Full disclosure: I only finished Horizon Forbidden West this past weekend. But in my defense, I didn’t start playing until July.

It’s hard to believe it’s been one year since the release of Horizon Forbidden West. A year ago, I’d barely heard of the franchise. I certainly hadn’t played a minute of it.

But I do remember the release day.

It was a traditional Friday afternoon in retail. The store I worked in at the time was in the same shopping center as a Best Buy. I was sitting in our breakroom eating my lunch, when my Work Bestie darts into the room carrying a massive box.

Of course, it was the collectors edition of Horizon Forbidden West that she’d preordered months ago. Now, it was release day and she was so excited.

That was my first real exposure to the franchise. Until that point, I was purely a Nintendo girl with the occasional jaunts into Steam.

And for a few more weeks, I would continue to be just that.

A couple of my coworkers were playing and they’d talk about the art and how excited they were. Around this time, I would finally complete Spider-Man on my brother’s PlayStation 4 — trust me, this is relevant to the story.

I came into work gushing about that game. A few people had played so they happily listened to me talk about how much fun I had. How much fun I had with being able to go wherever and do whatever I wanted while following the story of the game.

Remember the aforementioned Work Bestie?

She decided that I needed to play the Horizon games. That I would love them. In fact, she was so set on this that she told me if I bought Horizon Zero Dawn she would loan me her old PS4.

I snagged a copy, borrowed the PlayStation, and began to play.

Funny story. Through a bizarre series of events — which might make for an interesting article down the road — I ended up owning her PS5 as she got a new one.

When I switched consoles, apparently I hadn’t properly saved my game file and transferred it over so I had to start again from scratch. I wasn’t too far into the game so for me it wasn’t a huge loss.

In a way, I’ve spent the entire time Horizon Forbidden West has been out falling in love with the franchise. It’s been a blast.

So Happy Birthday, Horizon Forbidden West.

Have you played? Have you finished the game? Please share your thoughts and stories with us on our Boss Rush Facebook Group or our Boss Rush Discord.

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The Boss Rush Podcast

The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and The Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, LeRon, Stephanie, Edward, and their friends from around the internet come together to talk their week in games, entertainment, and more while also bringing topics for conversation, answer listener and community questions, and cover major news and events happening in the video game industry. Watch The Boss Rush Podcast live on Wednesday Nights on Twitch at 8:30PM ET / 5:30PM PT or on Friday mornings at 7AM ET on YouTube and podcast services everywhere. Thanks for listening! You can also get this episode one week early on Patreon.

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