horizon forbidden west: burning shores release time

Naturally, this being an expansion, not much has changed fundamentally: The gameplay remains as fun as it always has been, with four new enemies entering the fray to mix things up. This quality was sorely lacking in large parts of the Forbidden West campaign, but it shows through here and lifts every other aspect of the game. When the overarching story is as loud as possible, with set pieces that Michael Bay would say were too much, there are subtle character-building moments playing out underneath. Our superheroic Nora Champion is allowed to be charming, funny, confident, even anxious at times - a three-dimensional character. Burning Shores feels like developer Guerilla Games correcting that course, giving Aloy room to breathe in a story that connects to her as much as it does the wider world.

With Forbidden West so focused on the bigger picture, I felt it often failed to tell the smaller, inbetween, stories that Zero Dawn did so well, especially where Aloy was concerned.

The immediate affinity of the two headstrong warriors forms the crux of Burning Shores’ story. After crash landing in a new seaside settlement fashioned by the Quen, the data-driven seafarers players first encountered during the Forbidden West campaign, Aloy is quickly drawn into helping new ally Seyka.

Set in the immediate aftermath of Horizon: Forbidden West, Burning Shores sees Aloy travel further down the robot ravaged American West Coast in pursuit of a new lead from Sylens (voiced once again by the late Lance Reddick) that could stave off Earth’s second extinction and the impending threat of Nemesis that looms large over the climax of the 2022 game.

Horizon forbidden west: burning shores release time