This article does not include story spoilers for Horizon Forbidden West.
Open-world games often have points of no return towards the ending of the main story that locks the player into completing the game and bars them from going back out into the open world. Usually, open-world games will do something like load the player’s final save before going to the final mission after the credits roll so that they can complete other objectives and experience the rest of the game.
Horizon Zero Dawn famously had a poorly executed point of no return that, while clearly labeled to the player, happened during a midpoint mission in the story that simply took longer to complete than other quests but spat the player back into the open world after finishing it.
Luckily, Horizon Forbidden West treats its point of no return a little bit better but still doesn’t properly clarify if players will be able to access the open world on their current save file after entering it.
More Horizon Forbidden West guides:
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Horizon Forbidden West’s Point of No Return
The point of no return in Forbidden West happens in the final mission of the main questline “Singularity.” After preparing for the final confrontation with the Far Zenith, the objective changes to “Call Your Companions at the Campfire.” Upon doing so, the game will display a message saying that the player is entering the point of no return and that the open world will be unavailable from that point on.
If the player is ready to go, select “Call Your Companions (NO WAY BACK)” and proceed with the story, but if there’s anything they want to do before the story ends now is the time. After the final mission, the player will be able to explore the world and continue completing other side quests. They won’t load the save file from before the final mission, instead, they’ll simply continue on from where they left off at the end of the story, similar to how Horizon Zero Dawn handled it.