Horizon Forbidden West is a technical achievement on consoles. The incredibly rich and detailed world looks incredible on 4K TVs with a level of detail and colour not often seen in mainstream console gaming. It is only fair that a game this incredible would be ported to PC and be able to utilise the higher specs and take the game to the next level.
While this idea hasn’t worked well in the past with PlayStation ports like The Last of Us Part 1 and its shading issues, fortunately, this time, the port is near perfect. It runs like a dream on a beefy PC and can even be scaled down enough to work on handheld devices like the Lenovo Legion Go rather perfectly. Yeah, I’m as surprised as you are.
Super Specs
The game uses the Decima Engine, the same one that was used to port the first game and Death Stranding from console to PC. While this doesn’t bring any ray tracing capabilities, it does deliver some incredible visuals and ensure that the performance is top-notch. Supported features include NVIDIA DLSS 2 Super Resolution, DLAA, and DLSS 3 Frame Generation, along with Intel XeSS Super Resolution and AMD FSR 2 Super Resolution.
You can turn up and down the quality based on your system and where you are playing it. This came in particularly handy when switching over to the Lenovo Legion Go for a handheld experience. Like The Last of Us Part 1 PC port, there is a shader compilation, that can take a few minutes to load depending on your rig.
Play Your Way
You can connect your DualSense controller to play, however, playing this primarily with a traditional mouse and keyboard works surprisingly well and is extremely responsive. Pulling back your bow and moving your camera to catch any enemies who sneak up behind you is an experience unmatched. Similarly, using the detachable controllers on the Lenovo Go was still my favourite way to play. Mimicking, pulling back the bow, and letting go with the controllers is the closest thing you will get to a portable AAA Switch-style experience I will ever have and it is extremely satisfying.
My first playthrough of this game on the PlayStation 5 was extremely enjoyable. I love the rich world that Guerilla Games have created here and how each different place you travel to feels unique, whereas, in the first game, it felt the same no matter where you travelled to.
The combat and AI level on the machines this time around is far more brutal, and the variety of different animal-inspired mechs shows that the team are invested in expanding this world and is not afraid to give players a challenge. If you want to read our full review of the Horizon Forbidden West story, click here.
The Complete Edition
Being the complete edition, this pack comes with the brilliant Burning Shores DLC, an expansion of the finished story game that opens up a new section of the world and sees Aloy team up for more dinosaur-destroying, mysteries-evolving, and expansion upon the lore of this fascinating universe. It will take quite a few hours to get through the main game, so it is easy to have a break and jump into the DLC at a later stage.
It was quite surprising that this game, built for the PS5 console, runs so well on PC and without any of the bugs that plagued the first game upon its port to PC. The beefed-up specs, while they don’t include any ray tracing, do deliver a solid and decent-looking display for this uniquely rich world. Any expectation of this game being difficult to run after the previous title and other tricky ones like The Last of Us Part 1, quickly faded away when the game ran like a dream and had no issues running on both PC and the handheld PC Lenovo Legion Go device.
Final Thoughts
Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition is one of the best ways to experience the game and does not disappoint. While the story may not have been to everyone’s liking, the visuals and world-building are nothing short of spectacular.
If you enjoy open-world role-playing games, this is a must-have, with no prior knowledge of the previous game to understand the story and follow what’s happening. Nixxes has delivered another solid console to PC port that stands as one of the best-looking games ever made.
FIVE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Gorgeous visuals; A worthy and hard-edged sequel to a bonafide classic; Incredible performances
Lowlights: Intense violence may be too much for some players
Developer: Guerilla Games
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platforms: PC
Review conducted on PC and Lenovo Legio Go with a release code provided by the publisher.
