It’s hard to believe it’s been more than a year since Aloy’s latest adventure, rummaging through the Forbidden West.

The vast adventure took us through epic battles, contact with the intergalactic, and on the backs of machines through stunning environments.

It’s all led us to here, this new environment, the Burning Shores, with a DLC which sets the scene for an even more exciting future. In a chapter that’s my favourite visit to this world yet.

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How to Play

Once purchased, the content can be accessed from within the game when players have completed the mission ‘Singularity’ and rolled credits on Horizon: Forbidden West.

Players will then get a call to go ‘To the Burning Shores’ and begin the quest line for the DLC.

Please note, this content is exclusive to the PS5 version of Horizon: Forbidden West and cannot be played on PS4. If you have upgraded the PS4 version of the game to the PS5 version to play on that hardware, it will work without issue.

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This content goes deeper into Aloy’s character than ever before, explores more nuances and adds layers, providing her with some powerful lines and pained expressions.

This last part is quite key and, for me, reveals why this content had to remain exclusive to PS5. Facial expressions are important in Forbidden West, giving more life to the characters, putting them a class above pretty much every other game out there. This feels like acting in a way video games have never convincingly been able to achieve before.

Watching Aloy’s eyes move freely about, allowing lines to breathe and hang in the air as she furrows her brow and openly reflects on sentences and sentiments is just so incredibly refreshing. The film-like quality of Burning Shores is astounding, clear for all to see and it is ever more emphasised with Aloy’s interactions with the DLC’s other new lead.

Seyka brings out a side of Aloy we’ve rarely seen explored, a more well-rounded, jokey demeanor that has moments of doubt, of frustration, but equally one of understanding and even a desire for real connection. It’s a great dynamic which drives the very essence of the content and is often at the heart of the game’s best moments.

I have never felt so invested in Aloy as I did here. I can see her growth, her development, and how the actions of the past two games have taken their toll. I maybe even see the kind of character she could become in the future.

Of course, many challenges still await on the Burning Shores, with some hulking, agile creatures, fast, furious human adversaries and perilous traps and pitfalls. Fortunately, you’ll have new weapons to fight against them and make use of new environmental elements which create new pathways.

It’s a smart evolution of what Guerilla already set out and accomplished with Forbidden West. They’ve maintained the same balance with just a few additions and tweaks that help this serve as more of a satisfying epilogue than a cut and pasted extension.

Between firing arrows into the wall to help Aloy climb to previously unreachable areas and using weapons like the Skyhammer and the Spectre Gauntlet that offer unique advantages that can reduce enemy health down to barely anything.

There’s some truly epic encounters that will await you as you travel the land, in places you’ll remember and relish and against enemies you may not fully expect. Some of my favourite combat encounters across the entire game are found in Burning Shores.

Exploring the Burning Shores is also a joyous experience, from the tattered, worn-down Hollywood sign to the luscious beaches and even flying by trees and greenery in a Sunwing. Aesthetically, this shows the potential Guerilla are working towards with this franchise and why Burning Shores needed to move away from PS4 to realise its goals and ambitions.

This is a stunning piece of content. The detail to be seen in the moving waves and grains of sand. The fluffiness of clouds and the clearness of sky. It’s one of the most beautiful video games I’ve ever laid eyes on and really shows what a truly gorgeous world this has been set in. I was continuously blown away.

Fortunately, that’s also complimented by the game’s brilliant moment-to-moment combat, some truly moving and memorable lines, flesched-out characters and an intricate plot that satisfyingly ties up some narrative threads from Forbidden West and leaves a ton of clues and Easter Eggs for what comes next.

As far as a DLC goes, I cannot recommend Burning Shores highly enough. It moves the story forward in a smart way by not giving too much away but equally satiating us just enough for the now-confirmed Horizon 3.

There’s hours of content here in the main campaign with even more to find in side missions and hidden areas off the beaten path. And some real surprises for the player, in terms of Aloy’s character development and where the story may be heading next.

Burning Shores is one of the best DLCs I’ve played in a very long time. It does everything correctly, not feeling like a cash cow but offering a generous amount of content, providing one of the most aesthetically enriching environments we’ve seen in any game. It’s all filled with varied content which drives its story forward while adding an all new, interesting character to the mix that tests and challenges Aloy in a way we’ve never seen before.

And for me personally, it’s the most invested I have ever been in this world and has made me even more excited for Aloy’s next adventure, whether Guerilla continue to push the limits of the PS5 or we wait for them to melt our faces even more on future generations.

Verdict

Burning Shores is one of the best DLCs I’ve ever played and is up there with Left Behind in a way it develops its character, progresses its story in a smart way but equally raises the bar for everything to follow. A fitting send off for Forbidden West and a tantalising taster for the future of the Horizon franchise. 

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Pros

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Code kindly received from Sony for Review Purposes