Horizon Forbidden West is set to expand upon its predecessor with many improvements and features. Many improvements have centered around Horizon Forbidden West's quality of life features, an expansion on attributed skills and gear, and new traversal tools that players can use to explore more freely. Further, Horizon Forbidden West's length will compare to Horizon Zero Dawn's.
But with an entirely new installment and all its content, there is already a useful tool players will have access to for more lore and detail on the game. Future Press has collaborated with Guerrilla Games to produce an official strategy guide for Horizon Forbidden West, which is now available for pre-order from an Amazon UK listing, though it will not release until the end of March. Interestingly, the strategy guide's descriptive blurb makes a claim about how many machines players can expect to encounter in Horizon Forbidden West.
Future Press' claim states that Horizon Forbidden West will feature "40+ intricately designed machines that stalk the Forbidden West." Clawstriders, Bristlebacks, and Burrowers, for example, are new to the franchise. However, not all of Horizon Forbidden West's machines will be wholly original. It has already been confirmed that the game will reprise several of the machines encountered in Horizon Zero Dawn, such as Chargers and Snapmaws.
Horizon Zero Dawn has 25 machines of different variations and species, which include Fire Bellowbacks, Deathbringers, Shell-Walkers, and Lancehorns. Any number of these machines may return to the franchise in the sequel, particularly if Aloy travels to a diverse biome that they are commonly encountered around. Horizon Forbidden West's new underwater traversal feature will surely expand the types of aquatic machines Aloy must face, and the Forbidden West could present many more new machines that have not yet been revealed.
Horizon Forbidden West's official strategy guide boasts 600+ pages, with over 200 pages "dedicated to dissecting the game's biggest attractions." But other aspects of the game that the guide covers are its combat, quests, and world. If players wish for "exacting detail on every part of an equally massive game" they will find it in this official strategy guide.
This strategy guide is guaranteed to have explicit spoilers throughout, so it might be in players' best interests to avoid taking a peek at it until they themselves have finished Horizon Forbidden West. Otherwise, its purpose is to assist players in making their way through the game and is reserved for dedicated fans who wish to have a thorough and encyclopedic guide for it.
Horizon: Forbidden West launches for PS4 and PS5 on February 18.
Source: Amazon UK