Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West

For more of: Open-world (science) fantasy RPG goodness
Notable differences: Female protagonist, more action-oriented gameplay, stealth, platforming scenarios, robot dinosaur monsters
Availability:
Horizon Zero Dawn: Windows (Steam Deck OK), PS4, PS5
Horizon Forbidden West: PS4, PS5

In Horizon Zero Dawn, you play as Aloy in a far-flung future in which our civilization completely collapsed following immense technological heights. A woman compelled to unravel her mysterious past, you’ll slowly put the pieces of what happened on Earth back together as you fight against hostile human groups and robot dinosaurs. In Horizon Forbidden West, Aloy must use what she learned from the first game to try and stop a blight that threatens all life on the planet.

Horizon Zero Dawn came out after The Witcher 3 already raised the bar for open-world RPGs, and it shows. The first game, Zero Dawn, sometimes feels like a post-apocalyptic science fantasy take on much of what makes The Witcher 3 so good. You’ll even get a little Bluetooth-like earpiece that functions similarly to Geralt’s witcher senses. With a far-flung post-civilization setting that sees robot dinosaurs stomping around the remnants of Earth’s previous civilization, you’ll explore gorgeous, haunting environments of a world now gone, taking down fearsome robotic dinosaur foes as the story progresses.

As an RPG, it has less stat math to keep track of. Horizon falls more on the action side of action-RPG, so that might make for a nice reprieve from The Witcher. If you’re not a purist about playing every series from the beginning, you may also wish to consider skipping the first game, Zero Dawn. Though Zero Dawn was and still is a great action-RPG, Forbidden West feels a bit better to play and is also a visual treat on PS5. The opening of Forbidden West also briefly goes through the events of the first game, so you’ll be caught up pretty quickly as to who Aloy is and what she’s searching for.

Read More: Horizon Forbidden West: The Kotaku Review

And while Aloy isn’t necessarily a monster hunter, the game does require some patience and observation to spot the weak points of your robo dino foes, as well as opportunities to use a variety of tactics, weapons, and traps to take them down. In that way, Horizon contains some of the same “hunter” fantasy that The Witcher has.

Oh, and Lance Reddick is in it!