Earth is ours no more.
Console: PlayStation 4 game played on a PlayStation 5.
With the sequel,
Horizon Forbidden West, on store shelves, I felt that now was the time for
me to experience the game and learn more about it. OK, the 'perfect'
time would've been to have this review ready before the release of the
sequel but I didn't plan that far ahead. D’oh!
Anyways, let's dive in!
Aloy, cast out from
the Nora tribe at birth and ever curious about her mysterious origins, is told
by Rost, a fellow outcast and the man who raised her, that if she wins the
Proving, a ceremony competition, she can ask the tribe’s leaders for answers.
Aloy ends up winning the Proving, but the Nora are attacked by masked cultists
immediately after.
This attack leads Aloy
on a quest across the lands to not only learn the reason for the attack but to
find out more about where she truly came from. Along the way, Aloy uncovers how
the civilization of ‘The Old Ones’ fell and comes face to face with a threat
that endangers the whole world.
The story of Horizon
Zero Dawn (HZD) is a darn compelling one. The world, the lore and Aloy’s
personal journey combine to create a narrative of success.
Aloy is a much better protagonist than I thought she
would be given the genre. She’s a very well-written character who has a lot of
depth. A character you can easily connect with and pull you into the game’s
emotions making the feels hit that much harder. She’s also, just like Geralt in
the Witcher 3, is a character that’s a perfect fit for the game. Her
inquisitiveness fits well with the exploration and freedom the game offers you
without breaking player immersion.
Ashley Burch´s strong
performance as Aloy helps tremendously in bringing the character to life. Lance
Reddick, who I think you know best as the concierge of the Continental in John
Wick, also does an excellent job as the methodical Sylens. The rest of the
vocal performances are good though they do lean more towards ´passable´ than
´believable´ at times.
Aloy herself is a big reason why the narrative of this game clicked with me and, I think, will click with you as well. |
A lot of attention has been put into the world. The
post-apocalyptic setting goes beyond the tried-and-true dessert trope and sees
a more varied bio-sphere. Mother Nature is back in full swing, leading to a
varied bio-sphere full of plains, jungles etc. If not for the clearly visible
remnants of the old world such as the metal frame of skyscrapers and a football
stadium and the machines, you wouldn’t initially think it was a
post-apocalyptic world. Neat.
The focus on the human
element is noteworthy. The cultures and societal influences the ´Old world´ has
had on this new civilization, both big and small, are thought-provoking. From
the whole ´technology is seen as magic´ trope too far more interesting aspects.
How humans mystify and objectify things they don’t understand, for example.
Time to go into the
gameplay. HZD is, again, open-world. You can freely explore, doing everything
from stalking and hunting the machines to finding collectables to helping out
the people through tons of side-quests. The open-world nature of the game is
both a strength and a weakness, depending on what you seek in an open-world
game.
The sense of
exploration and discovery, especially the farther you get into the game and the
better your understanding of the world becomes, is excellent. The side-quests
are plentiful and varied and the collectables, loot and gear are fun to
collect. The combat, which I’ll dive into more later, is satisfying. You can
use skill points to invest in Aloy’s skill tree and tailor her to your
playstyle. In short: the game does everything an open world should do and it
does it well.
The potential weakness
lies in how much you like the open-world formula. HZD offer very little
innovation. I don’t think that a game not innovating on its formula is a bad
thing but with the uptick in the genre we’ve seen lately I can understand that
people are growing tired of it. That annoyances with certain aspects like, for
instance, a map that is so cluttered with icons it becomes difficult to read
become more than just an annoyance.
The game’s combat is very satisfying. Aloy is a hunter
and the game does an excellent job of making you truly feel like one. Running
in bow blazing, even if you are double the level of the machine, is not going
to work out well for you. To take them down, you have to be smart about it. Use
the game's stealth mechanics to sneak up on a machine for a surprise attack or
try and take them over. Use your bows to snipe from afar and lay bare weak
spots. Plant traps such as bombs in a machine’s set path etc.
The only issue here is
the melee combat. It’s sluggish, slow and difficult to aim. When fighting big
machines this is passable but when engaging human targets is more of a hassle
than its worth. Better stick with your bow and stealth tactics here as much as
possible.
The most interesting
gameplay, and UI, element is your Focus. This little device not only provides a
narrative justification for Aloy´s ability to interact with Old Ones'
technology. It seamlessly marries the divide between UI elements with the
narrative, the game's world. With the ability to scan for data, reveal the path
of machines and X-ray it’s the best tool in your arsenal.
A little look at the focus scanning your environment, showing you some animals you otherwise would not have spotted from your vantage point. |
Time to wrap this review up. Performance-wise, the
game runs like butter on the PS5. High fidelity models and textures and the
earlier mentioned world design add up to a very good looking game. My only
nit-pick here is the character models. Their movement is stiff and their facial
animations leave something to be desired.
The music is composed
by Joris de Man, The Flight, Niels van der Leest, and Jonathan Williams, with
vocals by Julie Elven. It uses experimental instrumentation to create a score
that combines different styles of music to create the score. Cellos and guitars
(amongst others) created the tribal music while synthesizers and such were used
for tracks about the machines. An interesting mix that, thanks to the games
world and the skill of artists involved, works wonders.
Conclusion
Horizon Zero Dawn is a
darn good game. A well-crafted AAA open-world game that is thoroughly enjoyable
with its well-written narrative and breath-taking world. It’s not the most
innovative game in the open-world genre but hey, nothing is perfect. This game
is worth checking out if you haven’t already. For just 20,- SRP you can get the
definitive edition, including some extra goodies and The Frozen Wilds expansion
so you really don’t have to spend a lot of cash if you want to give the game a
go.
Now, if you’d excuse me, I have
to dig my teeth into said expansion. And, finally, finish Triangle Strategy but
that’s a whole other story.
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