Horizon Forbidden West makes this big change over Zero Dawn

Guerrilla Games outlines a bunch of new changes in the cross-gen Horizon Forbidden West sequel coming in February 2022.

In many ways, Horizon Forbidden West sees the franchise unleashed and fully realized. Guerrilla Games is making huge fundamental changes that will alter the scope of the game and how players engage with the world. One of the biggest changes is the inclusion of free climbing, which brings Assassin's Creed-style exploration and verticality to combat and gameplay.

While the animations look very Assassin's Creed-ish, the truth is Forbidden West seems closer to Breath of the Wild. The combination of free climbing with the new Shieldwing paraglider gives players unprecedented freedoms to scale tons of areas in the game and fly down them in real-time. This is something that I sorely missed in AC Valhalla, although it wouldn't have made any sense historically.

Another big change is the inclusion of wide-scale customization and crafting.

To keep players locked into the experience for longer--which is always a goal for any of Sony's big marquee AAA PlayStation games--Horizon Forbidden West will allow gamers to upgrade and customize their gear.

The new in-game workbench will afford opportunities to tweak, alter, and upgrade weapons, outfits (which actually have skills attached to them now, not just buffs and resistances), and other gear pieces.

"One of the focus points that influenced all our combat decisions was increased player choice, and we applied this to everything: melee, weapons, outfits, skills and other new mechanics. We wanted to give players more tools, depth and dials to play with," Guerrilla's Lead Combat Designer Dennis Zopfi said in a PlayStation Blog post.

"One entirely new concept in Horizon Forbidden West is the workbench, where you can upgrade and strengthen weapons and outfits. This unlocks new perks, mod slots, skills, and offers a bigger degree of customization, resistances, and new abilities for players."

Guerrilla Games is going all-out to create a definitive Horizon experience this time around. It'll be interesting to see what kinds of builds and min-max playstyles that gamers can create through their journeys through the blight-infested forbidden lands.

Horizon Forbidden West releases February 18, 2022 on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.