Horizon Zero Dawn Review

Five years ago an open world action RPG was set loose on the world that forever changed the gaming landscape. The rich environments it displayed, the diverse combat systems, the engaging lore and world sucked players in the world since has been clamoring for a sequel. That game was, Breath of the Wild. I jest of course because while many of the above is true 2017 will go down in history as a stellar year for games in general.

One of those games that I slept on at first, being too busy with the Zelda classic, was Horizon. Fast forward to 2022 and I find myself looking forward to Horizon 2 more than Breath of the Wild 2. Why? Is it a better game? I don't think that is the case, I certainly have spent more time in Hyrule than in the post apocalyptic future of ZD. It was a question that I decided I wanted an answer to, so I popped the game back into my PS4 to find out.

This game for the most part is beautiful and rich with detail. There are some occasional reused assets, like apparently every person in the future had exactly the same car and certain NPC’s look very similar. But then you see a colony of ants climbing a tree carrying leaves or the incredible detail of the machines. The details of Aloy’s character model and her animations definitely got the lion's share of the time and effort put in by the team. She has different run cycles depending on the terrain and raises her hands running her fingers through tall grass as she passes through it. It is one of those games where you can be caught off guard by its sweeping vistas, driving you to explore higher and higher to see as far as possible. To explore each corner of the expansive world.

The game is full of interesting and complex characters. Rost, the stoic and damaged father who despite his flaws and insecurities loves Aloy intensely and carries his own mysterious past. Erend, who grows through tragedy and Aloys assistance into a more complete man who wants to live up to the legacy of his sister. Ted Faro, who is just so easy to hate, represents a cautionary tale of unchecked monopolization who is played masterfully against Elizabet Sobeck. But the real scene stealer is Sylens. Lance Reddick brings the character masterfully to life. Cool, calculating and with a singular focus. He shows signs of humanity, apologizing to Aloy at one point for his cold calculating perspective. It is clear that in her he finds a kindred spirit, but to all others in the world he sees himself as superior. He only values anyone, even Aloy, only as far as they can serve his goals. His interactions with Aloy are always entertaining but this comes down to Ashly Burch’s performance as Aloy as well.

Aloy is fantastically characterized, she feels like a real person who responds realistically to stress and trauma. She is not unrealistically heroic based on her circumstances and indeed begins her journey with selfish, but completely understandable motivations. She just wants to discover her mother, but she is imbued by Rost with an inherent responsibility to those around her. She is clever, empathetic to others, even when they do not necessarily deserve it. She can also be vengeful and the player is given room for self expression with certain available responses. The game does not lean in too deep into these role playing inclusions, not changing the narrative based on the players choices but while largely ineffectual to the larger narrative they are still a welcome inclusion. But for the most part, Aloy is not a player avatar (like Link) in the sense that she is instead a fully realized character that the player just controls. Instead the role play elements come into their own in the choices the player makes in combat.

The skill tree and choice of weapons allows the player to interact with the enemies of the game in their own unique way. The short range combat is often criticized and the game is more designed to use long range or medium range weapons combined with stealth and traps. Honestly though I found the close range combat to be adequate beginning most of my attacks with a heavy attack, which paired with the right ability can usually knock down opponents, then a critical attack can follow which can be chained with several light attacks while the enemy gets back up, if they survive that is. The game really shines with new game plus and replaying on higher difficulties. On hard mode the difficulty remains engaging but carrying over your load out from a previous save means you have lots of options to dispatch machines with. I have had more fun with the game this way than during my first play through.

But the real draw for me personally is the setting and story (SPOILERS INCOMING). It is probably one of my favorite post apocalypse sci-fi settings I have ever encountered. The tragedy of it all, how the world was driven to the brink of extinction and then clawed its way back just to be ended by the ambition of one man. A man who was once heralded as the savior of the world becomes its sole source of doom and is driven mad by his guilty conscience. But before he is driven completely insane he swallows his pride and calls the only person on the planet who might be able to help. Elizabet looks at the Faro plague for what it is, the end. But she devises a way to cheat the death of the planet. I love how she looked at a no win scenario and yet still found a solution. That solution gets derailed a bit due to several outside influences that could not be predicted, some of which have yet to be revealed. But despite adversity the world was born again and now Aloy is tasked with rescuing this new world from impending doom. The narrative is fantastic, filled to the brim with mystery, commentary and intrigue.

All that said though the game is by no means perfect and below is a list of improvements I would love to see in the sequel. I am not going to talk about combat or traversal, as judging by the trailers I think the developers have already taken them into account. ZD, visual presentation of characters are inconsistent. Some characters get such an immense amount of polish that when they interact with some NPC’s it is jaring. Character interaction scenes also could use more varied and realistic animations. For example, every injured and or dieing character has the exact same animation and most characters while talking emote with their hands in unconvincing or poorly animated ways. Animations are reused too often for these character interactions which pull the player away from the stellar performances of the voice cast. I understand that you can not motion capture every dialogue interaction but I would still love to see a more consistent quality.

Also there is some inconsistency between the future tech spoken of in the story and backstory and the ruins seen by the player. Every person in the future used “verts” or autonomous vehicles, but when I walk past ruins it looks to me like everyone drove the same Toyota Camry rip off’s. The school buses littering the landscape make no sense to me, the world progressed technologically in every way but our yellow school buses survived? I understand the intent is to warp the familiar to the player, and we easily recognize these shapes. I am not on the whole against their inclusion either, but the best example of this being used correctly is the broken tanks you find or even better the drones in the hanger from the DLC.

I would also love to see more direct control given to the player over the machines that are tamed. A few times I would tame a machine only to have it stand off in the distance while I fought other machines. A simple method, something like used to guide the rot in the indie game Kena: Bridge of Spirits could be implemented to let Aloy guide machines or direct them to wave points with her focus. It would not have to be overly complex but it would be a nice touch. More focus specific interactions would be welcomed in general really.

On the whole though ZD is a very tight experience that just needs some small tweaks to become a truly incredible game. That, hopefully, is what Forbidden West will shape up to be. Only a little while longer and we will find out. After my third play through of the game I can totally recommend it to anyone who is fond of the open world style of game. I myself do intend to play through it at least one more time when I inevitably pick up a PS5. The DLC is also worth the purchase in my opinion. CYAN is a neat addition to the lore and the extra gear makes playing the game an even more varied experience. If you have never played the game and want to pick it up before you dive into the sequel I think you will enjoy it.