Horizon Forbidden West review: the action adventure sequel has even more robot dinosaurs, of course it’s good

Be the change you want to see in the world (with explosives)

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/PlayStation

• Developer: Guerrilla, Nixxes Software
• Publisher: PlayStation
• Release: March 21, 2024
• On: Windows
• From: Steam , Humble , Epic Games Store
• Price: £50/€60/$60
• Reviewed on: Intel Core i5-11340F, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3060, Windows 11

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the post-apocalyptic wilderness, the giant dinosaur robots return. In fact, they never left! Go-gettin’, arrow-shootin’ warrior Aloy managed to delay the end of the world in Horizon Zero Dawn , but the death train is still chugging along to all life on Earth station via a (currently resonant) eco-disaster. In Horizon Forbidden West it’s because the AI created to heal the planet from the prior extinction event caused by humans isn’t working properly. Gaia, said AI, has been turned off and split into different parts, so yours and Aloy’s job sequel is to, firstly, reboot Gaia, and secondly collect all these subordinate functions. But nobody turned off the making robots button, which means this action RPG in a massive open-world still involves fighting rocket-launcher T-rexes. It’ll shock no one that this makes for a very good video game.

Not just them. A sequel demands new robots. The regular Watcher machines, the basic alarm/guard robots from Zero Dawn, have largely been replaced by Burrowers, akin to giant weasels. Other additions include the hippo-like Widemaws, something called a Tideripper, which is basically an electrified Loch Ness Monster, and my personal least favourite, the Clamberjaw, a motorised baboon that throws flames instead of its own shit. The design of the machines remains delightful and basically nonsensical, and as before you’ll have a much better time if you hang back to observe the situation from stealth cover. Analysis will reveal which parts of a machine to target with what kinds of attack - for example, the massive bear machine has sparkers on its back, and if you can hit both of those with electrified ammo of some kind, that’s your giant bear robot down in two punches. Shoot the machine gun off the triceratops, and baby you’ve got your own heavy weapon. This all walks the right line between difficulty and skill, meaning fights are a challenge that still feel fun late in the game.

You start with very little, though. Aloy, who begins Forbidden West having already spent months searching for Gaia, fell in a puddle off screen that destroyed all her weapons and her memory of the more advanced combat abilities she accrued on her first adventure. This provides the basis for rebuilding your arsenal from scratch, I for one welcome the opportunity to, for example, throw explosive javelins and upgrade my hunter bow to have huge amounts of acid damage. You can build your weapon loadout to suit you own style and needs, which means while the Ropecaster exists I do not have to pay it any attention, and can instead buy a Boltcaster: a machine gun for wooden spikes that brings me much joy.

You can similarly upgrade your armour, and choose different ones for stealth vs brute strength - which also ties into the new, larger skill tree, divided into diffent themes like stealth, melee, hunting and trapping. Putting points into these gives you passive boosts as well as cool attacks - like firing three arrows at once - and Valor Surge special abilities. You can trigger these upon filling up your Valor meter by, e.g., killing motorised baboons, and they’ll do stuff like massively boost your ranged damage or give you a special cloaking device.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/PlayStation

You can still enter Cauldrons in mountains to learn to control different types of Machine. There’s also a board game, combat arenas, and requisition tasks given to you by traders. My usual rule that AAA games should be 40%-60% smaller still applies. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/PlayStation

Most additions do feel useful, but there’s a bit of change-for-change’s sake with the traversal, which is mostly extremely fun climbing and leaping to yellow handholds. Add in the new Pullcaster (a grapple that can pull down weakened walls and move boxes), Firegleam (a type of red crystal that you can activate to explode walls), and Metal Flowers (robot plants that grow vines you can clear to open up secrets), we have three new types of traversal that all sort of do the same thing. Surely the Pullcaster alone was enough. I won’t hear a word said against the new glider, though, because you climb a lot of beautiful mountains and there’s a lot to be said for leaping off a cliff and floating over a forest as the sun sets.

When several tribes go to warI’m not best placed to discuss the issue of Native American appropriation that were raised re. the first game, but I do think the tribes in Forbidden West are designed more thoughtfully. They have wildly different social and political customs. The Tenakth, for example, built their society around interpretations of glitchy holograms of an airbourne special forces team, and this affects everything from where they choose to live, to how they dress.Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/PlayStation

Like the first game, where you had to play through being bullied as a child, Forbidden West has a bit of a slow start. It takes several hours to find Gaia, and although technically the whole (large) map is west of the location in the first game, you won’t reach the heavily-trailed ruins of San Fransciso until after about 20 hours of running around making a Florence Pugh frowny face at how the world is going wrong. Still, the story thrums along at a decent pace, and successfully makes the switch from Aloy struggling with her identity as an orphan, to Aloy having a sort of chosen-one inferiority complex, feeling like she can’t live up to the woman she’s a clone of, yet struggling to accept the help of others even as you gather a found family around her. She remains a charismatic protagonist, and though she never has doubt about doing the right thing, she also never comes off as smug.

While the main story contains such delights as highly advanced immortal not-alien aliens, a mutant fleshlump in a volcano lair, and a hologram extravaganza in Vegas (a personal highlight), the side quests have some gems. There are also quite a few of the ‘go to place, collect 3 x robot cow horns’ variety, of course, but many reveal details on the customs and beliefs of the different tribes, or are fun diversions that make you feel like you’re actually helping out. Finding a secret hold-out of rebels preparing to attack a city, or saving a group of refugees from being moved on. Good hero busywork.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/PlayStation

But in a sense the preceeding 900 words are already known to some of you, because this game came out on PlayStation ages ago. I played it back then, too. What’s it like on PC? Pretty much the same! It runs really well on my machine (whose specs you can see up top), though it occasionally paused for about a second after cutscenes for shader compilation. I accidentally clipped Aloy into a rock approximately twice in 30 hours, but spamming dodge roll got me right out. Hardware editor James did a full breakdown on how good of a port it is , in fact. I will say that you should under no circumstances play this with mouse and keyboard, because playing a third-person action adventure game designed for console with a mouse and keyboard is like eating a Frube with chopsticks. It’s possible, but it’s not comfortable - to do or to watch. One thing that did surprise me is that I genuinely missed the adaptive triggers and little microphone on the PlayStation DualSense controller. I wasn’t expecting that to make a difference, but prying open a door with your big metal spear really does feel better with the controller pushing back.

So if I’m honest, and despite my allegiance here, I do think Horizon Forbidden West is probably better on PlayStation, but only marginally. If you don’t have one, but you want to play a rip-roaring, morally uncomplicated post-apocalyptic hero’s journey, where you get to clear a huge map and ride around on a giant boar that spits fire - and why wouldn’t you, frankly? - then you should get this game.

This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by publishers PlayStation.

Find out how we conduct our reviews by reading our review policy .

Horizon Forbidden West

PS4 , PS5 , PC

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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