Horizon Zero Dawn (2017)

I played on the hardest difficulty and the combat is pretty engaging since you have to hit weakspots, but in the end game it got really stale since I could just spam sticky bombs to kill anything and everything

Moving around the map could see some improvements, you pretty much just run everywhere and although you can ride some of the robots the handling is so awkward and they move so slowly it's barely worth it

Also there was way too much loot clutter, and the stack limits in the inventory are super limited for some reason so you end up having 15 stacks of one type of item clogging up the inventory

Would recommend if you really like pre-historic setting and dinosaurs, besides that I'd say pick it up only if you've got nothing better to do

Overall, impressive but with a few annoying things that make me less inclined to do any extra DLC stuff or play the sequel.

Strongest points - the story, characters, setting and graphics are really impressive. It's one of those games that's like reading a good book and hard to put down once you get into the swing of it.

Weak points - combat felt off especially melee attacks, didn't like the crafting mechanic and needing to do inventory management, needing to stop and pick up stuff broke the flow of the game, and traversing around the world didn't feel that great - I ended up fast travelling everywhere.

This is as opposed to Spider Man which I played through before this, where the combat and movement complemented everything else.

The strong points are really strong, the weak points hold it back a lot.

Played on Steam Deck

Highly polished and technically impressive mediocrity. But I don't hate this game. I played it to completion and even did the Frozen Wilds too.

Horizon Zero Dawn takes so many AAA game ideas/mechanics that have been done to death during the PS3-PS4 era and throws them all together in a big, bland bowl of soup. Then makes it look real nice and throws in some cool enemies. The open world, collectables, things to pick up, crafting, climbing, traversal, side quests, side activities and light RPG elements are all borrowed from other games and uninspired. Almost every character interaction and cut scene caused my neck to lose all strength, my head rolled back and I let out an intense groan of boredom.

The absolute high points of this game are the mystery and details of what happened to the world and the mystery of who the main character is. The other great thing is of course fights with the machine enemies. But even this which was so fun at first becomes a little tiresome as the game over stays it's welcome.

This might all sound pretty negative but it's still good enough that I finished it and then had a little more. It is a perfectly fine game that scratches some kind of itch I have in my brain. Just don't play too many games like this too often or you'll get burnt out.

6.8/10

I've only beat one boss but I can already tell this game is becoming a new favorite. It's so addicting.

The combat is amazing and super satisfying. There's nothing quite like tying down a machine and using a Critical Hit to one-shot it.

Travel is a breeze and Aloy doesn't have a stamina bar so you won't have to tediously pause every few seconds. Plus, you can always override machines for quick mounts.

The story is weirdly engrossing. I usually don't pay attention to video game stories, but I'm fascinated with this world and it's lore.

The skill tree is simple but still fun. I admit that it feels lackluster compared to other games, but at level 31 I think I've unlocked pretty much every useful skill I could want.

There are a few flaws, such as the fact that you can't enter any buildings which make the towns seem a lot smaller. But these don't hold the game back from how incredibly fun it is.

Upon finishing it, I have a few more things to say:

Pros:

• The World: It's absolutely gorgeous. Even in a post-apocalyptic setting, the game still manages to be incredibly beautiful. There's nothing quite like seeing ruins mixed with nature in a world that feels both believable and incredible.

• The Machines: The machines are basically animals and have their own distinct behaviors. The deer will run away when they get scared, while the bulls will charge you head one. The fact that the machines act like animals make them feel like a more natural part of the environment. In too many games, enemies are just kind of standing there, waiting for you to notice them. The enemies here blend more naturally in with their environment.

• The Monster Hunter element: This game does Monster Hunter better than Monster Hunter. By that, I mean attacking certain areas with different types of damage. I've sunk 80+ hours in Monster Hunter: Rise and still couldn't tell you which weapons work against which body parts of monsters. The Focus makes it so much easier to target specific areas. Plus, the Tearblast Arrows make the job even easier. You ever stripped a Thunderjaw of all its useful parts and then used its own disc launchers to take it down? If not, you must try it.

