Horizon Forbidden West PC Review – Impressive Display of a Machine-Dominated Wilderness 

After 2 years of waiting, PC gamers can finally experience the continuation of Aloy’s story with the launch of Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition, which as the name implies, is complete with the Burning Shores DLC. This direct sequel does reference plenty regarding the events of the first game, as well as bringing back many prominent side characters. For this reason, we highly recommend completing the original before hopping into Horizon Forbidden West.

This sequel focuses on Aloy venturing into the Forbidden West to seek backup from a super AI named GAIA and to restore life that is in a state of endangerment and almost going extinct on Earth. The journey will be treacherous, as not only will Aloy face deadly machines but the western region is also the territory of a dangerous tribed called Tenakth, which divides further into several clans. Aloy even faced threats from a rebel group led by Regalla when entering the territory, unveiling that the western region is facing a civil war that threatens peace.

Behind Aloy’s efforts to save the world from extinction, she will inevitably be involved in various conflicts that occur in the Forbidden West and slowly become a real “Savior” figure. In summary, it is a phenomenal game best played without spoilers, so we will leave it at that. 

In our 9/10 review of the initial PlayStation 5 version’s release, we said “Horizon Forbidden West reminds me just how sublime it is to be able to immerse oneself in this gloriously crafted world.” Since we have reviewed the game before, this review will focus on how the PC version performs instead.

Benchmark

Before we hop into the performances, here are the PC specifications we used to test out Horizon Forbidden West.

• Ryzen 5 3600 CPU
• AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT GPU
• 32GB RAM @3600MHz
• 1440p Monitor

One of the best things about PlayStation titles being ported to PC is that the developers, in this case, Nixxes Software, do bring in a selection of upscale options to tweak the graphical performances of the game. Since this game is played using an AMD graphics card, that means we could use FSR 2.2 frame generation technology for better performance. The game is played on Ultra settings at 1440p resolution.

A quick summary of the performance is as follows:

• Without FSR – 61 FPS on average
• FSR Quality – 71 FPS on average
• FSR Balance – 74 FPS on average
• FSR Performance – 76 FPS on average
• FSR Ultra Performance – 77 FPS on average

FSR Quality is more than enough if you are already playing at 60 FPS since there are no noticeable visual downgrades. Both Performance and Ultra Performance FSR options do come with noticeable graphical differences, and the image will look somewhat blurry, especially in motion.

Unedited Image Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Unedited Image Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Overall Performance 

When it comes to the overall performance of the PC version of Horizon Forbidden West, there is not much to complain about. It performed smoothly with no significant FPS drops or noticeable stuttering, and the frame rate was kept stable throughout playtime. This is a more GPU-heavy game, so if you have a weaker CPU, it shouldn’t affect performance much.

Arguably the biggest highlight of Horizon Forbidden West is that it is a visual spectacle, showcasing some impressive graphics despite it being a cross-gen title, which tends to sacrifice visuals in favor of performance on older consoles. Exploring the wilderness, you are greeted with visually pleasing particle effects and an environment bustling with activities and subtle details. Watching the cutscene is like watching a movie in the cinema, which goes to show how well-done the animations are. If you are playing on an SSD drive, get ready to experience some incredibly fast loading speed.

Controls

Much like previous PlayStation 5 games that being brought to PC, Horizon Forbidden West does support DualSense controllers. There is no software needed to be installed or complicated setups needed, simply plug in and play.

The game supports Haptic Feedback, allowing you to feel the tension while drawing your bowstring, the impact while striking enemies, or utilizing the grappling hook. The sensation is especially noticeable while you are sneaking around or riding a machine.

There is also Adaptive Trigger support, but not as noticeable as Haptic Feedback. While drawing Aloy’s bowstring, you could feel some tension as you press the R1 button. Light bow will feel light, but bigger weapons such as the Boltblaster would make the R1 button slightly heavier to press. 

If you do not own any controllers, it’s fine because the game has a pretty solid mouse and keyboard control scheme implemented. The button selection by default is quite intuitive and comfortable to adapt to without needing to tweak the keybindings.

Verdict 

Sony Interactive Entertainment has already set a bar on what makes a good PC port with their past titles, and Horizon Forbidden West once again delivered the promise with great optimization. It also offers a good variety of options for PC enthusiasts to tweak and optimize their performance for their machine, such as all the AI upscaling features – NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS.

Unfortunately for AMD GPU owners, the game does not support FSR 3, but it does support DLSS 3 for NVIDIA graphic card users to enjoy boosted performance. That aside, Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition is a solid port of an excellent game while bringing along beloved features from the PlayStation 5 version, as well as providing a solid keyboard and mouse control layout without the need for keybinding tweaks. In short, optimization is great, with no noticeable bugs or performance issues, and if you enjoy the first game, you will love this one.

Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition is now available on PC via Steam.

Horizon Forbidden West

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Developer: Guerilla Games

Release Date: 2022-02-18

PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Join Aloy as she braves the Forbidden West – a majestic but dangerous frontier that conceals mysterious new threats. Explore distant lands, fight bigger and more awe-inspiring machines, and encounter astonishing new tribes as you return to the far-future, post-apocalyptic world of Horizon.

Join Us!