Horizon Forbidden West: Seeds of Rebellion

Horizon Forbidden West: Seeds of Rebellion is a carefully made production, with plenty corrected from its first release, and that care is obvious as soon as it occupies the table. It is one of those large boxes that promises weeks of company: a modest luxury after work, when everyone would quite like to disappear into another world for an evening.

At heart, it is a very good co-op boss battler, with a linear story linking the encounters and fairly slight character and deck building around the edges. The fights have real pressure, and they ask the group to work together rather than merely sit around the same target.

Most encounters begin in stealth. You read the AI and its patrol routes, set traps, and try to create an advantage before everything becomes an open brawl. That is where the game captures its source material particularly well; the move from quiet preparation to disorder feels like a scene that finally knows what it is there for.

The trouble is everything in between. With a stronger plot, fewer dull conversations, and fewer filler chapters with nothing to say, this could have been a great game. Good fights cannot always carry a campaign to its finish, however handsome the open box looks on the table.

We have already played nine sessions and reached roughly 80% of the main story, yet I cannot see us finishing it. Perhaps the alternate campaigns in the expansions address that problem; as it stands, Horizon Forbidden West: Seeds of Rebellion is an alright experience with excellent combat moments, but not a campaign that will beg you to stay for the closing credits.