• Heavy Weapons: They're few and far between, but they're SO MUCH FUN. When dealing with bandits, I try and take out the leader first so I can clean up the rest of the camp with ease.

• The Hunter Trials: These are tons of fun and honestly could be a lot harder. I didn't think I could do some of them in the time alotted (usually under 1-2 minutes), but the time is actually extremely generous. It took me no more than three tries per challenge to get all the Suns available.

• Healing: Healing is quite generous. Hell, too generous if I'm being honest. But it's such a relief to not have to pause the game to heal. You also don't have to stand around for a few seconds drinking a potion in the middle of a fight either.

• Combat: I mentioned combat earlier, but it bears repeating. It's so satisfying. As someone who always appreciated good ranged combat, only Skyrim comes close to how great it is here. It's also great to tie enemies down with the Ropecaster, freeze them with the War Bow, strip their parts with the Sharpshot Bow, lay traps with the Tripwire, and lob explosive bombs with the Blast Sling. By the way, I gave my Blast Sling three Damage Modifiers, so I could take out most enemies with ease.

Cons:

• The World (again): The world feels a lot smaller than most other open-world games. While the developers noted they went for density instead of length, it feels like there's not as much to do or explore. There are some collectibles, but they're really easy to ignore. I redeemed a few and realized how little impact they had.

• XP/Resources: You'll often end up with way too much XP and or resources than you need. There was no need for me to grind as the game is quite generous with XP. I was level 52 by the time I beat the game and would've definitely liked it to be more challenging or worthy of my stats. You get so many resources that you often end up selling excess for metal shards you don't need. That brings me to my next point...

• Merchants: There's a distinct lack of stuff to buy. Sure there's a few different armor and weapon sets, but you only need to know that the purple ones are the very best. I would've liked to see some more options. Honestly, more special merchants would've been nice too. I'd like to see some unique items only obtainable by those specific merchants found in obscure areas of the map. Wouldn't that be awesome?

I've been meaning to play this forever and just got around to it. It had been hyped up so much around release and since (as well as overshadowed by BotW) and I can understand most of it.

I'm going to focus on the things I didn't like first, so I can end positive.

• There was so many different weapons/traps/ammo that make the game interesting, but there is no real reason to use any of it. I got good enough with my bow and heavy arrows that I didn't even bother with anything else. What that led to partially was....
• Inventory space issues. There's so many different widgets/lenses/hearts that you get that I was constantly running out of inventory space. The game attempted to tell me what was valuable, but I didn't want to sell it off and potentially need it later, so I just struggled through it.
• Plot progression. There was awesome plot development up front. And amazing plot resolution near the end...some glaring holes aside. But that middle section where I was side questing and doing errands (including the Frozen Waste DLC) was all filler. I wish they had dribbled out more plot throughout the game, unless they did and I was too dense to catch it.

All the above aside, I very much enjoyed my time with the game. It did so much right.

• It was beautiful and a very full environment.
• Combat was rich and there was a lot of variety in the enemies that you faced.
• The story was compelling and interesting.
• There was enough side quests to distract you if you wanted that.

I do look forward to playing the sequel some day, but I'm going to sit back and enjoy my memory before diving in on that.

~David.

Horizon Zero Dawn has its flaws. Human enemies leave much to be desired. The open world tropes are there, quest icons, disjointed NPC interruptions and resource fetching. Narratively there are plenty of sci-fi clichés, but HZD uses them creatively and playing through to the end is a rewarding experience. There are some truly powerful and unique moments in how the story unfolds. The use of data files, holograms and audio logs to seed knowledge of the world is particularly effective. Some of the audio logs and holograms are utterly devastating. About half way through, which admittedly is a long time, the story started to click for me and the world opened up in my mind.

