Massive respect for uploading a review after leisurely finishing the game. Games are supposed to experienced, not rushed like those official reviewers where they feel it like a chore and give bad scores.

I don't even buy games day one anymore. So reviewers taking their time, so that they can put out a more accurate review is good to see.

The graphics are definitely great but I don’t see a lot of ppl talking about the enemy ai. I mean the way the machines track your movement and basically guess where you’re gonna dodge too is crazy considering 9/10 they guess right. And the enemy ai being able to track your fight pattern. It’s awesome and we need more games with this kind of ai.

I think the first game left more of an impact on me than Forbidden West, gameplay wise yes there's plenty of improvements but the first game had the benefit of the whole world and story universe being fresh and new

OJ should have a star on Hollywood Boulevard he's an absolute legend of the internet.

Considering I take my time with games, I love how your guys's reviews come out after everyone's first impressions. Especially with your consistent and improving quality over the years. Do not ever worry about being late 😙

Surprised I haven't seen someone mentioning the fact they clear taped a Dorito to the side of OJ's head to act as Aloy's Focus piece 9:08. Haven't laughed out loud in a while, thank you.

My biggest problem with the story was that your objective at the beginning is to address the blight, but then Far Zenith comes and that is never really addressed. Gaia says that the stuff you’ve done will only give you a few months more, but Aloy is just like, “take your time!” at the end of the game like they aren’t heading towards mass deaths. Part of me hopes this will be addressed in a DLC, but it should have been addressed in the main game

The visuals in this game is what modders have been trying to make Skyrim into for over a decade. Truly impressive.

The Horizon customer service skit had me rolling 😂

Using a dorrito for a focus in the mini AngryJoe scenes is by far the best use of a prop I've ever seen

See for me I really enjoyed the story of new dawn. So the beginning for me and understanding what's been going on and what adventure we were going on was really intriguing to me. I loved the opening especially the elevator where you get introduced to the new world.

OJ is such a versatile actor, I'm sure that's been said before

Well the people that care about the “old ones” in this universe want to know their story. I appreciate that they are telling a story of the present and past at the same time.

I just started playing last week and as much as I love this world and as heavily invested as I am I can't stand talking to NPC's outside of the quest stuff but after the first section the games opens up so well that I've become reattached

Well my opinion on the dialogue wheel is that it’s for the people that sometimes have a hard time picking up everything during the first conversation, and I like that im able to be able to repeat the dialogue in cases when I miss something or didn’t quite understand the current plot in the mission.

That little kiss OJ did at the beginning made my day. Havent laughed at something that hard in a long time. Thank you Angry Joe show!

Oh my god, I thought that I was the only one that noticed the weird “alive” hair in cut scenes. Thank you, AJ, always pointing out the stuff that the big review companies miss!

There's absolutely no one that can review rant like Angry Joe, but Other Joe is the star of the skits!

The dialogue wheel has an icon to show you which option to select to end the dialogue... The additional options are for people that like a little more depth to their conversations or to check something they're unsure about. I thought it was a good way to suit everyone's needs.

I kinda liked the extra dialogue, it was kinda annoying at when I was just talking to random npcs, however all the extra dialogue in the main story felt like a good addition. Also I fucking loved the music and was so sad when they said they didn’t find it impactful

OJ Aloy taking that Hair blowing a bit extreme lmao

Weird about the soundtrack, I thought the game was absolutely great with the soundtrack. You know it's great because it never grates on you or gets in the way! And there's a couple memorable tracks in there from the overworld just like the first game. Also surprised no mention of the ridiculous amount of useless loot. The fact that loot which sells for shards can be listed as "purple" as if it's valuable enough for me to spend 5 minutes to get to another damn just is just kind of a pain in the ass. Less chests! Less crafting materials! Less ammo types! Just tie the damn elemental damage to the weapon instead of splitting ammo into 20 different fucking types.

Something I noticed I heard no one talk about, clothing. I was talking to this guy wearing a leather vest tied in in the middle to keep it together. When her moved the gap between the two sides moved with him, even expanding and contracting as he breathed!! Shit KILLED ME!!

Man I've gotta say, these parodies alone make it worth watching reviews even for games I'm not necessarily interested in. As always, big ups on staying true to your content and working through all these games for us.

