Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores often feels like one long side quest, but it attempts to fill some gaps left by the main game.
Dead Island 2 straddles the line between these wins and its demonstrable failures.
Hogwarts Legacy ticks all right the boxes. It could have very easily been a watered-down RPG trying to cash in on its name, but at its core there is a robust and fun video game that stands up on its own, even if one doesn't care for Harry Potter. The fun combat system, consistently surprising world exploration, and a cast of likeable and colourful characters lift Hogwarts Legacy, as if carried by a levitation spell. Avalanche Software has borrowed a popular body of work, but made sure to breathe its own soul into it.
When the excellent parkour and spirited combat mechanics work together as intended, they raise the game above its mundane peripherals. But, more often than not, Forspoken is bogged down by its by-the-numbers open-world design, its predictable story, and just a broader lack of imagination. By the end of its near-20-hour campaign, Forspoken hangs firmly in limbo, somewhere between fresh and stale.