The presentation from an artistic and design standpoint is top notch. A unique and ambitious concept that becomes better the more time you spend with it. Aloy is an awesome protagonist, the robots are a lightning strike of inspiration and the story's slow drip is well executed. Combat is a blast and you can approach it from many different angles, stealth, brute force, etcetera. All fun in their own right. Crafting is a bit of a chore, that could be personal, but I'd like games to try something new in this regard. I always feel disconnected from the crafting part of open world games.

The whole of Horizon Zero Dawn coalesces in to a grand realization of a unique world and that is what has me so excited about Horizon Forbidden West. The experience is a slow satisfying burn and that "Rappel Down" animation is so damn cool.

After a few months away from big "triple-A" games, I started itching for a grand adventure to take on. My coworkers love Horizon Zero Dawn and the Complete Edition came free with PS5 for PS Plus subscribers, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

I was absolutely blown away by the game's scenario and its protagonist. I adored playing as Aloy, who projects a complex confidence and charisma without sacrificing relatability. And I don't know that an original triple-A game's story has kept me this consistently engaged since... possibly Portal 2?

I also really enjoyed the gameplay. That said, I had three persistent complaints…

1. The UI. Guerilla Games' goal was a simple user interface design, but simplicity isn't the same as straightforward. The HUD and menus are cluttered with overlapping and contradictory iconography; notifications emphasize their contents in odd ways; managing one's inventory often requiries "pogo-sticking" between multiple screens. (If these sound like nitpicks, bear in mind that I design interfaces for a living.)

2. The stealth. I found the lack of verticality pretty annoying: Aloy can't climb or grapple like Link, Jin Sakai or Batman, which greatly restricts your options for approach. When you're waiting around for targets to calm down or move into a position, there's nothing of particular interest happening: No banter to listen to a la the Arkham games, no silly animations that play out like in Breath of the Wild, and no coordination between enemies like in Ghost of Tsushima.

3. And lastly, the day-night cycle. The game aggressively bathes scenery and enemies in monochromatic lighting effects at night, which made certain missions a lot more difficult for me during that time. I could not find a way to wait out the nighttime, and it was never clear to me when it was going to change. This might be my eyes, but I've played plenty of games that take place entirely at night without any trouble.

But overall, I really enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn. Forbidden West is absolutely in my wish list now!

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds - Complete

So I pushed through the main storyline as fast as I could. I played the game in story mode. It makes sense for me playing campaign games in the easiest mode first so I get the feel of the game quickly. And if by chance the game is so great that it hooks me I will play it in the next difficulty.

Horizon Zero Dawn was an awesome game to play campaign through, great graphics. The storyline was interesting and fluid and made sense with the gameplay. Overall a great game. They integrate a build system where you can dive into deeper with side quests. Also provided if interested I can prestige and start all over again in a new game+ mode where I keep my gear but I start over (difficulty can't be changed). good for hunting trophies. So far I feel the game is great and I'm interested in their sequel, but not interested at the moment in diving back into the game and prestiging higher difficulties and gear farming. Maybe in a mmorpg but with campaign games like Horizon i'll go through the main quests, and their dlc (Frozen Wilds) which I finished. So i'm feeling, at the moment, like i'm done, complete. next.

twitch.tv/pokiblast

Game became much more engaging when I focussed on the main story. Otherwise the open world was a bit lacking in texture. Combat was fun, although it’s easy to fall back on one or two weapons rather than finessing each enemy, removing parts etc.

Side quests were so-so, but Witcher 3 has spoiled side quests for a while now anyway. I couldn’t get excited about hunting grounds, corrupted zones and collectibles. Apart from the main story quests, couldrons were probably the only other highlight.

Overall - decent, but not rushing to buy DLC or start NG+

I will be spoiling plenty in this review, so consider yourself warned.

Horizon Zero Dawn is a good game. If you like open world 3rd person action games with a leaning towards stealth, Horizon Zero Dawn is a great game. Unfortunately, I do not like 3rd person open world action games, and I especially don't likes ones that lean towards stealth. So, for me, Horizon Zero Dawn was a below average game. I've picked many, many berries in video games. I'm so very tired of picking berries.