When you need Angry Joe the most, he’s there

*FINAL VERDICT:* 28:14

35:11 I love in that cutscene she sounds more annoyed than anything. Like someone spilled something on her rather than afraid that they just fried her shield making her vulnerable to be killed.

The best part in the entire game for me so far has been everything with the Theater troop in Vegas. That section of the game was just so charming and silly and I loved every second they were on screen.

This was a very solid review. Very good and concise points all around, definitely agree on the gameplay and world exploration.

Considering this is GG's second open world game, despite the few cons regarding dialogue, it's another ball outta the park on this one.

I set off to find a crab to craft a bigger ammo pouch, and i'm gone all day. I'm now over 200 hours in...

Thanks for the years of high effort content guys!

I love horizon. Since that first E3 video back in 2015, I got lost in the world of the first game and totally loved the story so the forbidden west was one of the handful of games I purchased in full price on a day of release and the first game I paid £70 for. I'm 120 hours in and still got stuff to do but you named some things I actually thought: Alloy's hair has life on its own. I was skipping doing main quests when I had less than 2 hours to play. I hated stupid hints. Like I'm collecting 9th drone and she goes maybe I need to bring it down. Yeah, I know Alloy shut up.... but I liked the story in the Forbidden west too but it didnt wow me ... and that's natural because it's a sequel ... I love it and definitely looking forward to an expansion and another sequel in the future.

Awesome review ! Dialogues could’ve been less long and predictable… but Aloy leveling up and going bad shit crazy with great graphics makes up for a lot the zenith thing was worth waiting for but the tribe’s sometimes talked to much 8.5

You can mock it all you want Joe, but there's no denying they uglified Alloy if you look at her original concept art. Even in this sequel they decided to give her an even bigger, fatter melon head for some reason. She has the head of a morbidly obese 45 year old woman on a petite young adults body. Of course that doesn't make the game unplayable, but I don't get why people are trying to deny it.

My favorite thing about new games is watching these reviews

I think when it comes to the dialogue, everything just depends on how invested you are in the world. I really love the first game and I've been invested in the world since then. I really enjoyed everything about the tribes, their interactions, and the various side quests that you encounter. The dialogue itself was very enjoyable to me because I found most of that stuff to be very interesting. That being said, if you're not interested in those things I can see how the dialogue would be annoying. Still, as much as I enjoy the first game, I feel like this one was an improvement on all levels. If you're not interested in the dialogue, it's easy enough to skip through it. It's a 9 for me. A point deducted mostly for some occasionally wonky platforming that irritated me.

"Dialogue with unnecessary NPC horniness..." Ha, just got to the Daunt a couple days ago, and I almost forgot Petra wanted a piece of her back in the first game, so I'm like, "Damn, Petra, chill."

I don't know why i ever stopped watching these reviews he has and still does an amazing job with direct and objective critiques of these games and honestly I think i prefer it even more with other Joe and Alex being directly in the review as a discussion. sure they have similar tastes but it's nice to get 3 people's reactions at once. I so appreciate that you guys break down ALL the good and bad in equal measure and don't sugar coat it much if at all like most big game journalists that seem to get paid to embellish not review. Keep Doing your thing guys and don't sweat it if it takes a while, "anything worth saying takes a long time to say......"~treebeard

If Elden Ring is also gonna be a roundtable discussion it will be interesting to see how you compare and contrast it this game since they do things so differently.

The first 10 hours feels like a demo for review outlets like IGN. Not bad necessarily but it gave that feeling I also couldn't put finger on it. Then suddenly the game opens up and it's great and the dialogue isn't out of place. Also the information overload! Fantastic game though.

I really love these review discussions I'll always love Joe's classic review format but I definitely don't mind these three just chilling and talking about it

Totally agree about the tribe stuff, it's somewhat interesting seeing little things about how they base their religions and customs etc. on random relics from the pre-apocalyptic world but I mostly find them unwelcome distractions from the main story - which is fantastic IMO.

Dude the customer service dial up could've been done poorly, but it was a perfectly executed joke, that was really clever

Honestly the opening skits they do are the best 👌 I'm here for OJ in any costume!

Even if you didn't like any of the other tracks (soundtrack) in the game, try and listen to the one that plays when you start the New Game/Continue screen. It's a great twist on a similar track in HZD. Not dissimilar to how Ezio's Family became Assassin's Creed's theme, to the point where almost (if not every) AC game has it's own version of Ezio's Family. I think a lot of people miss the initial track in Forbidden West because after you press "Continue", you don't get to hear it in its' entirety. Just to be clear the name of the Track is "Aloy's Theme - Forbidden West (feat. Julie Elven)".

