Summary
One consistently overlooked feature in Guerrilla Games’Horizonseries is its melee combat. InHorizon Zero Dawn,Aloy’s spear was introduced as a means forHorizonmelee combat, but it came with only two attacks — a light attack and a heavy attack. As players progressed through the game, they could upgrade the spear to perform stealth attacks and Override machines, but that was about it. Thankfully, the spear was vastly improved inHorizon Forbidden West, allowing players to perform several simple combo attacks, but its melee combat still wound up feeling a bit lackluster overall.
It makes sense that Guerrilla would put more time and effort into ensuringHorizon’s ranged combat was fun and engaging, as Aloy’s bow is her bread and butter. However,HorizonForbidden West’s bolder, more cutthroat machines proved the need for an overhaul of the series' melee combat, as players would often find themselves trapped within extremely close quarters of their enemies. As such, it may be time for Guerrilla to examine the future ofHorizon’s spear and melee combat as it develops the sequel toForbidden West.
Horizon’s Spear Is Currently the Series' Only True Melee Weapon
Currently, Aloy’s spear is theHorizonseries' only true melee weapon. InHorizon Zero Dawn, it could perform a variety of functions, including executing stealth attacks on unaware machines and Overriding them, but it was hardly useful for direct melee combat. Thanks toForbidden West, it became much more potent, but its lack of versatility in melee combat still managed to shine through.Forbidden West’s machineswere notably more difficult to defeat thanZero Dawn’s, as all but the flying machines attempted to remain as close to Aloy as possible at all times, thereby increasing the demand for the spear. Still, the spear alone may not be enough to continue appeasing melee combat enthusiasts.
How Forbidden West’s Sequel Can Improve the Series' Melee Combat
Forbidden West’s Sequel Could Add More Melee Weapons
While it could be argued thatAloy doesn’t need more melee weaponssimply because she is highly proficient in ranged combat, if Guerrilla keeps up the trend of making the series' machines an even greater threat inForbidden West’s sequel, it may need to consider adding more melee weapons to Aloy’s arsenal anyway. Adding more melee weapons to the game may not necessarily improve the series' melee combat on its own, but it might, at the very least, pave the way for those improvements, as new melee weapons would likely introduce new mechanics as well. Apart from adding brand-new weapons toHorizon, however, something could also be done with the series' current weapons.
Forbidden West’s Sequel Could Introduce Hybrid Weapon Types
Aloy has a wide variety of ranged weapons at her disposal, especially now with thenew weapons thatForbidden Westintroduced. This makes her ranged arsenal rather versatile, and it should remain so. However, there are also already ten different weapon types inForbidden West, so adding more in a sequel might be overkill. As such, it may be better to introduce a hybrid weapon system inForbidden West’s sequel, essentially allowing her ranged weapons to double as melee weapons. This would prevent her library of weapon types from becoming too cumbersome for players to manage while simultaneously revamping the series' melee combat and fulfilling the ongoing requests of fans.
Whether Guerrilla plans to do something significant to the melee combat inForbidden West’s sequel remains to be seen, but the developer will probably give some attention to it, simply due to feedback from fans. Thankfully, it’s likely only going to get better from here.Forbidden West’s melee improvements show the developer’s commitment to ensuring every aspect of aHorizongame gets some love, but introducing new hybrid weapon types and/oradding more melee weapons in aForbidden Westsequelmight be the best route to take regardless.
Horizon Forbidden West
WHERE TO PLAY
Join Aloy as she braves a majestic but dangerous new frontier that holds mysterious new threats. This Complete Edition allows you to enjoy the critically acclaimed Horizon Forbidden West on PC in its entirety with bonus content, including the Burning Shores story expansion that picks up after the main game.Explore distant lands, fight bigger and more awe-inspiring machines, and encounter astonishing new tribes as you return to the far-future, post-apocalyptic world of Horizon.The land is dying. Vicious storms and an unstoppable blight ravage the scattered remnants of humanity while fearsome new machines prowl their borders, and life on Earth is hurtling toward another extinction.It’s up to Aloy to uncover the secrets behind these threats and restore order and balance to the world. Along the way, she must reunite with old friends, forge alliances with warring new factions and unravel the legacy of the ancient past.
