My Favorite Level in Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores

[Winter]

My favorite level in the base game of Horizon Forbidden West is Faro's Tomb. It's a creepy, haunting level in the vain of a BioShock game with a heavy emphasis on Horror with little to no action in the first half but a lot of action in the second half. It's the ending of the story of Ted Faro as we learn what happened to him and just how insane he became at the end and the lengths he went to as he tried to literally re-write history to make himself out as not only the hero but a God with his Tomb Emphasizing his over inflated ego.

My Favorite Level in the DLC Expansion Pack Burning Shores is, rather amusingly, the exact opposite of that which is the Level, For His Amusement. FHA is a rather lighthearted level with a lot of action, set in a small but AWESOME Amusement Park that is based on a In Universe series Called Pangea, which from what I understand is basically Jurassic Park mixed with Stargate and Back to the Future which is so insane and over the top I WANT it to be made real.

What I like most about the level is that it's almost framed like Aloy and Seyka are on a date with the game almost encouraging players to go and explore a little bit and to get off track so you can spend more time with Seyka. One of the funniest moments is if you play and win Dino Digits Quiz you get this unique bit of dialogue from Seyka asking if Aloy had fun (which she clear did) and it's just so adorable. It's one of the reasons I've come to love this DLC and the relationship between Aloy and Seyka as it allows us to see a side to Aloy we've never seen before, her being an awkward teen who's fallen for someone in the first time in her life.

With FT the level is very straight forward with few collectables that are hard to miss and no chance to go off the story path while FHA is allows players more freedom to just have fun for a bit. There is no rush here and we're allowed to just look around this park to see what we can find. And the interactions between Aloy and Seyka honestly had me laughing so hard that I had to stop playing the game for a bit because I couldn't stop laughing. One of my favorite bits is when Aloy and Seyka are wondering why a Dinosaur is wearing a hat and we later learn that this was something Londra, the villain of the DLC, was forced to include and after hundreds of years and one dooms day later he STILL hates this the damn thing.

But what I love most about this level is that it, like FT, is a great example of using gameplay to tell a story. Like I said Aloy and Seyka are pretty much on a date here and the environment is designed to let players explore the area and in doing so allows us to explore the relationship between our leading ladies. Again we get to see a side to Aloy that we've never seen before and also get to see Seyka relax for a bit which after everything that happened and is going to happen is great because it gives them and us a chance to just enjoy the world for a bit.

I honestly cannot get enough of this level, it's fun, has a great design, a little romantic and I for one would LOVE to see this be turned into a real Amusement Park or be added to an existing one.