Horizon Zero Dawn Review
In a world filled with animal and machine hybrids live different tribes of humans, all struggling in their own way to stay alive. Hidden in this world are ancient metal structures, relics of a forgotten past, one that seems to be trying to make itself better known. You will play the role of Aloy, an outcast of the Nora tribe. A hunter with a shrouded past that some see as a curse, others see as a blessing. It will be your job to shoulder the fate of the entire world in Horizon Zero Dawn. Your actions will either doom what is left of humanity, or allow them to be free of the past.
I had heard great things about this game for years, and I finally decided that I would take the plug and take it for a spin. It is a gorgeous and untamed world that you’ll get to explore. I have to say this game didn’t disappoint. You’ll have an arsenal of weapons to master, and you’re going to have plenty of quests to complete, hidden objects to find, resources to collect, and of course enemies, both human and machine, to kill. If you play your cards right you’ll be able to harness the power of many of the machines in the game and use their strengths against other machines.
Aloy has got to be the most in shape person I’ve ever seen. You’re going to be repelling off cliffs, you’re going to be climbing from ledge to ledge, you’re going to be balancing on ropes to cross expanses, you’re also going to be running, diving, sliding, and battling through most of the game. This is a game all about survival, and the world is going to throw plenty at you.
I will say the one thing that I never really understood in the game is the armor, I never figured out if the rarity of the armor made you better protected or not. I know that there were tons of different armor that you could get, some had their own already built in bonuses, and you were also able to craft additional bonuses off of looted items, but at the end of the day I couldn’t tell you if what I was wearing was the best, or it was just good enough that I didn’t have to change out of it. The weapons, on the other hand, gave you a little bit of a better idea of what you could expect out of it. There were slingshots that had fire, ice, and electric bombs that would do area of effect damage. There were bows that shoot regular arrows, fire arrows, arrows to make components fall off of mechanical enemies, and more. There were weapons that created tripwires that could freeze, electrocute, or set an enemy on fire. There are also weapons for up close and personal damage, if a more hands-on approach is the way you like to get things done.
I loved the overall story of the game, sure there were some side quests that added story I could have done without, but the main story was full of mystery, twists and turns, and characters that you were either going to want to save, or want to run a sharp object through. I enjoy games that elicit that level of emotion out of me. There was also so much in the world to explore, and thankfully there were plenty of campsites that you could unlock to allow for fast travel when you needed a change of scenery. At a certain point in the game you’re going to gain the ability to take control of some of the machines, and some of them will become your mode of transportation, and to be honest that mechanic, along with almost every single other mechanic in the game works to perfection. One big thing that the game stresses at the beginning is the importance of harvesting resources, and in the earlier stages of the game, it is essential, but I have to tell you the last 10 or so hours of the game harvesting, for the most part is just a burden and I found my inventory almost always full, and I would have to scrap items in my inventory to make room for more items, which I would then turn around and sell to merchants to gain more shards, the currency in the game, which by the end of the game you have so many shards you really don’t need to worry about anything.
I put almost 64 hours into the game, and I didn’t complete everything one could do in the game. When the credits rolled I was happy to have won the game, but I wasn’t burnt out by the game. I’m still on the fence on if I want to go back and play the New Game+, but I can tell you that when you play this game you’re going to get your money’s worth. So if you have the chance to pick up this title, go ahead and do yourself a favor and add it to your gaming library.