Horizon Zero Dawn is not for me, and had I known more about it before buying it for $12 on a PSN sale, I probably would not have played it. That said, I don't think the gameplay was the only thing that didn't wow me about the game. I think it suffers from a lack of strong characters, and a so-so story that's only good enough to keep the game treading water.

I'm going to say some possibly unfair things about Horizon Zero Dawn here, and I'm sorry about that. But it's just how I feel. I know a lot of people love this game, but it's just not for me. I did not engage in many of the things this game had to offer, because I've been let down too many times. I've chased promising side quests only to be told to “kill 5 more rats.” I've collected 100 hidden collectibles only to see a disappointing cutscene I could have found on YouTube. I've made solid attempts to be engaged with characters and stories only to be let down with the lamest excuses and contrived plot turns. In a way, I'm feeling sort of “done” with it all. The bar for greatness in games is so low that mediocre characters seem deep. It's unfortunate that Horizon Zero Dawn had to be the game that made me feel the most fed up, but here we are. I'm sorry.

A quick note on graphics and design. It's OK. I've seen better robots. I've seen better Native American inspired people. I've seen better cities. I've seen better sci-fi areas. I've seen better bosses. I've seen better weapons.

If you like gathering collectibles in open world games this is very much for you. There's a lot of them. I didn't do any of that. I know that collecting all of the Crystallized Ancient Angel Diarrhea Crystals never is worth the hours it takes to get them. But maybe it's a “the journey is the destination” thing for some. Not for me.

Likewise, I didn't touch any side-quests. I mean zero. You'd walk through the city and you'd hear “Outlander! A moment of your time!” and I'd walk right by. Oh, need someone to kill 3 of a certain enemy? Been there. Done that. Get someone else to do it.

In Horizon Zero Dawn we're in a post apocalyptic world where anthropomorphic robots roam the landscape like normal animals would. Human civilization has regressed to ancient times, using spears and bows and sometimes reconstituted machine parts. Our red-haired heroine, Aloy, is an outcast of the Nora tribe, trying to find the details of her birth and ancestry. She is raised by a bearded badass hunter named Rost. Because this is a video game, Rost dies a few hours in on the story. Because any character that is older than the main character and shows any aptitude has a clock ticking above their head. It's lazy, boring, and predictable. This made his death lacking in any feeling, because it was always a “when” not an “if.”

Aloy being an outcast seemed like such a big deal in the first hours of the game. It's the focus, in fact, of the entire beginning. But after winning a glorified relay race, all of your past is entirely forgotten and you become a member of the tribe. And that's it. You're accepted. Sort of. But it stops being a problem. That change happened too quickly, and with little nuance. And then, shortly after that, she's named a “Seeker” which is some special title for someone who goes out to...do...something. So you go from outcast who can't even look at tribe members (I mean that, you're supposed to lower your head) to a Seeker who has the fate of the tribe in her hands in a time frame only acceptable in video games. It felt contrived, and threw off the pacing of the story. Her main quest of finding out her heritage still remains though.

Her heritage is pretty predictable from the get go. She has no mother, and in a matriarchal society, that's a problem. There's this sci-fi looking door and one day she just appeared in front of it as a baby. My first though was “she's was a clone or something.”

Towards the end of the game you find out that she was a clone of a woman scientist from the past. Yeah, I know. I figured it out like an hour into the game.

Also Aloy seems to pick up on concepts (like downloading files, or corporations) too quickly. 20 minutes ago our brave heroine was shitting in the woods, and now she understands what the word “download” means? I don't think so.

None of the characters felt fully realized or interesting. I would have liked to know more about Rost but, y'know, he died. There's probably a side-quest I skipped where you learn about how he saved some kids or something. Sylens, played by that guy from Destiny, is a mysterious knowledge-hungry grey-area character who could have been more interesting if he wasn't so binary. I love the idea of morally neutral characters that have a reason to help the protagonist beyond “SAVE DUH WOOORRLLDD!”, but it's rarely done well.

