Since premiering on February 18, 2022, the exclusive PlayStation open-world video game Horizon Forbidden West has generated positive buzz from critics and casual gamers alike. A sequel to the 2017 game Horizon Zero Dawn, Forbidden West features more than 20 new mechanical creatures to battle, nearly doubling the amount of the previous iteration. As such, there's twice the action to behold!
The mechanical creatures (machines) in Forbidden West vary in behavior, brute strength, advanced weaponry, combat prowess, special fighting skills, speed, durability, and overall efficiency. Gamers looking to conquer Forbidden West as fast as possible would be wise to avoid the game's most formidable machines.
Clawstrider
A new mechanical creature for Aloy to battle in the great open-world game Forbidden West, Clawstrider is a quick, nimble combat machine protected by razor-sharp armor blades. Aside from the difficulty of landing a deadly blow, the midweight machines tend to travel in small packs, making their safety in numbers a real chore to overcome.
Modeled after a bipedal dromaeosaur, the highly aggressive predators specialize in versatile melee attacks, have brutal talons, a bladed tail, chainsaws for lower teeth, and can shoot deadly acid as one of their primary strengths. With incredibly closing speed, Clawstriders are most vulnerable to shocking powers.
Dreadwing
Patterned after a gigantic vampire bat, Dreadwing is one of the gnarliest and most terrifying new mechanical creatures to deal with in Forbidden West. With triple the abilities of Clawstriders, the heavyweight and ultra-powerful flying machine specializes in frost, shock, and acid attacks and is really only vulnerable to fire.
Aside from its hulking size, scope, and brute strength that results, Dreadwing can mount a highly versatile range of attacks, be they from a great distance or at close range. Even if Aloy manages to land strategic blows, Dreadwing will counter with his lethal Metalbite Sac explosives.
Widemaw
Despite being midsize and moderately fast, Widemaws are extremely difficult to fight due to their impervious armor and versatile four-prong melee attacks. The new machine is an amphibious combat creature that draws its power by sucking up resources from its surroundings into its jaws, including Aloy if he isn't careful.
Resembling an even larger hippopotamus, Widemaws have a strategic advantage by being able to traverse land and water. However, Widemaws also specialize in fire, ice, shock, and acid attacks, making them nearly impossible to beat unless Aloy's health and arsenal are at full capacity. The best bet is fighting Widemaws at a distance with the right weaponry.
Ravager
Resembling a heavily armored Sawtooth in the beloved open-world game, Ravager is one of the deadliest return machines to grace Forbidden West. Feared as an apex combat creature with highly-aggressive attack tendencies, the relentless ferocity of the large mechanical tiger is the stuff of legitimate nightmares.
In addition to a powerful laser gun mounted on its back, Ravager's multi melee attacks include Cannon Burst, Berserker Fury, Claw Swipe, Jumping Jaw Smash, Shock Jaw Smash, Mandible Stab, and perhaps most fearsome, a Shock Cocoon which gives the machine a defensive electrical attack conducted in a large radius. The returning champ is no joke!
Fireclaw
While Frostclaws deserve a mention, Fireclaws are simply larger, far more lethal, and much harder to conquer in the Forbidden West. Aside from running on molten lava for lifeblood, the returning Fireclaws are gargantuan bearlike mechanical creatures able to use bipedal and quadrupedal attack modes to confuse their foes.
Bolstered by a Fire Unit and two Fire Sac mounts, the ursine machine wields incendiary firestorm attacks to go with an impenetrable Rock Shield once it hits 60% health. In their highest form, Daemonic Fireclaws are completely immune to mechanical override and corruption hacks. Good luck defeating one of these suckers on the first try.
Slitherfang
Newly added to the highly anticipated PS5 game, the serpentine Slitherfang appears to be a humongous mechanical King Cobra whose only real weakness is its hard-to-hit rattle. The limbless, extremely fast-moving heavyweight reptilian machine can lash out from far distances, and use acid, shock, and purgewater attacks to make Aloy's life a living hell.
Whether the machine launches shock attacks from its tail or spits deadly acid from its mouth, Slitherfang is very difficult to defeat. When it coils up and its rotating body snaps into position, Slitherfang can access its entire quiver.
Tremortusk
Despite its glacial maneuverability, the newfangled Tremortusk compensates its slowness with its impervious plates of armor and ultra-powerful melee attacks. The woolly mammoth-like heavyweight combat machines like to cordon their prey and launch cannons from its side while shooting flames from its trunk.
The balanced tanklike monster machine can also strike with great precision thanks to its homing shock blasts, charge players with hyper-aggression, launch humans from its back, and use upgraded Blaze and Amplifying Sacs to increase its fire-based damage. As such, it's very hard to best the beasts' offensive and defensive prowess throughout one of the biggest open-world video games on record.
Rockbreaker
Returning from Zero Dawn, the behemoth Rockbreaker is known for being one of the largest combat machines in the Horizon series. Patterned after a humongous badger or other subterranean vermin, the burrowing nature of the beast makes it extremely frustrating to fight, never mind beat.
Hunting by subsonic sounds like those mortifying A Quiet Place monsters, Rockbreakers move underground and employ ultra-deadly fire-based attacks from directly under Aloy's feet, a unique machine attack that is a real challenge to fight against. Even if Aloy gains position, Rockbreaker's upgraded claws and giant drill bit jaws will result in pure pain.
Thunderjaw
The most formidable mechanical creature from Zero Dawn returns to give Aloy a brutally merciless battle in Forbidden West. Indeed, the mighty and massive apex predator redolent of a Tyrannosaurus Rex is atop the food chain and requires strategic tactics to defeat its natural power and huge arsenal.
Whether firing deadly lasers from its maw, powerful cannons from its jaw, launching discs from its spine, or using its advantageous radar system mounted on its back to track motion and locate enemies, Thunderjaw's immunity to shock attacks, six blaze and freeze canisters, and three power cells simply generate too much raw power to contend with.
Shellsnaper
Resembling a massive snapping turtle, the Shellsnaper is a new heavyweight addition to Forbidden West and almost certainly the toughest machine to battle with. Much of it has to do with its shock-absorbing armor plates, natural camouflage abilities, and dual frost and plasma attack modes.
Compared to most heavyweight machines, Shellsnappers are much faster and more agile, giving them a rare combo of speed and power that is very hard to handle. They can stretch their heads a great distance, leap quite high, and fire mega-powerful pressurized water blasts at foes with ease. Even if it does sustain damage, it will turn it into absorbed energy that it can use for deadly counterattacks. Really, this is the last mechanical creature Aloy wants to see in Horizon Forbidden West.