Like The Frozen Wilds for Horizon Zero Dawn, Horizon Forbidden West is getting a paid story expansion in Burning Shores. It releases on April 19 and offers a brand new region to explore with unique challenges. What is Aloy risking life and limb for this time? What can players look forward to, especially those who loved the base game? Here are ten things you should know before jumping in.
New Story
Burning Shores offers a new story with Aloy venturing south of Tenakth lands to the ruins of Los Angeles. She’s tasked with taking down a “sinister new threat to the planet,” but who or what is responsible is unknown. Guerrilla Games has remained very tight-lipped on the plot, but as the key art and trailers have revealed, there’s a Horus Titan, also known as a Metal Devil, rampaging throughout the region.
Aloy will stop it (we hope), but like there’s likely another threat pulling the strings behind the scenes. Whatever the case, expect new side quests and lore that further expand the universe.
Setting
You can also expect a much more dangerous region than anything encountered till now. Locations in the previous games offered dangerous weather conditions and unique environments to provide a challenge, but Los Angeles is a whole different matter. Lots of seismic activity and volcanic eruptions over a thousand years have turned it into an archipelago, with land masses broken up over the water and copious lava streams to be seen.
We’ve seen the ruins of skyscrapers and even the Hollywood sign. There’s also a settlement in and around the ruins, where the developer squeezed in “a lot of activity,” as per game director Mathijs de Jonge, so expect to see plenty there. The expansion’s scale is unknown, but at the very least, it should be bigger than Frozen Wilds.
Requires Base Game Story Completion
If you’re a new player and want to skip the base game to jump right into Burning Shores, there’s some bad news: You can’t. To access the expansion, you must finish Forbidden West’s story, including the final story mission.
After doing so, Aloy will receive a call from Sylens (rest in peace, Lance Reddick), who informs her of a “certain complication” that’s come to his attention. You’re set to delve into the expansion, but make sure your gear, weapons and skills are up to par, especially since a “huge challenge” is present and requires all of Aloy’s skills.
New Characters
In addition to a new story, Guerrilla Games has confirmed that Burning Shores will have new characters. The main artwork for the expansion features another character on the back of the Sunwing with Aloy. Their identity is unknown, but they also look to be wielding a bow. Maybe part of the settlement that Aloy encounters in the region?
Of course, touting new characters doesn’t mean some old ones won’t appear. It’s theorized that Gildun, last seen in Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds will appear. This is due to a data point from him in Forbidden West where he explicitly states his journey to the Burning Shores. Aloy may or may not encounter them, but at the very least, there should be new data points about their fate.
New Machines
A new expansion means new Machines, at least separate from the rampaging Horus Titan. The developer has been coy about how many, but it did reveal one new Machine that should become an instant favorite. The Waterwing is a pelican-looking Machine usable as a mount akin to the Sunwing.
However, along with flying through the air, it’s also capable of diving underwater. If you ever felt that traveling underwater was too time-consuming in the base game, the Waterwing is an excellent new addition. Be careful when encountering a hostile one since they’re described as “unrelenting.”
PS5-Exclusive
It probably isn’t too surprising, but Burning Shores will be exclusive to the PS5 version of Horizon Forbidden West (sorry, PS4 players). Game director Mathijs de Jonge revealed on the PlayStation Blog that due to the ambitious nature of the expansion and to achieve the team’s “grand vision,” it made the “difficult decision to focus all our efforts on making an incredible experience exclusively for the PlayStation 5 console.” It’s unfortunate, but it also means higher visual fidelity and larger set pieces.
More Environmental Detail
As de Jonge noted in another PlayStation Blog post, focusing on PS5 has allowed the team to “charge forward” with its vision of Los Angeles. He described the ruins of the city and the surrounding environments as “highly detailed and require a lot of processing power as well as fast streaming technology to run properly.” With how smoothly things look as Aloy flies over the archipelago, taking in the sights and sounds at once, it’s understandable.
Interestingly, de Jonge confirmed a “particular battle” that needed lots of memory and processing power. As a result, the team was “thankful for the many advantages that the PS5 hardware brings.” We won’t go out on a limb and say it’s the fight with the Horus Titan, but it’s looking very likely.
Expanded Cloud Generation
Another big feature is the team building on Horizon Zero Dawn’s volumetric clouds. Forbidden West already improved on them with superstorms, but Burning Shores goes even further, creating massive landscapes of clouds dubbed “Frankencloudscapes” treated as terrain to fly through.
This further expands on gameplay possibilities as players will find “tunnels, caves and other surprises” as they explore the clouds, says principal FX artist Andrew Schneider. Thanks to the “quality and direction of light change” that comes with the time of day, certain things might be revealed and change the overall tone of your journey through the skies. With how much attention Los Angeles has received, it’s nice to also soar through the air like this and discover something new.
Thunderclouds
Of course, like the volcanic archipelago, there is danger lurking in the skies. Schneider didn’t want to “spoil anything” but said, “We hope you aren’t afraid of a little lightning.” It sounds innocuous enough, but there may be something there.
The clip of the Waterwing teases this, with a massive thundercloud looming in the distance as Aloy flies. There are so many possibilities for this, from the thunder knocking her off a flying mount as she scrambles to get back on to Stormbirds potentially patrolling the skies, ready to ruin your day. We’ll have to wait and see, but it’s still exciting.
Pre-order Bonuses
Burning Shores retails for $19.99, and those who pre-order will receive the Blacktide Dye Outfit and Blacktide Sharpshot Bow for free. Nothing is really known about the armor and weapon, whether they’re cosmetic-only, exclusive to pre-orders or obtainable through gameplay (as PS5 single-player exclusives have traditionally done). Still, it looks good and may be worth checking out for cosmetic purposes alone.
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