Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores serves fans a rich dessert that brings the main course of the campaign to a satisfying conclusion. A dangerous new sandbox and a compelling story awaits Aloy, offering a beautiful conclusion that also offers some tantalizing glimpses of the future.
Unlike Zero Dawn’s Frozen Wilds DLC, which was a good but skippable side story, Burning Shores has enough relevant plot progression to bring it closer to the required game. Set immediately after the conclusion of the sequel, this abridged story sees Aloy travel to the volcanically devastated remains of Los Angeles to confront perhaps the show’s most twisted villain yet. The adventure takes some exciting twists and turns and delivers what I wanted most: a potential narrative blueprint for the third game. Burning Shores’ conclusion lays a good foundation for how Aloy and friends will tackle the next menace, so it sucks that PlayStation 4 owners have to settle for watching it on YouTube. I also enjoyed spending more time with the Quen, my favorite faction in Forbidden West, especially as they introduced us to Seyka, Aloy’s new companion and one of the main highlights of Burning Shores.
This skilled warrior serves as the catalyst for the Burning Shores story and will remain at Aloy’s side throughout the expansion. Seyka is essentially a more charismatic version of Aloy himself: steadfast and sometimes stubborn, but gentle and loving to those in need, and with an endearing sense of humor to boot. Though the blossoming of their bond feels a little rushed to fit the DLC’s shorter runtime, the two slayers have some amusing interactions, like exchanging humorous observations while exploring a crumbling dinosaur theme park. I hope we see more of Seyka in the future as she has quickly risen to the upper echelon of the show’s best characters.
The islands that make up the former Tinseltown unsurprisingly look stunning; The volcanic lava flows offer a wide variety of visual images. It’s a shame these molten perils don’t flow more directly into the gameplay, but LA has a fun emphasis on verticality that makes better use of your flying mounts. Skyscrapers have hidden entrances and secrets located several floors above ground, allowing me to get more mileage out of my Sunwing or Waterwing, a new swimming variant that’s now my favorite mount. Aerial versions of the VR landscape puzzles still encourage taking off, to the point that flying overshadows Aloy’s new motorized boat. Though it’s the central mode of transportation for Burning Shores, the boat’s slower speed and its tethered dock access can’t beat the thrill and convenience of flying at will (or fast travel, for that matter). As a result, I rarely used it outside of the required segments.
The handful of new machines occupying the Burning Shores, like a giant frog and oversized mechanical flies, aren’t as jaw-dropping as some of the existing machines, but they do offer fun new tests of your combat skills. Besides dismantling these enemies for new upgrade parts, I spent most of my time hunting down a valuable new resource called Brimstone, glowing crystals used as the primary crafting material for Burning Shores’ new suite of powerful legendary weapons and armor. I appreciate that Brimstone is relatively plentiful, allowing me to acquire a fresh arsenal and wardrobe quickly.
Aside from adding a powerful new firearm to Burning Shores midway through the expansion, however, Burning Shores doesn’t introduce any features that dramatically shake up combat encounters. However, Sekya’s near-constant presence is a welcome helping hand in a fight. She’s really useful when she often picks enemies apart on her own or ties them up with her ropecaster for me to kill. Early on, puzzle-solving takes on a nice cooperative edge, as Aloy and Seyka work together to build climbing paths for each other using a siege weapon. These sequences can make you think you’re playing with another real person, although I wish these ladies had more obstacles to overcome together throughout the rest of the experience.
Burning Shores is an entertaining epilogue to Aloy’s second appearance. It’s more Forbidden West with some cool creases, meaning it’s a good reminder of the things the game got right, while still retaining some old headaches (like holding hands on puzzles). More than anything, Aloy’s trip to Hollywood justifies its existence, building meaningfully on the base game’s story and paving a solid runway for the launch of the next title.
