The studio seemed to be aware of ambitious the prospect of designing a fight around Horus might be right from the outset. Oehme talks about how the fight acted as a great climax because it was supposed to be the end of the Forbidden West storyline. The fight also acts as a finale in a gameplay sense, since it tests several of Aloy’s abilities.

“We had to complete the story arc of Horizon Forbidden West, as it was the final quest of the expansion and as such, we had to deliver a level that was worthy of being its grand finale,” said Oehme.

“As we are fighting a machine that was responsible for the destruction of civilization, it felt like it shouldn’t be easy to take down with just your bow and arrows. We wanted to challenge all of Aloy’s abilities in this conclusive fight: her ability to sneak in unseen and stay hidden, her agility and ability to climb and swim, and also to collaborate with her friends.”

Baas talks about making the fight look as epic as it feels. He also talks about the sense of scale of the fight, and how it was important to let players see Horus from a distance as well as up-close.

“In order to create structure in the fight and to give it good pacing and rhythm, we tried to separate the player and the Horus throughout the encounter,” said Baas.

“If we were only going to fight the Horus up close, it felt like we were ‘clipping its toenails’ so to speak. You would constantly be really close and you wouldn’t see a lot of it and we wanted to make sure that players get a chance to see the machine and observe its abilities. We also wanted players to witness its ability to move around and notice the destruction it causes to the landscape in its path. It was really important to us to give the Horus this moment of presentation to give players a demonstration of its power.”

Check out the full video, which also features technical designer Marcin Matuszczyk and senior creature animator David Vince talking about all of the challenges involved in designing the fight, from gameplay to animation, below.

Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition was released on PC earlier this year. For more details, check out our review.

There isn’t really much that can be said about Horizon Forbidden West from a pure gameplay point of view that we haven’t already talked about in our original reviews for the base game as well as its DLC, Burning Shores. Nothing’s really changed, and even just switching to mouse and keyboard rather than a DualSense controller doesn’t bring about any difference in gameplay that can be too dramatic. Sure, aiming Aloy’s bow with a mouse does allow for a lot more accuracy than aiming with a controller would, but the game itself provides plenty of assistance in that regard anyway (like the ability to slow down time while aiming with a bow).

It is worth noting, however, that using a mouse and keyboard for a game that was developed with a controller in mind actually does create some headaches when it comes to things like how the UI was designed. While the inventories, skill trees and map are all perfectly usable with a mouse, they were quite obviously designed with controllers in mind. There are also quite a few things in the menus that will have you hold down a button to confirm something, like when spending skill points for example, that just feel unintuitive and incredibly pointless when playing the game without a controller.

"Sure, aiming Aloy’s bow with a mouse does allow for a lot more accuracy than aiming with a controller would, but the game itself provides plenty of assistance in that regard anyway."

The flip side of this is that the game works rather excellently with a DualSense controller on the PC. You don’t even need to keep the controller connected to your PC with a cable like you would with the Remote Play app—Bluetooth works just fine, and you get all the fancy DualSense features you would want, be it the haptic feedback, or even the adaptive triggers.

Now for the most important aspects of the PC release of Horizon Forbidden West—how well it runs on PC. It’s safe to say that the game is a downright fantastic, and a generally excellent example of what an almost-perfect PC port looks like. Performance is downright phenomenal, and even my mid-range PC, which runs on an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GPU, and 32GB of RAM had no problems pushing the frame rate up to the 90s without breaking a sweat, all with graphics options sitting somewhere between the High and Highest presets and running at 1080p. The game looks downright fantastic, and I was even able to get a few more frames per second by making use of DLSS, taking full advantage of my 144Hz monitor.

While Horizon Forbidden West can look rather fantastic on a mid-range PC, it’s also worth noting that the game runs quite well on much slower hardware. I was able to spend a fair bit of my time with the game on the Steam Deck, and while I did have to be more careful about which settings I was tinkering with to what extent, I was able to get a solidly playable frame rate of up to 60 FPS with settings hovering between medium and high. It certainly also helps that the Steam Deck doesn’t really benefit from pushing the resolution higher than 1280×800, so there just weren’t that many pixels for the game to push.

"While Horizon Forbidden West can look rather fantastic on a mid-range PC, it’s also worth noting that the game runs quite well on much slower hardware."