I had some rough patches the past few months but im finally finding time to play it and im way too into exploring, i have the main mission like right after restoring GAIA from the seed and getting out of that base you git from it and im at level 31 pretty much just from exploring and taking down a bunch of thunderjaws, also!! Theres like a mountain area at the top of the map with freaking tremortusks and i guess theyre quest locked til you reach a specific point cuz they never spawned up til now, i was *really* looking forward to fight them way too underpowered so i guess ill get back to the missions soon!!

Hope you guys have time set aside to try out the other releases in the past few weeks, surprisingly a lot of good titles so far this year.

I loved the game. Had some issues with picking up loot having an animation (please do it like Ghost of Tsushima, BOTW, Elden Ring, etc), Aloy talking so much (especially puzzles), some minor bugs, and janky climbing and melee combat. Took me 91h to get the Platinum and be done. I'd give it a 9 personally. Thanks for the fantastic reviews as always Joe. Always worth the wait!

I am only half way into the game but this absolutely nails it! I don’t want to talk to characters over and over only to forget the tribe or point 5 seconds later, just let me get out there and explore and kill some machines!

The motion captured cutscenes are really cool and fluid ngl And as always the robots seem very fun to fight

Played the game on PS4 Pro and had a blast with it! Loved the amount of lore dumps throughout the game. Looks looks incredible and runs smooth as well.. Apart from some audio issues and some black screens.

The Decima engine truly is a masterclass when it comes to graphics. It's crazy that consoles are often pushing the limits with these games. They do come to PC after (and push it even further) but it's impressive what they do on a 500 dollar box in the first place.

I distinctly remember wishing all of the tribal story stuff in HZD was gone and it was just you fighting dinos and discovering the truth about Zero Dawn.

I did enjoy the various tribes, both in FW and the original ZD. Seeing how each differed and were culturally and visually unique as well as how they explained how those differences came about from the few bits of lore found in he open world. But FW fell a little short compared to the original ZD. in ZD we had the Nora, and Oseram and Carja and Banuk, and really got time to experience and get a feel for how they were all different. IN FW we basically have the Utaru and the Tenakth, with the quen only showing up at the end of the game with their only really noticeable features being (we use focuses abut we suppress sharing any learning), and the Zenith who we barely see at all other than two characters we talk with. The tenakth could have been really diverse and almost three separate tribes themselves, but the only really differences we se is one lives in the mountains and another lives in the desert and anther lives in the woods, and we use different color skin paint.

Aloy is the gaming mary sue, she is born better than everyone else, she is perfect in every way, and everyone who is not a douche is in love with her. it is even more obnoxious in the second game, that being said, the game is good, the story is good, but could be better.

Hats off to you Joe, the whole team has been great with all the reviews. Appreciate the hard work.

Her hair loved to jump around like she had her own personal hurricane on her at times. I was in the final cutscene and her hair was jumping like super mario trying to get those coins 😂

Way too much dialogue in this one over ZD. Also Aloy just talks way too much, can't go 2 seconds without her telling the player what to do

But don't all those dialog trees have a logo near the choice that immediately progresses you through the story so you can skip the 'lure' that surrounds it?

It was between this and Elden Ring for me and given how they described the game I made the right decision in picking Elden Ring for what I'm looking for.

I really enjoyed the first game and do think the strength of it lies in the combat. I think Aloy was a bit of a weak link though, it would’ve been more endearing I think if she was in awe of her surroundings or whenever she saw a new robot, rather than just unrealistically taking it in her stride. It would make more sense given she grew up in a valley with only one other person.

I also really liked that they actually put real paintings from ‘rijksmuseum’ in the game which is a museum nearby the guerilla office

Another awesome vid I get so happy seeing a notification of your guys’ uploads every single time your videos are a 10 no disappointments I can see you guys really love what you guys do I love u guys

A bit sad there was a small war between Elden Ring and Horizon. I’m sure both games are great

Can change between what weapon does like knock shot ect i want to see same switching has a skill valour on the fly instead of selecting skill valours in menu

I played every side mission and main mission and it took me 80 hours to complete. Considering the "opening" levels took roughly 8 hours to complete, its not that bad at pacing, if you end up playing the entire game.

