The footage of Horizon Forbidden West shown off at yesterday's State of Play was impressive, to say the least. Guerrilla Games has quickly become one of Sony's finest first-party studios and the 14 minutes of gameplay that was displayed showed viewers exactly what the studio is bringing to the table. There's very little doubt that the game will be anything other than top-notch and it seems like Sony is confident in the game's success because of its willingness to dedicate an entire State of Play showcase for it.
There has been plenty of discourse surrounding the footage, but much of the conversation about Horizon Forbidden West is comparing it to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While there are plenty of opposite opinions to this, the comparisons made between the two games should be welcomed by Guerrilla Games and fans of the Horizon series, not rejected by them.
Inspiring Horizon Forbidden West
Both Horizon Zero Dawn and Breath of the Wild came out in 2017, but offered two distinctly different takes on the open-world RPG. Horizon took a more traditional approach to the genre in terms of gameplay mechanics but stood out from other entries for its world design, story and premise. Breath of the Wild, on the other hand, played with environmental mechanics and took a unique hands-off approach to the way that it told its story.
Both were solid titles, but Breath of the Wild seems to come up more frequently when discussing which games are the best that the open world genre has to offer. Now that Sony is showing off gameplay for Forbidden West, it makes sense that the game would take plenty of inspiration from a great game like Breath of the Wild. There's nothing wrong with a studio taking mechanics that work well in other games and finding new, interesting ways to incorporate them in their own game.
It seems like fans are pointing out the newly added glider to Forbidden West's gameplay as the "smoking gun" piece of evidence needed to prove that the game is doing more than just taking a page out of Zelda's book. Breath of the Wild included a mechanic that worked well and was fun to use for open-world traversal with its glider, so it would make sense that Forbidden West would want to try and use something like that too. Inspiration doesn't always mean copying as long as the studio can change a shared gameplay element up in a meaningful way.
Horizon Forbidden West's Differing Mechanics
There's a major difference between comparing two games and saying that one is copying another. Based on the footage shown for Forbidden West it's clear that it takes inspiration from Breath of the Wild, but isn't copying it. Forbidden West's gameplay varies from encounter to encounter based on which type of enemy Aloy has to face.
A full-out attack is necessary when taking on human enemies who aren't much of a threat, but as soon as the machines show up, evasion, stealth and running away are the names of the game. While Breath of the Wild definitely includes similar elements, its focus is more on its environmental mechanics and how players can interact with the world around them to gain the upper hand.
Forbidden West seems to play differently on this front because of the way the player has to look at combat. The environment takes a back seat to the threat facing Aloy, however, in Breath of the Wild, the environment is just as important because it can inform how the player is planning on dealing with the encounter. It does seem like Horizon will have more interactive environments in Forbidden West but those interactions seem to be more contextual than Zelda's emergent environmental mechanics.
All of this is to say that, while there certainly are lines to be drawn in comparison between the two games, it's clear that they both have separate identities. Forbidden West seems to have a story told in a similar manner to the original game, through multiple quests spanning an entire game's worth of twists and turns. It also looks to be far less physics-based than Breath of the Wild instead focusing more on the combat abilities available at Aloy's discretion.
The Good of Comparing Games
Comparing one game to another is sometimes seen as a lazy way of talking about different titles because it can put them in boxes and doesn't always allow individual games to have their own identities. While this can be true depending on the discussion, saying "this game reminds me of this other game" isn't inherently bad. It helps gamers categorize titles by finding common traits about them while also informing the individual if a game is "for them."
So far, while there are superficial connections between Horizon Forbidden West and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, they aren't copies of each other and have their own identities as games, as detailed above. Comparing them in conversation, however, can help those looking for similar experiences find new games they might like. It would be hard to recommend games to anyone if comparing games wasn't seen as a legitimate way to talk about them.
Even though Forbidden West isn't out yet, the gameplay shown so far gives the impression that it's a game to keep an eye on, specifically for those who enjoyed Breath of the Wild and are looking for something to scratch a similar itch.
Horizon: Forbidden West is currently in development for PS4 and PS5.