All told, Horizon Forbidden West’s PC version is a downright amazing release, offering just about everything a PC gamer could ask for. It provides plenty of graphical options to tinker around with, and when it comes to scalability, the very fact that it ran just fine on a Steam Deck without too much tinkering means that the game has also been optimized incredibly well for a wide range of hardware. The only downside—an admittedly minor one at that—is the fact that mouse and keyboard is a less than ideal way to play the game. It really is best enjoyed with a controller, and if you have a DualSense lying around, you’re going to get some of the best uses of the controller’s feature set you’ll find anywhere.

Just about every other aspect of Horizon Forbidden West, as well as Burning Shores, is essentially unchanged. The game’s story picks up shortly after the events of its predecessor, Horizon Zero Dawn, and an interesting form of escalation happens quite early on in the scope of problems that protagonist Aloy has to deal with. While the story itself is quite well done and fun, the game certainly features some rough spots here and there. For example, Aloy has a real hard time keeping quiet sometimes, to the extent where she’ll happily spoil puzzle solutions for you if you happen to take more than ten seconds looking for a solution.

I should reiterate that these aren’t really major problems with Horizon Forbidden West, none of what I’ve said above means that the game is fundamentally broken by any stretch. The game just seems to be very scared of a player possibly facing any friction while playing. While this can be an admirable trait, especially when it comes to reaching a wider audience and offering a greater level of accessibility, it also makes for some incredibly annoying parts where the game ends up making you feel ignorant because it was too impatient to let you figure out the answer to a potential puzzle.

"The game just seems to be very scared of a player possibly facing any friction while playing."

Twp years later, Horizon Forbidden West and its DLC, Burning Shores, is still a fantastic open-world game, and quite easily sits up there as one of the best alongside other heavyweights of the genre. With its more story-focused approach, the game also has plenty of memorable characters and fun interactions, and Aloy continues to be an incredibly interesting protagonist, especially in light of her coming to terms with her “destiny” from the end of the first game.

The PC release would probably be the first time some players would be exploring the world of Horizon, and it will make a great first impression on them. It’s downright gorgeous, has virtually zero gameplay or performance related bugs, and has been optimized incredibly well for a wide range of hardware. The only real downside is the game’s controller-first approach to gameplay and UI design. While playing with a mouse and keyboard is possible, playing on a PC with a DualSense controller feels like the definitive way to experience the continuation of Aloy’s journey.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Primordial Malzeno – Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak

The final post-launch monster added to Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, Primordial Malzeno is an enhanced version of Malzeno with way more health and damage. He’ll pummel you with smashes and swipes and unleashes Qurio projectiles, tail strikes and lasers in his frenzied state. Did we mention he can teleport around? All of this is before his insane supernova attack, which unleashes even more projectiles and energy waves before culminating in a big explosion. If that weren’t enough, he enters a Risen state near the end and goes insane with big attacks.

Dragon – Ark: Survival Ascended

The Dragon has remained a threat since Ark: Survival Evolved launched, and with Survival Ascended only having the island, it’s now the toughest boss in the remake. Regardless of which version is faced, its fire breath will deal damage equivalent to 20 percent of max health, regardless of armor or resistance (though dinosaurs immune to fire are safe). Other attacks, like its fireballs, are also dangerous, and it has Dimorphs and Pteranodons to help as well. Those playing solo should prepare for a long grueling fight.

Richter – Wanted: Dead

As the final boss of Wanted: Dead, Richter is fought one-on-one, which means no revives. He’ll dodge all bullets and can only be damaged with a katana. Which is fine, except you must parry almost every attack, and counter to stun and damage him. It’s all easier said than done when dealing with his fast strikes, and he becomes much more dangerous in the second phase, adding an insta-kill move to his arsenal. He also gains the option to heal because, of course, he does.

Horus Titan – Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores

Even with the new Specter Gauntlet, the battle against the Horus Titan can be a doozy. It’s massive and constantly moving, with Aloy needing to expose its heat vents and deal damage. The second part of the fight involves avoiding its tendrils while facing it head-on, which is also challenging. Once it finally falls, you still need to venture inside and take out Walter Londra, which isn’t as difficult but still somewhat tricky.

Metroid Prime – Metroid Prime Remastered

Sure, Metroid Prime originally launched in 2002, but its final boss remains one of the toughest in the entire series to this day. It adapts to your weapons in the first phase, so switching it up is necessary, and things become even more unhinged when its core is exposed. Not only is it more aggressive and dangerous, but you need to use different visors to find it while using Phazon pools to charge up Samus and deal damage.