I'm just glad that I got to finish the game before this review was uploaded. I enjoyed the game, but I'll admit there were stuff that bugged me. The ending for me was bitter sweet and one of the mechanics like her staying down for a long time (like more than three seconds) was annoying, but still is a great game for me. I would give it an 8/10.

Awesome review guys. I wish I could have the game and getting the same experience! Keep it up Joe!

Thanks for the review guys. I love the game but my issues are the climbing and recovery when she gets knocked down. She takes so long to get back up that the machine is already attacking again. And there has been times when I would climb to the top of a mountain and then can't get atop it and have to shimmy to another area to do so. But I take my time with these types of game. I haven't even completed it yet and I've had it since launch. Without a new game plus I don't feel any need to rush. I still have a lot to do. Arenas, Ruins. Pits. And I seem to find random people in the middle of nowhere to give my new quest. So I'm having fun and just learning to deal with the cons of the game.

Cons would be traversal, some machines and quest design. Don’t know how many times aloy won’t grab on to ledges she would be able too that are shorter than arms reach of her, so many yellows spots for her to grab on but she won’t and this happens constantly. Buttons aren’t that responsive when it comes to climbing and it feels slower in my opinion. Dropping down to certain surfaces in certain areas is hit or miss. She’ll tell you drop now, you drop, and she will miss whatever it is, fall and die. Happens multiple times. Free parkour also messes me up because she will also just miss platforms she has to walk on. Some machines cover way too much ground that you can’t run away, sure they are suppose to be fast but if I feel like I’m getting my cheeks clapped, I wanna be able to run away. Can’t because some have some bs attacks with ridiculous hit detection, do certain moves where you can’t attack and when they knock you down good luck getting up fast enough to get to safety. I like a challenge and the game is challenging at times but there are too many moves you can’t dodge because of the size of some of these machines. Some don’t even have enough weak spots for you to do enough damage, you shot them off and now you’re left with just armor and you’re only doing 9 damage until it dies. That might be a nit pick But quests… I hate the “search” something, someone or a way in quests. They will give you a wide area to search and your way in for example is perfectly blended in with the environment so you’re not sure what you are looking for. There are so many videos on KZfaq on some of these quests because they are frustrating. If the game “forces” the player base to look up the answers and ways in to certain areas then there is a flaw in the quest design. Some quests are bugged, the game won’t always tell you exactly what to do. You have to look at an area a specific way for her to say a dialog to update the quest (best way to explain without spoiling that mission)

This is why me and my friend watch you guys, the pure gaming insight and comedy, keep up the EXCELLENT work!!!

It's good to see you doing more Angry Reviews instead of movie reviews, keep up the good work Joe and Crew!

Everybody forgot about this game after Elden Ring lol.

What is the original sound at the beginning when de game cover is showed. It's been used for ever!

I always get a pang of excitement whenever I see you’ve uploaded a review thank you guys for such awesome content !!

Just got the platinum for this game on PS4. The quality on the original PS4 was great (except for some bugs) so I'm so siked to finally get a PS5 and replay it!! What a great sequel!

Funny thing is you can skip exposition dumps with x or just if you want to pick the right thing on the wheel just look for whatever has a circle and an arrow symbol next to it to Leave the conversation or the sideways square shape to pick the quest progression choice

H:ZD is one of my favorite cinematic/epic games of all time. That story put me on my ass once I got the whole thing. But the final boss battle was just ungodly bad. So disappointing. I’m hoping H:FW doesn’t suffer the same sad conclusion.

Joe sums up exactly how I feel about the game, the meh characters. I like both games, but man as someone who values characters, none of them interest me at all. Alloy was cool after the realization of her belonging in HZD, but in FW she just becomes bland and uninteresting along with every other character in the game

I can see that this game does have a lot of hand holding open world format when aloy talking to herself by helping the player and stuff like that, no wonder why one of the developer hating on the elden ring open world format.

Fantastic review guys. I really enjoyed your take on things and very much appreciated your work.

Completely agree that the graphics in this game are a technical marvel... Those micro expressions and mannerisms they included are insane.. like the mannerism with her tongue slightly touching her lower lip while listening to that other character at 18:12 ... It's a total improvement from HZD where their expressions made them look mechanical.

