HFW: Burning Shores review bombing campaign targets Aloy’s sexuality (spoilers)

For those who haven’t played the game or its DLC, Burning Shores finally confirmed what the series has previously hinted: Aloy is queer. Players can choose to romance her new companion Seyka, which has resulted in hateful and abusive one-star reviews on Metacritic. The onslaught has completely drowned out any legitimate criticisms of the DLC.

In a statement to Eurogamer, Metacritic/Fandom has confirmed that it’ll be introducing new tools and policies to combat the now all-too-familiar review bombing campaigns. The statement reads:

Fandom is a place of belonging for all fans and we take online trust and safety very seriously across all our sites including Metacritic. Metacritic is aware of the abusive and disrespectful reviews of Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores and we have a moderation system in place to track violations of our terms of use. Our team reviews each and every report of abuse (including but not limited to racist, sexist, homophobic, insults to other users, etc) and if violations occur, the reviews are removed. We are currently evolving our processes and tools to introduce stricter moderation in the coming months.

Better late than never.

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Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores update 1.22 patch notes

The aim of patch 1.22 was to fix three burning issues. As well as the game crashing and Time of Day getting stuck permanently, the other issue fixed was that Dino Digits Quiz rewards should now be awarded to players properly regardless of their unlock conditions.

If players are encountering different bugs, the team at Guerrilla Games asks if they could be informed through the support form. In terms of known issues, this is what is currently being investigated:

• Some players have reported progression issues with Aerial Captures
• Some players are reporting issues with quest progression

Burning Shores has garnered interesting review scores, with many players deciding to review bomb the game following controversy over Aloy’s “sexual orientation” and a perceived “political agenda.” Despite this, Guerrilla seems to be moving ahead with the final part of the trilogy as well as an “exciting online project.”

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Horizon: Burning Shores Metacritic review bombing continues

At the time of writing, Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores currently has a User Score of 3.2 based on 1,374 ratings.

Many of the negative reviews target Aloy’s “sexual orientation” and a “political agenda.” One comment claims that the game has been “ruined by the gay agenda.” Another comment states that “the love storyline is there just to push LGTB agenda in your face.”

Very few of the outright “0” scores talk about anything other than the small moment shared by Aloy and Seyka. There’s no mention of any performance, visual presentation, or gameplay.

In contrast to the User Scores, the expansion’s actual Metacritic score (based on verified critics) sits at a very healthy 82.

Hopefully the war being raged between review bombers and Metacritic will end sooner rather than later. For now, though, it seems that naysayers are determined to continue the barrage of zeroes. In the 15 minutes spent writing this post, 14 more ratings have been added.

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Horizon 3 may have had a major role for the late Lance Reddick

With Smets now taking a leading position at PlayStation Studios, Guerrilla Games has a new leadership structure. In a statement released earlier today, the developer expressed confidence that its new leads will “steer Guerrilla towards a bright future, expanding the world of Horizon with Aloy’s next adventure and our exciting online project.”

That the message separates Aloy’s next adventure and the Horizon online project suggests that there’s more than one Horizon game in the works, possibly Horizon 3.

As we previously reported, Horizon Forbidden West‘s Burning Shores expansion strongly hints at a third entry in the series. What’s more is that the DLC’s main missions suggest that Guerrilla Games planned a major role for Sylens, who was played by the late Lance Reddick.

With Reddick’s untimely passing, it’s unclear how Guerrilla Games will take the series forward.

We’ll update our readers when we have more information.

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Burnings Shores average user score is now much higher than 4.8

As noted by a PushSquare article published at about 6 am today, the average user score for Burning Shores was “at 4.8 and dropping” on Metacritic. Some time after that, the site has removed enough user reviews so that the score is now back up in the green at 8.0 out of 10.

Earlier in the day, there were “significantly more negative reviews than positive ones,” but at the time of this writing, it has around 7,500 positive user reviews and about 1,600 negative ones.

Most of the remaining negative reviews complain that its gameplay is too boring, its graphics are not optimized for PS5’s performance mode, and its world feels too empty. Meanwhile, the Metascore for the game is at a solid 88 with 118 positive critic’s reviews, 8 mixed reviews, and no negative ones.

Horizon Forbidden West was also review-bombed on Metacritic during its release back in February 2022, while the Resident Evil 4 Remake was also review-bombed for being “woke.”

