Horizon Forbidden West

Lore & Background

Horizon Forbidden West continues the story of Aloy, a young hunter of the Nora tribe and a clone of the Old World scientist Elisabet Sobeck. In the six months following the defeat of HADES, Aloy searches for a working backup of GAIA to restore the planet's rapidly degrading biosphere. After discovering that her former associate Sylens stole HADES, he contacts Aloy and asks her to continue her search in the region known as the Forbidden West. Aloy and her friend Varl cross into the West to find the ruling Tenakth tribe amidst a civil war between Chief Hekarro and the rebel leader Regalla. Aloy tracks Sylens to a facility where she finds HADES badly damaged and permanently deletes it. She recovers a GAIA backup without its subsystems but is interrupted by a group of futuristic humans led by Gerard Bieri, his lieutenant Tilda van der Meer, enforcer Erik Visser, and a clone of Sobeck named Beta. They take a second GAIA backup, while Aloy barely escapes. Aloy awakens days later in the village of Plainsong, home to the Utaru tribe. Zo, a member of the Utaru, guides Aloy to a control center, where she rejoins GAIA with her subsystem, MINERVA. GAIA locates the other subsystems AETHER, DEMETER, and POSEIDON.

Reader's Guide

Horizon Forbidden West received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the visuals, combat, quest design and the cast's performance, but criticized its story and Aloy's characterization. Most reviewers agreed that Forbidden West was bigger and more refined than Zero Dawn, though it was more of an evolutionary experience than a revolutionary one. The game sold over 8.4 million units by April 2023. It was nominated for several end-of-year accolades, including Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2022 and the 26th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. An expansion, Burning Shores, was released for the PlayStation 5 in April 2023. The game and the Burning Shores expansion were collected together, re-released as Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition for PlayStation 5 in October 2023, and ported to Windows by Nixxes Software in March 2024. A sequel is in development. Guerrilla Games began developing Forbidden West in 2018. The development peaked at over 300 full-time employees and cost around US$212 million, making the game one of the most expensive ever to develop. One of the team's goals was to retain the core qualities of the original game, and the team made efforts to expand exploration and combat to support various playstyles. Guerrilla also invested more resources into creating the game's cinematics and spent more time creating character-driven side quests for the game.

Did You Know?

• The game was developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
• Ashly Burch and Lance Reddick returned to provide the voice for Aloy and Sylens, respectively, and were joined by Angela Bassett and Carrie-Anne Moss.
• The game was powered by Guerrilla's in-house Decima engine, as was Zero Dawn.