After being pushed back from its original 2021 release date, Horizon Forbidden West is finally arriving imminently. The sequel to the 2017 title from Guerilla Games will be released on February 18. In the lead-up to the game’s launch, Guerilla and Sony have taken turns revealing more about Forbidden West. This time, we learned more about how long it will take to complete Forbidden West.
Similar to the original title, Horizon Zero Dawn, Forbidden West is an open-world game. However, unlike Zero Dawn, Forbidden West will alloq Aloy to explore relatively unknown regions and a more expansive land that covers post-apocalyptic versions of California, Nevada, and Utah. Due to its scale, most would assume that Forbidden West would take several dozens of hours to complete.
Having said that, Guerilla Games didn’t want to make Forbidden West longer just for the sake of it.
German gaming news outlet, GamePro, interviewed the game’s director, Mathijs de Jonge, and found out that Forbidden West will run for as long as Zero Dawn. Gamepro points to Zero Dawn’s metrics on Howlongtobeat.com, where the game usually takes around 60.5 hours to 100%. Meanwhile, the same website states that finishing Zero Dawn’s main storyline will take roughly around 22.5 hours. In the same interview, we also found out that Forbidden West’s story and side content are both much more ambitious.
Guerilla could have easily padded Forbidden West with things to do and most wouldn’t complain. Zero Dawn’s incredibly detailed environments are prime content material. But, from what we can tell, Guerilla prefers quality over quantity. If nothing else, we can expect Forbidden West’s world to be just as teeming with life.
Ultimately, Forbidden West’s official length strikes the perfect balance for both casual and hardcore gamers.
The only question now is just how much larger Forbidden West will become if Guerilla decides to expand on the game’s story with upcoming DLCs. It’s worth noting that Zero Dawn’s lone expansion, The Frozen Wilds, added 8 hours’ worth of story content to the base game.
In other news, Forbidden West’s overall length is tame when compared to Techland’s Dying Light 2: Stay Human. According to the Polish game studio, Dying Light 2 will take more than 500 hours to 100%, with at least 100+ hours required to do the main story as well as other side missions.
