This is easily the Dutch’s best achievement into video game design, philosophy and sales yet, and I’m proud to recommend this new intellectual property towards the world.
Horizon Zero Dawn is developed and published by Guerilla Games, using their own household engine Decima to bring the breathtaking world alive with natural details and enough assets to keep you observing around.
The setting looks like what at first seems to be human tribes fighting for survival against demonic machine nightmares, but as you will eventually learn to discover the rich background and lore with the gifted hunter Aloy, there is more than meets the eye here.
Combat wise, it’s not just a third person shooter with a bow, there’s also stealth, crafting, melee and elemental attacks to consider, and thanks to tactics like setting up traps, overriding machines and throwing AOE bombs, there is enough strategy and approach towards battles.
The enemy design is normal when it comes to enemy humans, but towards the machines which look like metallic dinosaurs, appraisal should be considered, because they are the main show of the adventure, each of them fulfilling natural and/or mechanical roles. From weak to tough foes, there is enough challenge to consider.
The story is decent on the foreground, and I liked the wrap up and open ending, but the background’s lore sometimes went a bit overboard with it’s specific terms, or perhaps I wasn’t invested enough into the immersion. Still, the world building is another remarkable benefit.
Open world as a formula and sub-genre of gaming is more mainstream than ever these years, and this game simply takes a good approach towards it, with enough content implemented, and enough exploration to do.
A minor criticism is that I found out that rolling through the entire adventure seemed to be the most versatile and swift progress for me to do towards uncharted territory, unless you were fast traveling using a pack. Sometimes, Aloy would also clip into inescapable objects, leaving me no choice but to either suicide or fast travel out of it, and the lip synchronization was off during several conversations.
Other than that, Horizon: Zero Dawn is well worth your time as a PlayStation exclusive, just don’t expect innovation or truly groundbreaking scenarios to happen. I could easily see a solid sequel happening, given it’s critical and commercial success!
Rating: 8.4
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