I could go on with the problems with the story. How “basic” the sci-fi story elements are, and how the main antagonist just talks like a writer poorly writing an evil AI (WARNING. MALFUNCTION. ENTITY PRESENT. DESTROY ENTITY. MAINFRAME OVERLOAD). But I'm tired of shitting on the story. For a video game, it's fine. But if you are really into sci-fi you'll see many cliches done more poorly than you've read/seen before. And the reason Elisabet Sobek had to die? Ugh. Give me a break.

The combat is solid, I will say. It plays well, and is easy to understand with room for finesse and personalized play styles. Sometimes enemies will do a little too much damage from abilities that I wasn't sure how to dodge, but that wasn't too bad. I can tell that it's tightly made and fun for those who like that kind of combat. 10 hours in I put the game on “Story” mode and blasted through it, so I can't really speak to some of the end game stuff.

I did not like the stealth, however. I found the game very dark, even after turning the brightness up. So in nighttime scenes, I could barely see the enemies, who would invariably see me. I know I'm supposed to use by focus but I guess I'm not good at stealth games.

I hated how little backpack space you have. If you're going to have my picking berries, give me enough room for the berries AND the items I need for upgrades that drop from enemies. Ugh. Bag space or encumbrance is never fun. Ever.

The climbing presents itself like Assassins Creed style, but is just a mask. It's not real. There's no actual decision making or anything to “solve.” You grab on to a ledge of a rockface and then press and hold a cardinal direction until Aloy gets to the top. The benefit here is that, unlike Assassins Creed, you won't randomly leap off a ledge to your death. But on the other hand the climbing is just skin-deep, and felt like it slowed down some portions.

There were some Skyrim style puzzles which I cannot for the life of me figure out why they exist. If our “puzzle” is answered by some shit written on the wall, and then backed up by an audio log explaining all of it, then why have it?

I found the level of telegraphing insulting for many parts of the game. Aloy talks to herself like a schizophrenic person. “There's the handhold. I guess that's my way up.” “Enemies ahead, I should stick to the tall grass.”
“Looks like I need to re-jigger the flap housing.” “I should probably hit the X button to jump, and then hit R1 to aim and then...”

I'm going to close by saying that Horizon Zero Dawn is rightfully a 4/5 game for many people. A 5/5, even. But for me, it wasn't so. If I'm being honest it was a 2/5, but I know that it's in the way I played it. I didn't give it my all. And I can tell it's well made...mostly. So here, have 3 stars.

Note: This Includes the DLC: The Frozen Wilds.

Man, what a ride. Horizon takes the tried and true method of modern sandbox games and crafts a fine mix of stealth and archery that spans a world where every corner feels like an adventure.

Starting out with a young girl outcast from her tribe in Colorado, you slowly grow and understand your purpose, hunting machines for resources, exploring settlements, and finding out what terrible evils plague the land. That's about as vague as I can get before heavy spoilers.

Our hero (Aloy) has a variety of skills and a light leveling system, ranging from stealth to arrow skills to more managed resources. It can be a bit tricky at first determining which resources to keep and which to sell, but the player eventually finds their way into a solid loop. Combat is tight, with a bow and arrow that never fails and a variety of tools that take advantage of elements, tearing down armor and weakpoints, and more.

The story starts off standard, but impresses with the sheer amount of character in each area. In the vein of games like Mass Effect 2, it's the allies that Aloy makes that truly determine her last stand against (insert spoiler here). And the land to accompany it is GORGEOUS. It's not enough that the visual effects are nice, every single piece of Colorado (and Montana for the Frozen Wilds) is lovingly detailed, creating unique adventures that really play out when Aloy moves off the beaten path to gather a variety of collectibles that feel more inspiring than boring fetch quests.

Solid combat, beautiful word, engaging story - Horizon has it all. Believe the hype and see for yourself!