Have you ever felt like, somehow, you just don't fit in? Well, in Horizon Zero Dawn you will feel exactly like that...all the time.
Let's get some of the most basic stuff out of the way. Horizon Zero Dawn was launched in 2017, it was developed by Guerrilla Games (creators of the Killzone series) and everyone lost their minds!
It had one of the strongest marketing campaigns in gaming history. People were even cosplaying as the main character before the game was even released, can you imagine? It sold like warm freshly baked bread on a Sunday morning. It ended up winning several Game of the Year awards.
A big world. A lonely place.
Aloy is a great character because she is relatable. Who never felt like they didn't belong anywhere?
Horizon Zero Dawn takes place around one thousand years into the future after an event that almost wiped out all life on Earth. Wild machines shaped like animals and dinosaurs roam the Earth while there are very few human settlements scattered across the world. In the game, you play Aloy, a motherless outcast of the Nora tribe. She was raised by another outcast (Rost) and during all of her life, Rost was the only person she could talk to while growing up. On top of that, she is one of the only humans left alive that actually is curious about the old civilization and how the machines work.
That leads to Aloy being misunderstood by almost everyone she meets. Some treat her like a freak and some treat her like a messiah. So, you see, she just wants to be treated like a normal person but never is. She just doesn't fit in anywhere...
Late to the party
On October of 2018, I could finally play the game. And I have photos to prove it.
If you are reading this, you probably follow me on Twitter and you know how much of a fan of photo-modes in video games I am. Especially in Horizon Zero Dawn's. This game might have one of the best photo-modes out there, not because of its mechanics or the dozens of choices you have at your disposal but due to the beautiful and lust world its inserted in. I will talk more about it in a minute.
The state of gaming
Horizon Zero Dawn doesn't do anything new. But very few games can do what Horizon does so masterfully.
We are living a weird time in gaming. Now, every big release game seems to want to do everything at once while inserting multiplayer options and microtransactions. Let me give you an example: Horizon Zero Dawn is an open-world action adventure, third-person RPG with exploration and sandbox mechanics. However, it challenged the industry by giving us a single-player narrative with no online content and no microtransactions.
Somehow, Guerrilla Games managed to do all of the above with flying colors! Most open-world games feel boring and uninspired, but Horizon's feels lively, with humans, machines or ruins of old buildings everywhere. You can spend hours just roaming around without it getting boring. That, for me, is its main strength because it gives the player an urgency of wanting to see more of what the world has to offer. You can be on an icy tundra in a minute and in a tropical forest in the other. You can be fighting a giant mechanic alligator and be ambushed by an even bigger T-Rex, with lasers and canons. This is all taking place in the most vibrant landscapes that gaming has to offer.
A story is only as good as its characters
I completed Horizon Zero Dawn, and its DLC, in about one hundred hours. I loved the first few hours of the game because you find out Aloy backstory and what motivates her. The game has one of the best tutorials as it combines the story and the mechanics so well. That being said, no other character in the game is even remotely as interesting as Aloy and the game suffers from generic undeveloped characters, making the story feel uninteresting. Although, in reality, it touches in some interesting points that I hope to get developed in a sequel (because this game is, definitely, getting a sequel). The full potential of how great the story can become is present on 'The Frozen Wilds' DLC, where you follow characters, that weren't present in the main game, but are more interesting and evolve more than any other and Aloy shines in when interacting with them.
Why change a winning formula?
Guerrilla Games most confusing choice, regarding Horizon Zero Dawn, is its combat.
While Horizon Zero Dawn seems like it wants to break the molds on what makes a good action RPG, it also seems that it takes the approach of: 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
The combat of Horizon Zero Dawn has been seen, in the same exact style, in dozens of other games. In some cases, it works perfectly but in others, not so much.
Does it work in this particular case? Sometimes. It confuses me that Guerrilla wouldn't risk innovating in something that is a key aspect for any game.
For instances, your main weapon is a bow and there are three types of bows with different arrows for each one but they all work in the same way: aim and shoot. There are other options, like your melee spear or slingshots (to name a few) but mostly you don't use them. Why? Well, the bow is versatile, while the others aren’t so deeply developed. While this seems like a drawback at sometimes, in a few others, it makes you really feel like the huntress that Aloy is supposed to be.
But the gameplay of a game isn't only defined by its combat. We also have to take in consideration traversing systems, progression mechanics and side quest/content, since those can 'make or break' a game. This is where the Horizon shines like very few games do. You have a huge amount of side content to do (most of which are quite interesting), traversing the world either by foot or by fast traveling is fun and intuitive, and you have a huge skill tree to feel as you level up.
To wrap up, I been saying this non-stop since I started the game: any science fiction fan needs to play this. It's never about the destination, is about the journey and Horizon Zero Dawn leads you into a great beautiful journey.
Horizon Zero Dawn was released in 2017 for the PlayStation 4 and its expansion 'The Frozen Wilds' later that year.
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