Now Playing: Burning Shores (DLC)

Horizon: Zero Dawn was accompanied by an equally excellent DLC expansion – The Frozen Wilds. If you’ve read my review of Forbidden West, you’ll know that I thought the sequel to Zero Dawn was excellent, but not quite as good as the original. And that trend continues here in Burning Shores, the DLC expansion to Forbidden West. In other words – it’s good, but I don’t think it’s as good as The Frozen Wilds.

Burning Shores picks up soon after Forbidden West ends and sees Aloy travelling to what remains of Los Angeles to track down the last remaining Zenith. He is, at least, a more interesting antagonist than those in the base game, but I still can’t say I find the Zeniths as a whole terribly exciting as villains.

The main quest is surprising short, but what you do get is very good and it culminates in a very enjoyable final boss fight – which is also more than I can say about the base game. My only real issue with the main quest is the somewhat poor attempt at ‘romance’ between Aloy and a new character – Seyka. She only features within the main quest missions and given how limited they are, she and Aloy actually spend very little time together.

So there’s not a great deal of time for the two to build any kind of meaningful relationship. Which would be fine, if the game was only setting up a potential relationship in the future and these were its first steps, but the DLC ends with Seyka declaring that she wants to be with Aloy. I just didn’t buy it. The whole thing fell flat and felt hollow to me given how little time they actually spend together throughout the DLC.

And the problem is, there’s no real build up to it, either. Aloy, almost immediately upon meeting Seyka, is blushing and stumbling over her words like a love sick teenager and her behaviour feels entirely out of character and odd. And I like Aloy far too much as a character to see her entire personality change purely for the whims of the writers who it feels were desperate to introduce a love interest. I’m not saying Aloy can’t have a love interest and it can’t be Seyka, I’m saying the way it’s presented and written in the game just doesn’t work. It feels . . . well, forced.

There’s no natural progression to their relationship from start to end, there’s no clear shifting in Aloy’s behaviour or how she sees Seyka. Normally I wouldn’t really give much of a shit about something like this, but Aloy is one of my favourite characters of recent years and through a lot of this DLC I didn’t really feel like I was playing the same character. It feels like a situation where the writers twisted Aloy’s personality to better suit what they wanted rather than what would remain true to her.

Okay, enough complaining about that. How does the rest of the DLC stack up? Well, like the main quest, it’s pretty short. Compared to The Frozen Wilds, Burning Shores is much more lean with its content. I didn’t really mind, to be honest, because I felt the base game was stuffed enough, so I was ready for something a little more light. The side content is solid, but nothing spectacular. I will say I absolutely loved the new flying mount though – it’s so much more agile and feels faster than those in the base game. Plus – it can dive under the water which I had an absolute blast with when exploring the map. There’s a few new machine types to tangle with and some new outfits to collect. Like the base game, Burning Shores looks stunning and the new map has a lot of little fun areas to discover.

Overall, Burning Shores is a solid and fun expansion to Forbidden West. It’s not as substantial a piece of content as The Frozen Wilds, but there’s enough here that’s worth your time and you’ll get it included with the base game on PC regardless. I also think this DLC does show a welcome understanding that bigger isn’t always better, and a more focused experience can be just as – if not more – engaging. Hopefully they’ll keep that in mind for the next one.

7/10