Family Guide Horizon Forbidden West: Age Rating 16

21/03/2022

Horizon Forbidden West is a post-apocalyptic action-adventure where you explore an overgrown landscape with now-crumbling remnants of modern life. The story of Aloy continues as she sets out to investigate a plague terminating from an arcane frontier known as the Forbidden West.

Vicious storms and an unstoppable blight ravage the scattered remnants of humanity, while fearsome new machines prowl their borders. 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 – all the while trying to stay one step ahead of a seemingly undefeatable new enemy.

As you fight, hunt and explore your way through the land, you discover hostile regions ravaged by massive storms that are occupied by new deadly machines. This takes the premise of the first game and plays it out in broader locations: lush valleys, dry deserts, snowy mountains, tropical beaches and ruined cities, both above and below the water.

Progress into the mysterious western frontier grants not only a larger map but new secrets about the world. You discover messages and artefacts from the Old Ones, lying beneath the ruins. This takes you to a ruined version of San Francisco and the Yosemite Valley.

Rating

Rated PEGI 16 for strong violence. Violence is similar in style to that found in 'Zero Dawn', with Aloy and her companions fighting both mechanical dinosaur-like creatures and enemy tribes. Blood is shown but no graphic injuries. Cinematic scenes feature more realistic violence than the violence found in general gameplay, including tribes shooting each other using bows and arrows and scenes of execution at spearpoint.

Difficulty Options

There are five difficulty settings in Horizon Forbidden West, from Story Mode to Very Hard. You can adjust the damage Aloy deals and receives to/from enemies. The Easy Loot option makes it easier to accrue loot with less targeting required. You can adjust how much the game slows down when equipping with the Weapon Wheel and turn on Aim Assist. You can increase the duration of slow down to aid aiming with your bow.

Alternatives

If you are looking for a similar experience but for a game that is rated as appropriate for younger players there are some great options:

Andrew Robertson

Andy Robertson is the editor of AskAboutGames and has written for national press and broadcast about video games and families for over 15 years. He has just published the Taming Gaming book with its Family Video Game Database.