
One of Aloy's new companions, and far and away the strongest of the new characters introduced, is Kotallo. Kotallo is a Marshal, one of 5 of the best Tenakth warriors chosen to operate as the chief's representatives among the tribes and with outsiders. They're a sort of peacekeeping and diplomatic group. I loved Kotallo and wish they'd done more with him! His experience of being an orphan who was driven from his tribe by a jealous chief who then went on to represent the interests of a greater authority--no longer of his tribe, no longer truly able to go home--was such a beautiful reflection of Aloy's and I spent hours hoping that they'd talk about it, and then disappointed when they didn't.
(In the Burning Sands DLC, Aloy meets another character who has grown apart from her tribe for similar reasons, and they do talk about it, which I appreciated. But like...Kotallo was right there.)
But aside from that and some small game mechanics complaints--phenomenal game. Well worth the wait, and the investment in a PS5. It's beautiful, it's uplifting, it's gay as hell. Great stuff.
