Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores
MSRP $19.99
“Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores is a light, but crowd-pleasing DLC chapter that sets the stage for Aloy’s next adventure.”
Pros
Drop-dead attractive location
Memorable machines
Exciting new instruments
Weighty narrative
Cons
Underutilized LA setting
World feels a bit empty
Main quest is transient
In Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, Los Angeles is a lonely city. Reduced to a collection of desolate islands disconnected from the remainder of postapocalyptic California, the as soon as bustling metropolis has turn out to be a haven for individuals battling their very own social isolation. A lady fears she’ll be kicked out of her household, a well-recognized explorer desperately searches for a misplaced buddy, and a few susceptible island dwellers discover themselves caught up in a cult that guarantees them a way of household. It’s an ideal place for an outcast like Aloy to grapple along with her personal repressed dread.
If that every one appears like a little bit of a drag, don’t fear. The open-world sequel’s moderately sized DLC tells a candy (if not a little bit hokey) story that caps off an necessary emotional journey for its heroine. While she’s as soon as once more preventing huge robotic dinosaurs and wealthy elites in a high-stakes summer time blockbuster, Aloy will get to do some much-needed soul looking in LA. It’s a reflective island getaway the place she lastly will get to image what settling down seems to be like for a lone wolf who’s all the time on the transfer.
Though its tackle LA feels a bit naked and its quick story is just too rushed to completely repay its crisscrossing thematic threads, Burning Shores provides Horizon Forbidden West a neat Hollywood ending. It’s a breezy spectacle that balances tender character moments with the collection’ most fun motion set piece thus far, letting Aloy experience off into the sundown till her subsequent full journey.
A scenic trip
If you aren’t already bought on the Horizon method, Burning Shores isn’t prone to win you over. The DLC is a bite-sized model of Forbidden West with only some new tips of its personal. The principal attraction right here is its new location, a densely detailed chain of tropical islands that’s about 20% the scale of the bottom recreation’s sprawling map. You can’t go two steps with out strolling into a stunning, sun-soaked vista. It actually looks like Horizon’s artwork type has absolutely come into its personal between this and Horizon Call of the Mountain this 12 months, doubling down on the distinction between colourful pure landscapes and decaying structure. Even with some lingering pop-in, flying round and soaking all of it in is a pleasurable expertise in itself.
What’s a bit much less awe-inspiring is its use of Los Angeles as a setting. While among the metropolis’s landmarks pop up in shocking methods, it not often looks like I’m exploring its ruins. It’s not too distinct from the principle marketing campaign’s model of San Francisco, reusing its seaside aesthetic in a method that feels disconnected from its real-world inspiration at instances. There are flashes of creativity, like when Aloy stumbles right into a Universal Studios-like theme park, however the metropolis’s persona feels a bit too buried underneath all that particles.
There are just a few new open-world actions to find across the islands, like a flying problem that unlocks new lore. The Burning Shores aren’t too densely populated with issues to do, although. Sizable chunks of its map are extra reserved for sidequests, leaving little to discover afterwards. I discovered myself a little bit disenchanted anytime I’d trek out to a far-off island solely to find I couldn’t do a lot there till I began a questline. There’s a puzzle-like spoil or a camp to wipe out alongside the best way, however the DLC feels extra like a sightseeing journey.
Some of one of the best content material included right here can really feel like a tantalizing teaser for the following mainline Horizon recreation.
Burning Shores is a contact gentle on new options total, although there’s sufficient to justify the DLC. It solely provides a small handful of latest machines, however every is memorable in its personal method. Waterwings, as an illustration, are a brand new flying mount that may dive underwater midflight. That makes for an exciting story sequence the place Aloy must dodge incoming hearth from a tower’s protection mechanism by diving underwater to keep away from projectiles. A brand new toad-like machine is my private favourite, as there’s a satisfying fight puzzle that comes from attempting to snipe at its stomach because it leaps into the air.
Some of one of the best content material included right here can really feel like a tantalizing teaser for the following mainline Horizon recreation. In explicit, Aloy will get one new weapon — a extra trendy piece of tech that’s fully alien from her bows and javelins — halfway by means of the marketing campaign that rapidly turned my go-to machine slayer. It left me dreaming of a sequel that follows that thread additional, working extra superior weaponry into Aloy’s world and analyzing how she adapts to it. Burning Shores might not be wealthy with new content material, however I wouldn’t be stunned if a few of its concepts turn out to be series-defining hooks going ahead.
Cult of persona
What particularly stands out about final 12 months’s Horizon Forbidden West is its politically fierce narrative. That story revolved round a bunch of ultrarich elites (Zeniths) who fled the Earth after destroying it and seemed to reclaim it on the expense of its survivors. It was a searing and never so delicate teardown of real-world figures like Jeff Bezos, questioning their cavalier attitudes towards the true world outdoors of their very own orbit. Burning Shores continues that thread, although its story is just too transient to get probably the most out of a loaded premise.
t’s the sort of crowd-pleasing ending I anticipate from a neatly wrapped summer time motion flick …
Aloy will get despatched to the Burning Shores to analyze Walter Londra, a rogue Zenith who was a tabloid sensation pre-apocalypse. Now he’s a deluded jerk who returned to Earth to place himself as a God on the heart of a charismatic cult. It’s a logical crucial extension of Forbidden West’s story, this time exploring the uncomfortable energy dynamics current in trendy celeb. It’s a sci-fi story about the best way harmful individuals weaponize parasocial relationships and the sorts of people who find themselves inclined to social brainwashing.
Balancing that out, Burning Shores additionally tells a extra intimate story round its new character, Seyka. A tribe member who fears being solid out by her household, Seyka asks for Aloy’s help in monitoring down her misplaced sister. The two turn out to be journey companions for a lot of the principal quest, giving them loads of alternatives to bounce among the DLC’s massive image themes off each other. It’s by means of Seyka’s dedication to her family members that Aloy begins to replicate on her personal relationships. What does residence appear like for somebody who’s all the time on the transfer? Which individuals does she need to maintain near her? That final query brings some additional emotional weight, as a remaining second with Sylens (voiced by the late Lance Reddick) serves as a somber reminder to worth your family members whereas they’re nonetheless right here or be left with a deep absence after they’re gone.
Those concepts don’t get house to completely bloom in a brief collection of quests, however the DLC actually delivers in its blockbuster remaining mission. Its story threads come to a head in a jaw-dropping remaining boss struggle that units a brand new customary for the collection by way of scale and spectacle. That’s adopted up by a big second of character improvement for Aloy that’s positive to fire up some conversations. It’s the sort of crowd-pleasing ending I anticipate from a neatly wrapped summer time motion flick, additional establishing that Sony’s first-party cinematic method could have surpassed Hollywood’s.
Despite being a content-light facet story, Burning Shores isn’t an inconsequential DLC chapter. It’s an necessary step in Aloy’s journey as she unlearns her remoted views on heroism. She has to toss her ego to the facet and let her defenses down across the individuals she loves, lest she find yourself one other lonely soul paddling across the waterlogged ruins of Los Angeles.
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores was reviewed on a PlayStation 5.
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