Horizon Forbidden West: 26 Amazing Little Details

1. The Guerrillas spent a lot of time perfecting Aloy’s animation, even in less dynamic moments. For example, when standing next to a ledge, Aloy will sway and try to keep her balance.
2. Her hands visibly shake when you draw the bow.
3. In more action-packed moments, Guerrilla’s prowess at creating bespoke animations continues to impress – rappelling is back and cooler than ever, but the way Aloy activates a Shieldwing or throws out a Pullcaster to lock onto a spot is no less stylish.
4. Machines are slightly different from each other. If you look closely, they have the logo of their boiler (where they were made) printed on them.
5. They are also really worn out in battles. If you zoom in on their appearance, you will see rust spots and scratches, especially on the underside.
6. Aloy has a lot of verbal references, but we’re always impressed when she mentions something related to her quest log. it’s out loud. (i.e., rebel camps)
7. Aloy will physically react to any environment in which she is: she will shiver from the cold, catch snowflakes with her hand, sweat, and suffocate from the heat.
8. She will also verbally mention the weather. She will call out if it rains or falls into the snow. She will report it verbally.
9. Aloy’s hair is incredibly dynamic again. It flows in the wind, bounces while running, and moves realistically underwater.
10. When you finish a side quest, and Aloy tells a key character from that side quest that she will check on them in town, she really means it. You can visit the city they are heading to and actually check them out with some dialogue options.

Car list – all cars in Horizon Forbidden West

11. When you get a car’s attention but then throw a rock to distract it, it will keep following where it thinks you are while moving towards where you threw the rock-like “watch your ass.”
12. You can use the Pullcaster to grab items off ledges you can’t get to. Or if you just don’t want to go all the way there.
13. DualSense reflects the movements of cars. A larger robot will cause a louder rumble, and machine attacks that hit Aloy will be felt in the controller.
14. Speaking of DualSense, it will use its tactile senses and speaker to simulate the elements of your weapon, such as the crackle of electricity from a Tripcaster stun gun.
15. This time, the side quests also have real meaning. You can jump in and out of Chainscrape if you want, or you can follow all of its threads and make real changes by ousting its leader and inserting a new, more badass head of the city.
16. This time, the conversations are more interesting across the board. Characters interact more with the world around them, gesticulate more, and just talk more like real people.
17. Speaking of which, Guerrilla also found a clever trick to ensure that no matter what choice you make in a conversation, he is always ready for another question. Aloy and the other character can sit in the same default position, but they will move, stand up, gesticulate at nearby objects, etc. if you dig into the dialogue options. But as they end, they slowly return to their default rest animation, so it’s a smooth transition to what’s next.
18. Machine Strike, Forbidden West’s gameplay, very nicely adapts the core gameplay mechanics – game elements have both protected spots and weak spots.
19. Lighting can go a long way in showing off the details of the Horizon Forbidden West costumes; Depending on the angle, the light will highlight different patterns on the clothes.

20. Aloy’s clothes will also be muddy/snowy/sandy depending on where you slide.
21. During a conversation, if you go out of range to grab an item and the conversation ends abruptly, it will naturally resume when you return to the NPC you are talking to.
22. If you try to stay away from the car by balancing on a pole out of its reach, it will definitely notice you and try to knock down the pole. Capture points can be destroyed by machines with their ranged attacks.
23. From time to time, you will encounter tribes taking cars of all sizes, and sometimes they will remove enough from them that you can swoop in, finish the job and steal the loot.
24. You can use the Shielding to fly to certain parts of the environment to lift you up like dust tornadoes in the desert.
25. You can also jump from a shielding onto your mount, and yes, it rips as hard as it looks.
26. And finally, if you switch to photo mode, you can use the Snow Angel Pose in the sand or snow to actually make snow angels!
These are our favorite little details – what did you notice? Shout out in the comments. For everything else in Horizon Forbidden West, check out our roundup of the biggest changes from Zero Dawn and how long it will take to win.