Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition

Aloy travels west across a post-apocalyptic frontier where a spreading blight threatens human settlements and wildlife. She investigates its cause, meets new communities and confronts machines and hostile factions using a mix of ranged weapons, close combat, stealth, crafting and exploration. The Complete Edition also includes the separate Burning Shores story expansion.

Horizon Forbidden West continues Aloy’s story after the events of Horizon Zero Dawn, in a far-future North America where human societies have grown among the ruins of the old world and animal-shaped machines roam the land. A mysterious blight is damaging crops, poisoning wildlife and putting communities at risk. Aloy heads into the western territories in search of a way to address the crisis, following leads through settlements, wilderness and traces of technology left by the vanished world. The journey brings her into contact with the Tenakth, Utaru, Oseram and other peoples, whose different customs and political tensions shape the places she visits. Her Focus, a small device that reveals information about machines and ruins, remains central to investigating both the present threat and the history beneath it.

The campaign moves between a main chain of quests and optional errands, character stories and activities scattered across a large landscape. Missions take Aloy through forests, deserts, mountains, settlements and flooded ruins, with conversations and discoveries opening context about the people who live there. The world is traversed on foot, by climbing marked rock surfaces, swimming underwater, using the Pullcaster to reach grapple points or move objects, and gliding with the Shieldwing after a leap. Some machines can be overridden and ridden as mounts. Tallnecks provide a broader view of surrounding terrain when Aloy reaches and overrides them, while the Focus can reveal machine paths, tracks and points of interest. These tools make travel part of investigation: a route may involve finding a way up a cliff, crossing water or examining a machine site before the next objective is clear.

Machine encounters reward preparation and observation. Aloy can scan a target with her Focus to inspect its components and elemental vulnerabilities, then choose weapons and ammunition suited to the situation. Detachable parts may disable attacks or yield resources when removed before the machine is destroyed; shooting components can also expose weak points or create openings. Different machines use distinct movement patterns and weapons, so a fight can change as a target leaps, dives, climbs or calls support. Some machines forage or search rather than attacking immediately, creating chances to approach unseen. Aloy can set traps, use cover and high ground, retreat with a Smoke Bomb, or lure machines toward hazards. Human rebels may fight alongside machines, combining ranged attacks and machine pressure in the same encounter.

Aloy’s arsenal is built around choosing the right tool and ammunition rather than relying on one attack. Hunter and Sharpshot Bows serve different ranges and purposes; Blastslings deliver explosive or elemental payloads, while Spike Throwers trade speed for heavy hits against large targets. Weapons carry their own ammo types, perks and coil slots, and weapon techniques add specialised moves that consume stamina. The weapon wheel lets Aloy select a tool and can slow combat while it is open; the degree of slowdown is adjustable in the settings. This gives the player room to switch tactics as enemy states change. Melee attacks can also contribute to ranged damage: repeated spear strikes charge a Resonator, whose energy can be placed on an enemy and detonated by a follow-up projectile. The result is a combat loop that moves between aiming at components, applying elemental pressure, interrupting attacks and exploiting the opening that follows.

Equipment and skills provide several layers of progression. Workbenches let Aloy upgrade weapons and outfits using machine parts and other gathered resources. Upgrades improve equipment and can open additional perks, mod slots and skills; weapon techniques and other abilities are unlocked through the skill tree. Outfits offer resistances and skill bonuses, while coils customise weapons, so equipment choices can support a preferred mix of stealth, ranged damage, close combat or survival. Experience and quest rewards grant skill points for a redesigned set of skill tracks. Skills can strengthen weapon techniques and passive abilities, and the trees include Valor Surges: powerful temporary abilities that charge during play and can be upgraded through multiple levels. Since outfit perks can complement skills from the tree, changing equipment can alter how a build performs without changing the basic controls.

Exploration feeds directly into that progression. Plants and machine wreckage supply materials for ammunition, healing and equipment upgrades, and important machine components may be lost if destroyed during a fight. Aloy can gather medicinal berries to restore health, craft ammo from resources in her pack and replenish supplies at workbenches or settlements. Merchants trade equipment and materials, while quests and activities can award skill points, gear or other useful rewards. Relic ruins and environmental puzzles use climbing, the Pullcaster and the environment itself to open routes or uncover objects from the old world. The map also offers machine sites, rebel outposts, hunting grounds and settlements, giving the player reasons to leave the main quest and return stronger or better equipped.

Burning Shores is a separate story expansion set after Horizon Forbidden West’s main quest, in a volcanic archipelago formed from the ruins of Los Angeles. Aloy explores the fractured city by water and on a Sunwing, and can fly through cloud tunnels, caves and other formations that make the skies part of the route. The expansion introduces Seyka, a Quen marine who helps Aloy and her people, and a Quen settlement trying to survive among the islands and machine threats. The Complete Edition includes this post-campaign chapter alongside the base game and bonus equipment. Its volcanic region, Quen community and aerial routes give the expansion a distinct setting and traversal focus.