One of 2022’s top video game releases was Horizon Forbidden West, a sequel to highly-rated PlayStation exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn. A game set in a post-apocalyptic future where robot-like dinosaurs roam the Earth and human tribes struggle to survive, it also features one of the top characters in video gaming so far in female protagonist Aloy.
Horizon Zero Dawn launched on PS4 only, but eventually hit the PC in the summer of 2020, with extras and enhancements. And so will Horizon Forbidden West next year, as was recently revealed by Sony and developer Guerrilla Games.
Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition will arrive for PC in early 2024, and will include the game’s Burning Shores DLC expansion, which generated controversy earlier this year for several reasons.
The complete edition of Horizon Zero Dawn’s sequel is already available for Sony’s PS5 console, having launched on October 6.
The PC version of Horizon Forbidden West will feature cool extras like new in-game items and support for true 4K resolution (like Horizon Zero Dawn’s PC version did), plus PC gamers will get to play not only the main game but also the Burning Shores expansion, which is included in the complete edition as stated earlier.
The Burning Shores DLC was controversial on release back in April, though, amongst other things for arriving in a pretty buggy state. Not only did it have technical issues at launch, but there were progress-breaking bugs in the DLC too. For instance, Guerrilla Games (the people behind the game) released a patch which fixed an issue which prevented players from following secondary character Seyka into a tower at some point in the game, thus blocking progress in the game’s story.
Also, many who played Horizon Forbidden West on PS4 last year might have been miffed by the fact that the Burning Shores expansion would only be available for PS5 at launch (aside from it arriving on PC next year of course). Guerrilla Games said this was due to the technical limitations of Sony’s PS4 console, explaining that Burning Shores post-apocalyptic Los Angeles wouldn’t look as impressive if held back by the PS4’s aging hardware, amongst other things.
Aside from this, another point of contention regarding the DLC had to do with the game’s protagonist Aloy and supporting character Seyka, who’s your sidekick in the Burning Shores expansion. The two characters become romantically involved, sharing a kiss at the end of the game (if the player decides so), something that did not go down well with many, who review bombed the game on Metacritic. Actually, Burning Shores is one of those games whose user score is substantially lower than the critic’s score, the controversy surrounding the DLC surely being part of the reason…
Nonetheless, it’s still great that PC players will be able to get their hands on Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition next year, finally letting those who choose to game on PC have a go at one of the best games of 2022.
Note: Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition will arrive on PC in early 2024, and will be available on the Steam store and Epic Games Store. The Complete Edition of the game for PS5 launched on October 6.