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Horizon: Burning Shores Toy Bow Easter egg

The Horizon: Burning Shores Toy Bow Easter egg seems to have first been discovered by Reddit user AlbusDumbldor, who shared images of Aloy wielding the pink and purple bow, as well as helpful screenshots of the map displaying the location.

For those that have played through The Last of Us 2, the Toy Bow will be recognized from a fun downtime sequence taking place at the aquarium. It stands out with its garish colorway in both TLOU2 and Burning Shores.

While the Toy Bow isn’t very powerful, I imagine some players will be trying to use it to take down some of Horizon’s most vicious enemies. Hopefully we’ll see some gameplay videos of that over the next week or so!

As for what’s next for Horizon, the future isn’t yet clear. The biggest question revolves around Sylens, as the actor who portrayed him, Lance Reddick, has sadly passed away. It’s clear that Horizon 3 had big plans for the character, so it will be interesting to see what happens there.

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Horizon’s Aloy confirmed as queer

Sharing a kiss with Seyka, the new female companion introduced in the Burning Shores DLC, Aloy confirms that she is queer.

You can watch the kissing scene in the video embedded below (via Gaming with Abyss):

Seyka says that she has feelings for Aloy, to which Aloy can say that she feels the same way, isn’t ready for a relationship, or that it “is too much for me.”

Horizon fans may recall the interactions between Aloy and Petra, a member of the Oseram tribe who appears in both Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. Her conversations with Aloy often included not-so-subtle innuendos and flirtatious behavior. However, their relationship went no further than sharing a couple of drinks.

In the Burning Shores DLC, developer Guerrilla Games not only gave Aloy a new companion, but also a new love interest. It will be interesting to see how Aloy and Seyka’s relationship evolves.

While Seyka is likely to be part of future Horizon games, the future of Lance Reddick’s Sylens is less certain. With the actor passing away, it’s unclear what will happen to Sylens, as the Burning Shores DLC made it clear that the foe-turned-friend was going to have a major role in the next release.

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There’s a new threat on the Horizon (3)

Horizon Forbidden West pitted Aloy against the Far Zenith human civilization, but it turned out that there was to be an even bigger threat to face in the future. The Burning Shores DLC sees Aloy travel to a new area south of the Tenakth Clan Lands to find more information on this new enemy. Without giving anything away for those who haven’t played the DLC yet following today’s release, the main story missions imply the next game in the franchise was to feature a major role for Sylens.

Of course, both the game and the DLC expansion were developed before the death of Sylens’ actor. It’s unclear whether the character will continue to have a role in Horizon 3 or how the story will be adapted following the loss of Lance Reddick. In a statement following his tragic passing, developer Guerrilla Games had said he “will be so incredibly missed.”

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Horizon Forbidden West 1.21 patch notes

New accessibility features

• Enlarging Subtitles
• Auto-Pickup
• Color Blindness settings
• Auto camera
• Navigation assist in Focus Mode
• Thalassophobia mode
• Additional accessibility features

New expansion (PS5 only)

• Support for Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores expansion has been added.

While the Burning Shores expansion was expected, the new accessibility features were not. They are certainly a nice surprise and should help to make the game easier to play, expanding the potential audience of Aloy’s story.

Personally, I’m very happy to see Auto-Pickup added. Looting one item might not take long, but thousands of items during a playthrough must surely add up to a significant chunk of time. Now players don’t have to worry about spamming the triangle button after every kill or over every wild resource, which should hopefully mean fewer items left behind.

Those on PS5 who are waiting to download the Burning Shores expansion will want to make room for the sizeable installation.

Once Burning Shores has been downloaded and installed, it will soon be time to meet new companion Seyka.

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Horizon Forbidden West DLC can be pre-loaded now

Those who want to pre-load Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores can do so now. If you’re in North America and haven’t been prompted to pre-load the expansion yet then expect it to go live shortly.

Burning Shores costs $19.99/£15.99 and is nearly double the size of its predecessor‘s expansion, The Frozen Wilds. That’s probably down to all the PS5 exclusive bells and whistles.

As a reminder, Burning Shores is only available on the PS5. Despite the base game landing on the PS4, the DLC will skip last-gen because Guerrilla Games would have to comprise its quality.

“On PS5 we can draw at higher detail much further into the distance, displaying the stunning vistas our players encounters all across the map,” Guerrilla Games reasoned with fans. “We also support 40Hz Mode and Variable Refresh Rate on capable TVs for even more fluid gameplay.”

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