King of Puppets – Lies of P

You feel bad for the King of Puppets, especially when he’s trying to rescue P from a dark fate. Unfortunately, a puppet king spurned is a puppet king mad, and his first phase consists of slow but heavy attacks with extensive range. They become more complex and tougher to parry, and when you think he’s down for the count, Romeo, the actual King, emerges from the oversized suit. The battle becomes fast-paced, as you must keep track of his movements and slices, presumably with very little healing after the first phase.

The Unbroken Promise – Lords of the Fallen

What’s scarier? Having to face Harrower Dervla with her wide-range attacks or a version of her that’s stronger and wields Umbral Magic? The Unbroken Promise proved to be the latter, unleashing powerful attacks and magic with little downtime after taking over Dervla’s body. It can manifest an Umbral set of nails to follow and strike you or circle it at a moment’s notice with surprising speed.

Kale – Hi-Fi Rush

As the leader of Vandelay Technologies, Kale proves to be more than just a snobby executive. On top of devastating slashes and lightning strikes, he reveals four mechanical tentacles, which can slam the ground, create barriers, Z-shielding and more. His final phase is even wilder, as he starts summoning pillars of fire on top of wide-arcing slashes.

Annihilation – Remnant 2

This is easily the most challenging boss in the game and especially brutal at launch before the nerfs. It has three faces, from homing projectiles and massive sword swings to a giant energy ball, while flying around the place. The second phase takes place in a different dimension with a new form and brand new attacks, with Annihilation switching back and forth between both phases mid-attack. It’s disorienting, and attacks are brutal, but even after surviving, you need to deal with hordes of enemies in the third phase before it finally dies.

Mitra – Ghostrunner 2

How difficult you find Mitra will depend on how challenging a bullet hell fight with excessive platforming can be. From that perspective, he’s especially punishing as the fight wears on, with the Cybervoid presenting all kinds of traversal challenges as you avoid his projectiles. Due to the nature of the game, a single hit is fatal, which means you need to execute everything without any flaws.

Tsukuyomi – WILD HEARTS

For all the things WILD HEARTS suffered from throughout its lifespan, the Kemono continue to pose a challenge. Tsukuyomi is the toughest yet, with excessive health, immense damage and a predisposition to attack off-camera when you can barely set it coming. The fact that you must rely on specific elements to defeat it isn’t a new concept (see Alatreon from Monster Hunter World: Iceborne), but this is still a slog of a fight.

Lu Bu – Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

Good ol’ Lu Bu remains a tough boss, even after all these months. Maybe it’s the fact that he deals absurd damage from range with arrows or up close with his spear. Maybe it’s the horse running around the arena, disrupting you even after Lu Bu is knocked off (which he can also get back on whenever). Regardless, he’s still rough, especially at this point in the game.

Ranrok Dragon – Hogwarts Legacy

As a final boss, Ranrok Dragon has a fair amount of attacks in his arsenal, unleashing projectiles and sweeping beams, the latter doing excessive damage. There’s also a massive explosive field in the second phase that must be avoided. You must destroy the floating orbs to deal any real damage, which becomes more challenging in the third phase when he lands and assails you with physical attacks.

Behemoth King – Final Fantasy 16

As one of five S-Rank Notorious Marks, Behemoth King is an optional boss fight and not required to finish the game. Nevertheless, it’s a worthy challenge for those who want to push their combat skills. If the name wasn’t a clue, it’s akin to regular Behemoth in some ways, but with more health and damage. It throws out tornados and meteors casually, with Reign of Fire triggering a storm of meteors when it’s at half health. Perhaps the only comfort is that Behemoth King dies when its health is depleted, unlike the regular version.

Bode Akuna (2nd Fight) – Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Unlike the first fight, you’re taking on Bode proper, with Merrin assisting. The first phase isn’t too rough despite several fast attacks and his unorthodox fighting style. However, when he starts dealing with wide-ranging attacks and chucking grenades, it becomes tougher. The second phase sees Bode throwing his lightsaber, which follows you, and throws stun grenades while firing at range. He also throws some unblockable attacks, and having to complete another phase after this while not being able to recharge health or Stims makes this the most challenging encounter in the game.

IB-01: CEL 240 – Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon

As one of the C-weapons powered by Coral, the IB-01: CEL 240 is fast, unleashes waves with its energy swords and even relies on remote satellites to hit you with lasers, often all at once. Getting a bead on it can be difficult, but with enough perseverance, it’ll fall. That is until it suddenly reactivates and adds new moves, like unleashing even more satellites to rain down lasers, more aggressive melee attacks, and even transforming into a firebird to ram into you.