From fighting animal-like machines to observing an incredible open world, Aloy’s journey is a joy to follow.
For the first time ever, Guerrilla Games is not making a Killzone entry, but rather a wide dystopian game with a massive open world where the machines reign. Horizon Zero Dawn is impressive for many reasons, but the enjoyment during playtime is the biggest of them all.
In this game, we follow Aloy, a motherless character in a primal matriarchal community. She was raised as an orphan by a negligent named Rost, and Aloy is finally at the age to unveil the truth about her past and the whole world, leading to a greater adventure. The interesting fact about this version of Earth is animals are replaced with dinosaur-like machines that are ready to kill everyone at the first sight. Horizon Zero Dawn is a third person action-adventure game published in 2017 by Guerrilla Games. It was nominated for dozens of awards, including “Game of the Year” in The Game Awards ceremony, not because it’s a Sony Triple A game, but rather an amazing experience and a thrilling experience.
The science fiction narrative unfolds while you explore this Earth, which makes Horizon the type of game that makes you want to play more and more. Collectibles are a big part of its gameplay, but not in a boring way, because every time you listen to an audio log or scan vantage datapoints, you become more inserted in the game’s setting, constructing a rich storytelling. While you play, it’s possible to see the character development of Aloy, as she unravelled the truth about humanity her instincts become more sharp and also her personality, being focused and matured.
An interesting part of Horizon Zero Dawn is the combat, because even though you have a spear for melee combat, the main weapon of the games is the bow, creating an extremely satisfying way to kill enemies. Stealth just isn’t the way this game is intended to play, you won’t one-shot enemies, and big machines will require a lot of running around to finally kill them, but that isn’t a problem for me (a massive defender of the stealth sub-genre). Also, everything is upgradable with the skill tree system, having branches of melee, ranged and stealth combat. You earn a point every time you level up or complete an important quest, making the game easier the more you progress. Another important point is: you can choose the difficulty and adapt to your playstyle, making Horizon a really accessible game.
The open world is the most gorgeous and incredible part of this game. Located in Western United States, Aloy visits snowy mountains, canyons and some kind of tropical jungle in a single map. The best part are the abandoned ancient buildings, like tall apartments all taken by Mother Nature, giving an immersive experience to the game setting. The side quests can be spotted all around the map, having fun little primal missions to be done, also, errands are another type of side quest found in Horizon Zero Dawn, working basically the same way the other one works.
In Horizon, we have a bunch of side quests, some connected to the main story and others made just for funsies purposes. In the first type of side quests, we start to know a little bit more about some side characters, like Erend and Varl, that will take a lot more space in the next game (Horizon Forbidden West). We don’t see anything impactful, like in Ghost of Tsushima side quests, but still it is fun to follow Aloy in this primal adventure. Another point is: the developers spend so much time desenvolving the tribes and society that the ancient world became a little bit underwhelming. This could be something positive for some people, but for me it isn’t.
Like every other big Playstation Exclusive, a big part of Horizon Zero Dawn is the side content. The collectibles, excluding audio logs, don’t serve for nothing rather than increasing your playtime, but the side activities are the funniest thing to do in this game! Uniting the satisfying combat with places full of enemies, cauldrons and bandits camps make your experience with Horizon elevate from some game with a great history to a great fun game with an amazing history. Another entertaining side activity are the hunting grounds, places where you can earn a kind of medal by completing some challenges involving machines, like killing them in a certain amount of time or removing their components.
Overriding is a system of this game to “possess” the machines and turn them into your side, you will use this feature in cauldrons, hunting grounds and even main missions, but for a feature so smart, I noticed it was underutilized for the most part of the game. I’m a big achievement hunter, but at the end of the game the only achievement left was to override 7 machines, exposing the negligence of this system by the producers. It was fun, but it’s something that you’ll forget to use in the first third of the game.
To conclude this massive game, the developers needed a massive ending and it was achieved! A really big part of Horizon Zero Dawn was side quests, and these quests actually help you finish the main mission, because the people who you helped, will help you at the final fight. This is a smart way of giving attention to details while increasing the player’s playtime. Furthermore, the ending of Horizon is nothing out of this world, because during the game there wasn’t a strong emotional subplot, even though they tried. And, don’t skip the credits because it has a post-credits scene that will be a cliffhanger for the next game: Horizon Forbidden West.
Sentence
Horizon Zero Dawn is a bold idea, but it’s really well executed and worth your time. It’s the type of game that you’ll start to play at 3 P.M. and end your playtime at 2 A.M. with two breaks! It’s not perfect, but the good sections stand out more than the negatives. The story is fun and engaging, while the side content is a fun way to keep playing! Guerrila Games stepped out of their comfort zone and made one of the greatest Playstation exclusives.
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