In a bit of a headstart on the annual games awards season, Horizon Forbidden West has picked up its first Game Of The Year award already. The post-apocalyptic adventure RPG sequel was awarded the honour of Best Game at the Develop: Brighton conference yesterday.
As part of the conference’s Develop: Star Awards for 2022, Horizon Forbidden West was chosen as the year’s best game, despite it only being July. Develop: Brighton itself is a conference and expo specifically for game developers and is the biggest one in Europe. This means that the awards were decided upon by game devs themselves as opposed to being voted upon by gamers or the wider public.
Guerilla Games were certainly pleased with the result, thanking the panel for awarding Horizon Forbidden West with the coveted Best Game prize and making mention of the notable contenders they’d been nominated against. The game also picked up the award for Best Visual Art.
Other notable winners at the Develop: Star Awards were Life is Strange: True Colors for Best Narrative, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy for Best Audio, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for Best Technical Innovation and Resident Evil 4 VR for Best Extended Reality Game. The award for Best Original IP went to DEATHLOOP and the award for Best Game Design was picked up by the sleeper indie hit game Unpacking.
While most game awards ceremonies usually get underway in December or towards the end of the year, it’s a refreshing change to see some awards come out mid-year too. No doubt the developer teams behind these winners will be delighted with the recognition and appreciation from their peers and those working in the tough field of game development alongside them. We’ll have to wait and see whether Horizon Forbidden West picks up any further accolades when awards season rolls around later in the year.
