Horizon Zero Dawn (2017)

Horizon: Zero Dawn was such an amazing game, and the main character Aloy is one that you will grow to love. The game feels a bit like a Far Cry title in its roots, but it's definitely its own beast (and its own beasts, as you'll find out). The game world is gorgeous, the characters are fun and the Frozen Wilds DLC was a fun playthrough alongside the main story. Combat and builds were fun to mess around with, and some of the challenges were pretty tough (I don't want to give too much away).

The story of this game gripped me emotionally, and I can't wait to give myself some time this year (2024) to come back and play the sequel Horizon: Forbidden West.

I completed this game on PS5 (originally started it on PS4) in about 93 hours (Frozen Wilds and Main Story) on a 4K HDR TV (the HDR in this game is incredible).

This one was one of the reason why i built my pc and i have no regret of doing it. This game excels in numerous fields.

• The Story.
• Gameplay / Mechanics.
• Plotwists.
• Funny secondary missions.
• Map.
• The universe that the devs/company created was so different. I've played enough to talk about this game (i even played the whole DLC).

This is easly on my Top 10 games ever. i can't recommend enough this game. Great time investment.

PROS

• Main Character - Great personality and you can easily empathize with her aspirations.
• Map - it was big and enjoyable to dive into.
• Main story - Really well written and enjoyable.
• Difficulty - Good enough with the possibility to play in plus mode (Harder version).
• Gameplay / Mechanics - Great interaction between mech and the elemental arrows! Pretty enjoyable to say the least.
• Atmosphere - The world, the enviroment, the sounds, the soundtrack. The whole thing that were are exploring/ living on was such a well made idea .

CONS

• Power level - it gets out of hand easy and you are really strong at some point were i felt that i was kinda unbeatable.
• Ability upgrades - There are some key abilities that are really useful and other are forgettable.
• Enemy Variety - It will happen sooner or later but the enemies are quite the same through the whole game. I was encountering new ones but there are not enough variety on the mechs to fight against.
• Completion time - i don't know if this is because i 100% enjoyed the game but i felt like the game didn't last enough. At the end i needed more (waiting on the pc version for the 2nd game).
• Completionist part not enjoyable - i was thinking about going for it but i wasn't feeling it. there wasn't enough motivation for me on just picking random ceramic thing or old methalic thing all over the world. it felt somehow a forced feature.

Not a terrible thing but ....

• Bag space - More please? even with all the upgrades it wasn't enough.

Finally i can say that even though the game has flaws and downs it still keeps a close place in my memory for being a great experience and enjoyable time back in early 2022. Great recommendation and a must play if you enjoyed open world games.