(2/2)
Forbidden West is a worthy sequel to Zero Dawn. But it is unmistakably a sequel, and one into which the developers shoveled every damn thing they could think of, in a failure of understanding that shoveling the game full of shit most players will probably never use doesn't make it a better game. All of that clutter and complexity does not improve the game, it detracts from it. I have thirty or forty unspent level-up skill points because there isn't a damn thing that, as far as I can tell, is worth spending them on except YET MORE special attacks that I have to memorize timed multi-control sequences to activate — and also need to remember to avoid accidentally hitting one of those sequences when I don't want to use them. I can't begin to count the number of times I've accidentally "dodged" sideways off a cliff or tower that I just spent fifteen minutes finding a way up.
In computer science and engineering, there is something called "#second #system #syndrome." It comes when you built a system that works, and now you've been told to build a new version of it, and make it better ... and so you shovel every damn feature you can think of into it. And to your shock, the result is NOT a lean, mean, upgraded machine. It's a bloated, confusing mess that's less usable than the original system.
Horizon: Forbidden West has second-system syndrome. It has it bad.