Good review. I enjoy the game. The graphics and gameplay was excellent. It had a few bugs but it didn't stop my experience. I knew the game wouldn't be good as the first one. The first was the story of Aloy origin and the world. It was great story and it had that emotional feeling to it. Second game couldn't match to it but it still told a great story. Enemies was unique and beautiful. Everybody have their own opinion but it is game worth buying.

You guys are the only ones I watch for game reviews, I’ll wait as long as need be!

I feel the same, the game could easily be a 10/10 legendary game if they polish the story, and give us more interesting characters. For Example in Zero Dawn, every faction was completely different(Banuk, Oseron, Carja, Nora), But in Forbidden West the Thenak are the same thing with different color pallets. In ZD, the Banuk cover themselves from head to toe in Tick skin to keep themselves warned in the frozen cold *BUT* in FW The Sky Clan are barefoot, shirtless, and wear skirts while living in an cold mountain...

I love the story of this game and looked forward to the dialogue wheels. The gameplay and graphics were first rate. I enjoyed the music too. Especially during major fights. I do agree that Aloy talks too much to herself and directs you what to do too often. They need to tone this down. But overall, an incredible game and experience. Looking forward to the next one. 9.5/10

Thank you for the effort you put in joe. It really means a lot to us.

I agree that like 60% of the dialogue of the game is unnesessary, but the dialogue with your base members is really great. Especially when you hear how they interact with each other like Zo hating Erind, Varl trying to be the mediator and mentor for everyone, and Tokallo interacting with Alva, with Alva getting obsessed over Tokallos new arm that you get to journey with him to get.

I think it had great combat music, especially for the big machines.

Joe, I don't care what score you gave this game! All I care about is you finally reviewing a Horizon game! You may not have reviewed the first game but it warms my heart that you reviewed its sequel!

Overhyped? I don’t know about that, You have to remember that game came out 5 years ago. In 2017 standards back then it was pretty good. It’s kinda like playing Metal gear solid one and metal gear solid 2. Games came out 3 years apart and there was a MASSIVE difference. That’s simply evolution and glad to see guerrilla games is moving forward not backwards.

POV: you’re watching a new Angry Review at Midnight

For me the story is what kills this game, i don't remember Alloy being this boring in the first game, she has only one tone in her voice, her dialogues are boring. On the other hand the story was also predictable, i was not surprised when the new faction came and who are they, what i liked about it though that it was similar to the Assassins Creed story, the the "god" were actually advanced civilizations.

Man it's hard because I give you guys all the gripes but when you actually compare it to literally any other game this is superior in so many ways. It actually game me more vivid dreams after playing too long because it's so ridiculously realized! It scares me lol

Just bought the game I hope it’s as cool as the first one all I rly wanna see is non awkward cutscenes and more dino enemy types

Say what you will about the soundtrack, I loved it. Music can make or break video games (or anything really) for me. Imagine Aloy running away from a gargantuan machine while the Benny Hill theme plays in the background. The Soundtrack of HFW reminded me of The Witcher 3 in a lot of places. The only things that didn't sit well with me were the icons for completed places not disappearing from the map (Metal Flowers, Firegleam, etc.) Other than that, I hope to see a third game in the series. No idea what would happen, but any improvement on this game is worth it.

I agree that Forbidden West is better in a lot of aspects, specially gameplay and graphics, but I still prefer Zero Dawn. And its because the story. Just as you, I didn't get too involved in the story of Forbidden west nor its tribes. But the thing is I did in Zero Dawn. I really enjoyed the way the game set this whole mistery around the apocalypse, the machines and Aloy's origin and how it explains everything bit by bit. And then, there are the Carja. The therm "tribe" doesn't do justice to them. They are an actual post-postapocailptic civilization that don't just live in tents or repurposed ancient buildings like in many other post apocailptic settings (including Forbidden West Tenakh and Utaru) but have actually build new stuff and created a fledging civilization of their own. I hadn't seen anything similar before, and so was fascinated about them and their city, Meridiam. Which also happens to have one of the most memorable musical themes in Zero Dawn. I also find it interesting that, in those visions of the past, you usually get to see ruins in their glory days, when they were still intact, whereas with median you just see an empty rock in the past vs a huge elegant city in the present. It makes a great contrast and I feel it epnphazises that humanity is not just living in the shadow of its past, that its advancing and may get to the same level as before on its own.

I absolutely love this game. LOVE IT!