Horizon Forbidden West has already gone gold but despite trailers for the story, cast and new Machines, there’s still a lot more to the experience. IGN had a chance to go hands-on with it for four hours and provided some new gameplay along with detailing the various improvements made over the original. Check it out below.
Briefly showcased in the first gameplay walkthrough, free climbing looks to be incredibly seamless. While not everything can be climbed, the amount of surfaces that can be scaled has been greatly expanded on (and quick tapping R3 for the Focus will help highlight them all). Some of the new skills were also detailed like shooting arrows in such a manner that they rain down onto enemies.
New weapons like the Shredder Gauntlet and Plasma Boltcaster are also showcased along with improved melee combat. Acid will also be a useful tool – along with dealing extensive damage and create clouds that will damage nearby foes. For those who want to focus primarily on combat, there’s a new Arena which features timed challenges against a variety of Machines like the Slitherfang. It’s a multi-faceted fight thanks to the large Machine’s sheer number of abilities and makes for one of Forbidden West’s more memorable battles.
Horizon Forbidden West is out on February 18th for PS4 and PS5. For more details on the game, head here.