When I first approached Forbidden West, it was with a preconceived notion that it's gonna be just more of the same stuff that the first game already had to offer, and that there was very little that it improved upon compared to its predecessor. Now, to give credit where its due, the first game had an extremely intriguing lore and uncovering it throughout the campaign was probably the most engaging thing about the game. The thing that let it down, however, was an extremely bland protagonist that I never managed to connect with.
It's important to understand that a game like this lives or dies on whether you will be able to connect with the main character because this is the person that will be your guide through this strange world and she will serve as a conduit for your emotional investment in the story. If you don't give a shit about the main character because she's as lively and engaging as a brick wall, and her emotional range makes me wish that I was watching Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, then you might as well be watching paint dry on a winter day. And this unfortunately spoils every other character surrounding your protagonist because every interaction that she has throughout the game is just so flat an awkward that it's like watching a giraffe trying to fit in with a pack of sheep.
She really is the focal point of all the problems I have with this franchise because what's interesting about Forbidden West is that the writers managed to vastly improve upon the characters in the game, except for Aloy. She's pretty much the same po-faced Mary Sue with a single-minded determination to save the world as she was in the last game, and she's basically represents this tired trope of a strong female character that can do anything she wants and she has no flaws or desires whatsoever. There's literally nothing about her that would be even remotely interesting. They even had to bring another clone of hers on board in order to introduce some much-needed character drama because Aloy herself is so perfect that there was no internal conflict that she could overcome and grow as a character. I was way more invested in the events of the game, because - once again - the overarching world-ending conflict and lore were the main driving force behind the plot, and they significantly grew in scope and stakes.
And it's a really big shame to have such a bland protagonist because this is a franchise that has all the potential in the world to be one of the most memorable ones that Sony produced in the last two generations. The game is chock-full of memorable missions and set pieces, and the secondary characters were all pretty interesting for the most part. The gameplay, environmental storytelling, and level design were all improved significantly. The map in Forbidden West is a fascinating world to explore, and the refined combat coupled with new enemy designs made it so that I was rarely bored while roaming the map and completing random side missions. The variety of scenery and vastly increased level of detail in the environments made the sandbox much more fun and engaging. The addition of the Sunwing was also great, and being able to lift off the ground and traverse the map from the air was a feeling comparable to that of flying a helicopter in Vice City after spending the entirety of GTA III dreaming about it.
And if that wasn't enough, I recently played through Call of The Mountain and that game only solidified that sentiment for me because it was a chance to immerse myself in this world and look at it through the eyes of a much more lively and relatable character.
It's an aspect that I hope Guerrilla will put more effort into in the future to finally make Aloy more appealing.
