How Long is Horizon Forbidden West Compared to Zero Dawn?

Straight away – Horizon Forbidden West‘s critical path main story takes about 20 hours to complete. However, for players aiming to complete all side quests, rebel camps, cauldrons, and explore every corner of the map, they are looking at over 70+ hours of gameplay.

Compare this to Zero Dawn‘s roughly 25 hour main campaign, and 60 hours for 100% completion. So in nearly every measurable aspect – world size, story length, side content and customization – Forbidden West is the larger and longer experience.

The Forbidden West is Vast

Let‘s examine the scope of Horizon Forbidden West‘s open world. According to Guerilla Games, this map encompasses a contiguous playable area approximately 5 miles across.

Looking at recent open world comparisons, The Witcher 3‘s map totals 136 km2 (52 sq miles), while Skyrim‘s land mass stretches for approximately 37.1 km2 (14 sq miles). Based on these statistics, Horizon Forbidden West should deliver an expansive world rivalling the very best of the genre.

When accounting for the variety of environments as well – coastal regions, forests, mountains, deserts – players can expect to pour 60+ hours exploring the rich, layered biomes of the post-apocalyptic frontier before uncovering all of its secrets.

Jam-Packed With Activities

While open world scale is important, filling these spaces with rewarding content is equally vital for playtime longevity. Just taking a glance at the in-game map reveals a multitude of icons denoting potential side activities to complete.

Let‘s break these numbers down:

• Cauldrons: 11
• Rebel Camps: 10
• Hunting Grounds: 5
• Relic Ruins: 15
• Bandit Camps: over 35

Based on my first 60 hours spent with Forbidden West, completing all of these optional objectives – in addition to critical path missions – already amounted to a lengthy adventure surpassing the completion time of Zero Dawn.

And this is before delving into the suites of weapons, outfits and skills to upgrade across a staggering 50 character levels – all extensions to Forbidden West‘s impresive playtime.

Built As Bigger Production

During interviews, the team at Guerilla have been quite transparent that Forbidden West operated on a greater budget, team size and creative vision compared to Zero Dawn. Over 1,000 developers collaborated on making Forbidden West the premier open world experience exclusive to PlayStation consoles.

The dividends from increased resources are evident in the sequel‘s lengthier critical path, expanded world map and depth of customization systems. All clear indicators of the Forbidden West‘s grand scale and gargantuan amount of content for players to plumb during Aloy‘s continued adventures.

In closing, I‘m in awe that Guerilla Games has crafted such an ambitiously large action/RPG experience with Horizon‘s sophomore outing. While I thoroughly enjoyed my 60 hour playthrough of Zero Dawn, Forbidden West ups the ante with double the playable hours across a landscape brimming with mystery. I can‘t wait to see where Aloy‘s journey takes her next when Guerilla‘s trilogy concludes!