The main draw of Guerrilla Games' Horizon franchise is its combat which has gamers going up against towering metal machines. There are even more machines in Horizon Forbidden West, but when gamers want to take a break, they can walk away from hunting machines, and they can hunt collectibles instead. Most of these collectibles have interesting stories behind them, including Ornaments, Black Boxes, Survey Drones, and more. However, there are so many of them that it can be hard for gamers to appreciate them.
Horizon Forbidden West's successor would do well to cut down on the number of collectibles. Instead, effort should be focused on ensuring the collectibles quests are more engaging and that there are memorable stories behind each of them. Guerrilla Games could have an opportunity to do this soon with Horizon Call of the Mountain, which will let gamers explore the world of Horizon in VR.
The Collectibles of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West
For the majority of Horizon Zero Dawn, gamers will spend their time exploring the various environments, taking down massive machines, and discovering the different tribes. For more laid-back adventures, gamers can go on the hunt for collectibles. There aren't huge rewards for finding them, but completionists will want to ensure they have them all. There are Banuk figures, as well as Ancient Vessels, which are really just mugs from the Old World. Players can also find Metal Flowers which can be traded for treasure boxes. Various Vantage Points act as time capsules, giving Aloy a peek into the past.
Frozen Wilds, which is Horizon Zero Dawn's DLC, takes Aloy north where she meets the fierce Banuk tribe. In this snowy region, there are more collectibles to discover. This includes pigments, which are greatly valued by the Banuk rock painter Sekuli. There are also animal figurines to find all over The Cut. These were once sold by Yellowstone National Parks gift shop. Although not a collectible, gamers can collect lots of Bluegleam which can be then used as a form of currency. A Bluegleam map can be purchased to find where all of it is.
Horizon Forbidden West takes things further in almost all ways, including its collectibles. There are even more collectibles to find, and there are more complex backstories attached to them. The Black Boxes are perhaps the most interesting. In the Forbidden West, Aloy can find various black boxes belonging to Old World aircrafts. They tell harrowing stories of Horizon's Old Ones near the end of the Faro Plague, and though there are no accompanying visuals, it is easy to imagine the desperation and destruction.
There are many Survey Drones to be collected, and they are worth collecting, as they are used to make The Base prettier. The Vista Points littered throughout the Forbidden West function very much like the Vantage Points in Zero Dawn, and finding them lets Aloy see into the past. There are also various Ornaments that Aloy can find. They are a bit tricky to get to, but if Aloy manages to retrieve them and return them to Stemmur, he uses them to light up the sky with beautiful images. The Ornaments are related to Old World holidays, though Stemmur and Aloy understand none of them. Other collectibles include War Totems and Signal Lenses.
Horizon's Collectibles May Have Too Much Going On
Most games that feature collectibles run into the problem of making gamers run around collecting meaningless items for seemingly no reason. The entire exercise can feel pointless, and gamers aren't motivated to find all the collectibles. Horizon may err in the other direction. The collectibles have rich narratives behind them, as Horizon Forbidden West's Black Boxes demonstrate. The problem is that there are so many that it is very difficult for any single narrative to be explored in depth, or for gamers to pay attention to all the stories.
Future Horizon games don't have to do away with all collectibles. Instead, they should just be reined in, and Guerrilla Games should focus on quality instead of quantity. Having two or three types of collectibles with strong stories behind them would be far more memorable than having several more that get lost in the crowd. This would also allow developers to make the acquisition of the collectibles far more engaging. The Ornaments in Horizon Forbidden West laid a good foundation for how fun a collectibles quest can be when it requires a little brain power and creativity. Having a couple of collectibles quests with similar levels of complexity in the next Horizon game would ensure the collectibles feel like more than just side activities.
The Future of the Horizon Franchise
Guerrilla Games may have an opportunity to test out a more streamlined approach with Horizon Call of the Mountain. It will follow Ryas, a former Shadow Carja warrior seeking redemption. As a VR game, it will likely be shorter than the average game in the series, which means that it needs to be far more focused. This could result in a game with fewer collectible quests, though these quests could be better thought out, and they could have more engaging stories that reveal more about the world of Horizon.
It appears that Guerrilla Games is still heavily invested in the Horizon franchise and that gamers will have plenty more future opportunities to explore Aloy's world, even if she isn't always the protagonist. There have been rumors swirling that a Horizon Zero Dawn remake is on the way and that gamers can also expect a Horizon multiplayer game. All of these titles are chances for the studio to improve various aspects of the franchise's gameplay, and also improve its collectibles quests which have only gotten better with every new game.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now on PS4 and PS5.