DLCs and I haven’t always seen eye to eye. Their introduction so many years ago felt like the death knell of their bigger, more juicer brother: the expansion. Nowadays though DLC is the catchall term for anything from simple cosmetics all the way through to content releases that are expansions in everything but name. Whilst I’ve come around to the idea of revisiting games with less-than-full-game content updates I’m still always a bit weary of them. For some players I can see the appeal, especially those who religiously 100% any game they play, but I usually struggle to find compelling reasons to go back. Having opted out of all the previous Horizon DLC’s and with Burning Shores releasing at the right time I figured it was worth looking into, especially considering how interesting the story had gotten at Forbidden West‘s conclusion.
SPOILERS FOR HORIZON: FORBIDDEN WEST BELOW
Set some time after the events of Forbidden West the Burning Shores DLC begins with Sylens contacting you about one of the Zeniths that remains unaccounted for: Walter Londra. He’d been sighted at the place formerly known as Los Angeles and Sylen’s investigations revealed that some of his previous businesses were located there. Given the ever encroaching threat that is the Nemesis AI Sylens convinces Aloy that this last Zenith needs to be dealt with. There’s also the possibility that his companies contain data on potential weapons that Nemesis doesn’t know about, a key tactical advantage that can’t be ignored. Being still wary of Sylens’ motives Aloy agrees to track the last Zenith down and, hopefully, find something to help them in their upcoming fight with Nemesis.
As you’d expect from a DLC the base game hasn’t really been touched, however given that you finish Forbidden West with a flying mount the level design is significantly different, including a lot more verticality than its predecessor did. There is of course a few mechanical additions to the game to spice things up a bit, including both exploration/puzzle mechanics as well as the addition of a bunch of new skills at the bottom of each tree for you to go after. The changes are incremental enough that you don’t feel like you’re playing through another tutorial, augmenting the current experience rather than trying to replace it.
With it being almost a year and some 40ish games in between this DLC and the original it did take me a good little while to get my bearings with everything again. Thankfully the game keeps the kid gloves on for a little bit to help you get situated before ramping up the difficulty and introducing a bunch of new mechanics to throw into the mix. Of course if you, unlike me, decide to go off and explore the island more rather than just punching the campaign missions relentlessly then you’re much more likely to find yourself less bewildered. This was aptly demonstrated when I was put in front of a giant machine less than an hour into playing and, thinking my build was unstoppable, got my ass handed to me repeatedly until I gave up and just skipped the encounter completely.
Being confronted with the game’s rather detailed upgrade systems again took a bit of getting used to but, after a while, I realised that I’d pretty much maxed out my current build before I’d capped off my playthrough of the original. The new skills are pretty cool, however none of them really fit into my playstyle. Combine that with the rather absurd number of skill points you seem to accrue in short order and I was honestly hunting around for things that’d make some level of impact to my game. There were a couple nice to haves, but nothing that really made me want to shake up my current strategy. I’m sure the addition of those skills has made for an increase in build diversity, but I didn’t really feel the need to change everything when I’d already spent 30+ hours on doing it before.
Thankfully there doesn’t seem to be much of a downside to my campaign-first-and-only playstyle for this particular DLC. Trudging from mission to mission, ignoring Aloy’s comments about “exploring the island” or “needing to stock up” every time one finishes, isn’t met with any time gated activities pushing you out to side quests or busy work before allowing you to push forward with the main campaign again. This does mean that there’s a reduced focus on interacting with the supporting characters but, given the fact they have little bearing on the main narrative the game appears to be following anyway I don’t think much was lost there.
PLOT SPOILERS BELOW
The highlight of the DLC’s narrative is definitely the extended world building it undertakes to flesh out Walter, some of the events running up to the collapse and hinting at what future DLCs/games may have in store for us. Whilst the narrative is pretty surface level and predictable (oh people with a god complex creating a cult? Colour me shocked) it’s enough to keep things moving whilst you uncover all the other little narrative bits that flesh out the world even further. It’s also nice to see Aloy go through some genuine character development, even if I feel like the queer relationship was a little undercooked in how it eventuated. Still it adds another dimension to her that wasn’t present before, so we can all count that as a total win.
PLOT SPOILERS OVER
Like all DLCs these days Burning Shores is more of the same and your opinion on whether or not that’s a good thing is entirely dependent on your experience with the original. For me it was nice to retread some of that ground, getting to use the flying mount in anger and enjoying my already well tuned build against a new set of enemies. The sprinkling of new mechanics, loot and exploration mechanics are nice but the real strength was the further bolstering of the world building and overarching narrative that the Horizon series is pursuing. It’s setting us up well for what’s to come but, as with all good things, I’ll think we’ll be waiting a good long time before we see much more.
Rating: 9.25/10
Horizon: Forbidden West: Burning Shores is available on PlayStation 5 right now for $29.95. Total play time was approximately 8 hours.
