The sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn (2017), the game is set in a post-apocalyptic version of the Western United States, recovering from the aftermath of an extinction event caused by a rogue robot swarm.

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.

Horizon Forbidden West is an action role-playing video game played from a third-person perspective, set in a world populated by dangerous, animalistic machines.

The player controls Aloy, a hunter who ventures into an uncharted frontier known as the Forbidden West, a post-apocalyptic version of the Western United States, to investigate a mysterious plague.

Other weapons in the game include a blastsling, which allows Aloy to slingshot bombs towards enemies, and a Shredder Gauntlet, which launches serrated discs useful for tearing armor and components.

[3] The player can use Aloy's Focus, a wearable augmented reality device she collected during the events of the first game that gives her special perceptive abilities, to tag an enemy and scan them to identify their weaknesses.

[14] While conversing with other NPCs, the player can sometimes choose from one of three dialogue options, with each representing Aloy's tone and attitude towards a scenario or a character, though they will not affect the game's narrative.

[17] There are a large assortment of side activities the player can complete in Forbidden West, including finding collectibles such as survey drones and ancient black boxes,[18] clearing rebel camps and outposts,[19] completing salvage contracts and timed hunting challenges,[20][21] competing in fight pits against humans or machines,[20] and finding relics through solving environmental puzzles in ancient ruins.

[5] The game continues the story of Aloy (Ashly Burch), 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 (Anthony Ingruber),[b] Aloy has been searching fruitlessly for a working backup of GAIA (Lesley Ewen) to restore the planet's rapidly degrading biosphere.

After she discovers that her former associate Sylens (Lance Reddick) did not destroy but instead 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 (John Macmillan) cross into the West to find the ruling Tenakth tribe amidst a civil war between Chief Hekarro (Geno Segers) and the rebel leader Regalla (Angela Bassett).

The group, consisting of their leader Gerard Bieri (Dan Donohue), his lieutenant Tilda van der Meer (Carrie-Anne Moss), enforcer Erik Visser (Marc Kudisch), and a clone of Sobeck named Beta (also voiced by Burch), possesses advanced technology that renders them invulnerable.

She later tracks down Beta, who informs Aloy that her group is, in fact, Far Zenith, an organization of billionaire colonists who fled Earth during its global extinction, having managed to extend their natural lifespans.

Aloy and her companions defeat and kill the Zeniths, including Erik and Gerard, but learn that their colony was destroyed by Nemesis, a failed mind uploading experiment they created.

Seyka agrees to guide Aloy to Londra's hideout on Starlight Rise (Griffith Observatory) in return for helping her disable a Zenith defense tower.

They find evidence of him retrieving data on a project called "MSP" and follow his trail north to the wreckage of a Horus war machine resting near the Hollywood Sign.

In order to get the lift he needs, Londra salvaged experimental nuclear booster engines from the Starlight Rise, but their use would irradiate the entire Burning Shore and its surrounding lands.

After eliminating Londra's henchman Zeth (Dylan Saunders), they learn he has taken a small number of his most loyal Quen, including Kina, to a nearby abandoned amusement park in preparation for their journey.

Upon returning to her base, Aloy meets with Sylens, who has managed to decrypt some of Londra's data, finding a list of 21st-century companies that were developing experimental weaponry that may be key to defeating Nemesis.

As with the original game, the team identified three main pillars for development: having strong and memorable characters, exploration emphasizing the majesty of nature and ancient ruins, and "clever" combat which encourages strategic planning.

The team intentionally avoided the oppressive tone typically found in underwater levels in other video games and instead focused on "fast and agile traversal" and stealth gameplay.

[4] After evaluating player feedback on Zero Dawn, the team decided to make each settlement more dynamic by introducing a "general sense of them being more lifelike" with improved animations and better NPC AI patterns and schedules.

[46] According to McCaw, Aloy's dynamics with other characters were difficult to write, as her unique upbringing and aspiration to live up to Sobeck's legacy (who saved the world by herself single-handedly) meant that she often pushed away her friends as she felt she had to accomplish the task alone.

[32] The PlayStation 5's increased processing power, custom solid-state drive storage, Tempest Engine, and DualSense controller provide the game with advanced haptic feedback, 3D spatial audio, enhanced lighting, special water rendering, improved visual effects, and reduced loading times.

[57] While originally set to be released in 2021, the game was delayed as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted production schedules, and the team wanted to avoid overworking employees in order to reach deadlines.

[96] Writing for Vice, Matthew Gault noted that it was not a revolutionary experience but instead a "competent distraction that soothes and smooths the brain by repeating what open world games have been doing for years".

He remarked that despite an uneven start, Forbidden West was able to pick up its pace and noted that the story was at its best when it was about the cast's personal dramas and the social and political conflicts surrounding the tribes.

[94][104] Dom Peppiatt from VG 247 compared the game's structure to Mass Effect and wrote that "the flirtations with BioWare-style story ideas shows just how much of a future this series has.

[7] Ben Rayner from Digital Spy, likewise, felt Forbidden West's pivot to "hard sci-fi" was a baffling choice that missed the point of the franchise.