Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition: What You Should Know

This guide explains what the Horizon Forbidden West Complete Editions offers and answers the most important questions: who is this Edition for and should you buy it if you already own the PS5 version.

Horizon Zero Dawn was acclaimed for its gameplay, concept, and storytelling. The game first came out for PlayStation and after a couple of years it finally made it to the PC.

Despite it being released years after the first version of the game, it was very well-received and has aged very well (despite the traditional troubles with the port from console to PC). The sequel to the first Horizon game is now getting the same treatment. Hopefully, minus the port issues, most ly about performance and HDR.

Two years after its launch for consoles, Horizon Forbidden West is releasing for PC on March 21st, 2024. It comes out in a big bundle that includes extra items and DLC content.

How to tell if you will enjoy Horizon Forbidden West

Just like its prequel, Horizon Forbidden West is an action-adventure open-world game with several biomes, factions with different ideologies and political tendencies, creature-like robots, and a straightforward but very entertaining story.

Weapons and armor can be augmented by using different resources that you’ll find scattered all over the world. Different skill trees can be upgraded to make Aloy stronger and more oriented towards a specific playstyle. The skill tree in Forbidden West includes Ultimate abilities and it will take a while before you can get points on other trees that aren’t that useful to your build.

The ideal way to play this game is after at least completing the main story of Horizon Zero Dawn, many plot points could be confusing if you don’t do it this way. Compared to Zero Dawn, there are more boss-level monsters as well as stronger versions of all enemies that appear only at night.

In terms of gameplay, I consider games like Star Wars Jedi Survivor, The Witcher 3, and Assassin’s Creed to be similar to Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West when it comes to how the world is built, the way upgrading equipment works, the fact that all enemies have very specific weakness and strengths and the vast levels of difficulty available. If you enjoy these types of games then you should consider giving Horizon Zero Forbidden West a try.

Should you buy it if you already own the game on PS5

The content of the game is the same, in terms of gameplay, you will not miss out on anything. However, the experience will be different. Some features are impossible to use on consoles due to hardware limitations. Things like lighting, frame rates, and Ray Tracing are highly superior on PC.

If you’ve already played the game and aren’t simply interested in spending sixty dollars to re-live the experience then this release isn’t for you. However, if you’re one of the people who love to tweak the game’s settings to achieve the most immersive experience then this is a great opportunity.

What do you get when purchasing the PC version

Unlike other games, Horizon Forbidden West will only release a single edition of the game for PC. The Complete Edition costs USD 60 retail, it includes cosmetic items, digital goods, and DLC content. It can be bought via Steam or Epic Games. There are no differences in content, it’s just a matter of which platform you prefer.

The specific items that you will receive are:

• two Special Outfits (Carja Behemoth Elite and Nora Thunder Elite)
• two Special Weapons (Carja Behemoth Short Bow and Nora Thunder Sling)
• an In-game Resources Pack including ammunition, potions, and travel packs
• an In-game Apex Clawstrider Machine Strike Piece
• an exclusive Photo Mode pose and face paint.
• The Complete Edition also includes the Burning Shores DLC content.

Pre-Order Bonus

If you pre-order the Complete Edition before March 21st, you’ll receive the Blacktide Outfit and Blacktide Sharpshot Bow.

The Blacktide can shoot Tear Precision Arrows and Strikethrough Arrows, making it great for taking on camps of human adversaries as well as tearing components off of machines. In that regard it is an upgrade to the Glowblast Sharpshot Bow which you can purchase from the vendor at Thornmarsh.

For more details, check out our Sharpshot Bows List and Guide where we have a complete catalog of the best Sharpshot Bows in the game along with instructions on how to get them, what it costs to upgrade them and everything else you might need to know.

Bonuses for Steam users

You will receive the Nora Legacy Outfit and Nora Spear by linking your Steam Account with the PlayStation Network.

What to expect in terms of graphic performance

Horizon Forbidden West will be able to run on a wide selection of processors and GPUs. From a GTX 1650 all the way up to an RTX 4080 with an Intel Core I3-8100 or an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X respectively.

Even the lower-end configurations will require 16GB of RAM and 150GB of SSD storage. There’s an emphasis on using an SSD due to the loading screen times and textures of the huge open world. The game might not run properly on an HDD.

There will be a lot of great features like customizable graphics settings and a broad range of performance-enhancing technologies, including NVIDIA DLSS 3 upscaling and frame generation. AMD FSR and Intel XeSS are also supported. For those who have high-end PCs, image-enhancing NVIDIA DLAA will also be available.

UltraWide enjoyers will be glad to know that Guerrilla didn’t forget about them. Forbidden West will be supported in 21:9 UltraWide, 32:9 super UltraWide, and even 48:9 resolutions with compatibility for triple-monitor setups.

Horizon Zero Dawn was famous for its gorgeous views and it seems that Forbidden West improves in this area even more.

150 Gigabytes for a game is a lot, even by modern standards. It’s a lot of space but considering all the new features in addition to the base game and DLC content it’s probably not the worst scenario.

The next chart shows in more detail all the recommended specs for different graphic settings.