Horizon Forbidden West: PC Review

Key Takeaways

PC version of Horizon Forbidden West runs smoothly with added display features like Ultrawide support.
PS5 has Performance & Quality modes, favoring Performance; PC maintains PS5 quality, but with better frame rates.
Gameplay is unchanged on PC with added mouse & keyboard support; a smooth experience without input delays or lapses.

Horizon Forbidden West has been out for quite some time now, but it has finally made its way to PC. The main questions are if anything has changed, how it runs and if it’s a solid port overall. Here we are going to break down the differences between the PC and PS5 versions of the game. Note that the PC I use has an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and 32GB of RAM.

PlayStation 5 vs. PC Version

There’s no difference in content. The PC version of Forbidden West has all the PS5 content offered with the DLC included in the package. The PS5 also has two options to run with and they prioritize things differently. This means that the difference to playing on PC would be the wide variety of presets to make sure the game runs in a way that works for you as a player. This is well known and not worth getting into more than that, so let’s just compare how both feel while playing.

The PS5 version of Forbidden West was a better experience in Performance Mode, at least for me. The frame rate was stable and enabled the game to feel cinematic and smooth during combat. Quality Mode did make the game look prettier, but at the cost of overall performance. Like the name “Quality Mode” suggests, it didn’t feel like the ideal way to experience the game. It was not the mode for me to run with during my first playthrough.

It’s no secret that the PC version of Horizon Zero Dawn had a rocky start at first. But how does the sequel’s PC release compare? Does it run as well as the PS5 version? I am happy to report that the game runs very well. It looks stunning, and you’re going to get all the benefits of the PS5’s Quality Mode on PC, but with the added benefit of a higher and more stable frame rate. The game is every bit as stable on PC as it was on PS5.

PC Display Additions

Horizon Forbidden West has a variety of new display features available to PC users with its PC release. NVIDIA DLSS 3, Intel XeSS and AMD FSR 2.2 are all available for PC right out of the gate. There’s a future update in the works to add AMD FSR 3 including Frame Generation as well. It was also stated that Forbidden West is playable on Steam Deck and there’s word that it will be optimized more to ensure a smoother overall experience on the handheld.

Review: Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West is a great sequel that builds upon and expands what made the original so beloved.

There is Ultrawide 21:9, Super Ultrawide 32:9, as well as 48:9 triple monitor support. It was mentioned earlier, but the game does offer the ability to customize your graphics presets like most other PC games these days, but it’s always worth confirming just to be safe. There is DualSense controller support with haptic feedback and adaptive trigger functionality, but a wired connection is needed for the full benefits of the controller features.

Gameplay on PS5 vs PC

There are no real changes to the gameplay of Horizon Forbidden West for PC. But the nice addition to this, just like with Horizon Zero Dawn, is the mouse and keyboard support. As someone who struggles with controllers due to an injury, it’s just really nice to have the option to use my preferred way to play games even though it wasn’t the intended way when the game was in development. Forbidden West feels just as smooth and satisfying to play on mouse and keyboard as it does on controller, which is a nice thing for PC players. There’s no input delay from what I can tell, so you don’t have to worry about any missteps costing you any pain.

Closing Comments:

Horizon Forbidden West’s PC release is a joy to play to get a refresher on the latest game in this series of breathtaking games so far. It’s a blast to run around and experience the world the game offers with maximum detail. The work put into the game to make it run smoothly on PC is amazing. Players will be happy with this PC port and can look forward to experiencing the game once again without any restrictions or graphical limitations on it.