Horizon Forbidden West's gorgeous world is easy to recommend as part of PlayStation Plus

It’s safe to say that this console generation has gotten off to a slow start. As both a PlayStation, and Xbox owner, I am hard-pressed to really say anything on Series X/S or PS5 is an absolute, cold-hard ‘must buy’ system seller. Halo Infinite was a bit of a wet wipe in the end, and I’m just not that into all the over-the-shoulder, hide-in-the-grass cinematic stuff that Sony exclusives like to peddle. I don’t think the new God of Wars are that good, really. Xbox, too, needs something more than Forza to show off what its machine can do.

But, that’s not to say there haven’t been games on the current generation worthy of note. The Last of Us Part 1 had some standout moments (mostly thanks to that incredible lighting engine), and some of the big action sequences in Halo Infinite lived up to the Master Chief fantasy. Returnal still slaps, Demon’s Souls is a fantastic remake, and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is gorgeous. But, for the most part, I think we’re still waiting for the proper watershed moment that signifies this generation has finally kicked off.

But there are some oases in this bland, cross-generational desert. And one of them has just been made available for no extra cost on PlayStation Plus. Horizon Forbidden West has its problems, sure, but it absolutely excels as a graphical powerhouse that really shows off what the PS5 can achieve on a good day. Whether you’re standing on a rocky outcrop, watching the clouds bleed into mist in the sky, or admiring the way that a campfire illuminates the soft peach fuzz on Aloy’s face, I cannot get over how good Forbidden West looks.

There was one moment in particular that really stuck out to me when I was reviewing the game last year: entering a new settlement – one that’s made its home in the upturned satellite domes of an old comms array – you wander through the farmland as the peasants tend to their crops. It was dusk, for me, so everything was tinged with this fiery red. Streaks of warm light shot through Aloy’s ginger hair as sunbeams traced god rays in the sky, piercing the thick cumulus clouds.

A friendly machine wandered up to me, and the immediate way I could tell it was friendly – dressed up in cloth and weaved items from the townsfolk, not the mean wires and kitbashed mechanical pieces of the wild ones, out in the wastelands – showed me that the game’s exceptional graphics weren’t just for show: the developers at Guerrilla knew how to use the visuals for gameplay.

It’s not the first or the last time the game did that, either: there are plenty of examples of designers utilising the incredible Decima engine to create a visual language in the game – using torches and light sources to illuminate underwater passageways, using broken bits of blue or yellow piping to highlight climbing routes on derelict towers… it’s kind-of rote, as a design tool, but how good everything looks in Forbidden West makes the technique feel new again. Aloy’s world is one that invites you to look close, get right in the midst of it all, see the dirt under the fingers.

Of course, all this said, the game was released on PS4, too – so there are some needless shackles put on it. But, the future is bright: upcoming Forbidden West DLC, Burning Shores, is a PS5-only joint. That means the developers at Guerrilla don’t need to wrangle a PS4 version into their pipelines, and can focus properly on juicing the PS5 for all it’s worth. This DLC will take us to the overgrown and fractured city of LA, which can be fully explored via the water or by flying on the back of a Sunwing (really showing off that asset streaming tech we’ve heard so much about thanks to the PS5’s SSD).

So, if nothing else, you’ll want to get the game finished up and ready for the DLC when it drops in April – there are definitely worse ways to spend your time than ogling Aloy’s impressive hair and gawping at the views in a ruined, beautiful reclaimed America.

Horizon Forbidden West is available at no extra cost right now on PlayStation Plus' Extra, and Premium tiers. You can read our review of the game here.