Horizon Zero Dawn

Some games take a minute to properly gain steam. You can't always trust the first ten minutes, half an hour, or maybe even two hours of a game. Depending on the scope, content, and story, it can take a hot moment for a game to bloom. For me, Horizon Zero Dawn was one of those games. I slept on it for a while, and when I finally started it, I felt a slight amount of disappointment. The hype machine prepared me for something truly out of this world, and when I started playing it, I felt I was playing something almost mundane in a sea of open world RPG's. Well, wouldn't you know it, all I needed was to get to -that- point.

Horizon Zero Dawn really does blossom into a monumental experience. Light story spoilers follow. The game takes place in a post-extinction event Earth, where the world is both growing and decaying. Ancient machines of the past roam the plains. and isolated tribes attempt to survive in an increasingly more dangerous world. You play Aloy, an outcast at birth of one of these tribes. Without going over a chronological retelling of the entire game's plot, things change for the better, and you eventually become someone. This is when the game really begins to show its truest colors, and let me say, these colors are absolutely dazzling.

The combat at its most thrilling involves fighting machines that come in various sizes. Some are no larger than a German Shepherd, others are larger than dinosaurs. Engaging in combat with these machines is the meat of the game. Since the world is primarily tribal, you don't have a ton of firepower. Mostly traps, arrows, slings, and the like. Therefore, to most effectively fight these opponents, most of the combat is about seeking out and stripping the machines of their components and weak points. Elemental weapons can be crafted, and aid greatly in this, as some machines are weak to fire, ice, etc. These are the most enthralling portions of the game. There's immense satisfaction in shooting off vital weapons of these machines, and eventually, you grow from fearing them to actively seeking them out.

Machines aren't the only adversary in this game. You will have to fight through your fair share of human enemies as well. When engaging in direct combat, there's little to be excited about with these portions. Aim for the head, repeat. However, when you're put in a position where you can engage in stealth, these portions become more enjoyable. Bandit outposts especially make for some careful planning and execution, and when you can get through one without alerting anyone, it feels good. The bandit outposts join many other events on the map as your typical open world "things to do" diversion. This involves collectibles, hunting grounds (challenge areas), corrupted zones (full of juiced up machines) and cauldrons, where you can master the art of possessing machines.

Rather disappointingly, these cauldrons are the only real thing in the way of dungeons in this game. Most of the exploration is done above ground on the standard game map. Fortunately, it's a large world with a lot of unexpected variety in biomes. You start in snow covered tundra, progress into plains, and eventually make your way to desert, wasteland, jungle, and some swamp. The game world is absolutely gorgeous, and many areas pique your curiosity with the decaying remains of civilizations past. This ties directly into the story. When the story really starts to kick off, it's incredible interesting. All you need to know is presented to you in cutscenes or dialogue, but there's plenty more to learn from various datapoints across the world map. I won't spoil any of this, because it's an incredible sci-fi story that is best experienced in person.

If I had to nitpick about this game, I would definitely say that the resource-to-equipment ratio is way off. I was far overstocked the entire game, and never had to save up for anything once I hit a certain point. You'll wind up hoarding resources that you believe you may need, and before you know it, the game is over and your backpack is full of crafting materials that you never needed. This isn't a huge problem, but it would have felt better to have more weapons and armor to choose from to better make use of the hoards of crafting resources you'll acquire. Instead, you'll sell most of it, and make more money than you'll ever spend. It does take some time to get to this point, though, and I suppose you'll spend some of the game feeling like a pauper. It doesn't last, though.

Outside of some virtually non-issues, Horizon Zero Dawn is an absolutely gorgeous title that involves some of the most interesting combat in an RPG I've seen this generation. The story is a true epic, although the main questline is a little bit on the short side. Fortunately, it's supplemented with more than enough side content to keep you busy for hours. The game isn't too frontloaded with side quests to lose you forever, either, but I don't think it quite hit the sweet spot of having enough to feel exceptionally substantial. All in all though, it's an incredible achievement of a game, and I hope we see more from this IP in the future. If nothing else, it's a reason to own a Playstation 4.

Enjoyed combat again machines quiet a bit however it began to get stale towards the end due to the fact that ranged combat is the only real way to approach things. Melee feels extremely underbaked and the ranged combat isn't mechanically complex enough for the around 40 hour experience. Stealth is fairly basic, nothing to write home about. Climbing system is in the Assassins Creed style, feels pretty outdated to me when BOTW came out in the same year and had a much better climbing system. Hoping Forbidden West's climbing will be better. The exploration felt very on rails. Side quests are pretty bog standard, most follow the same formula of "Learn about event, go to area, scan for clues, follow tracks, find objective, finish quest." The rest are usually either fetch quests or quests that are actually interesting. They don't really tell any stories worth remembering. The main story is interesting enough to keep me engaged. Seeing how everything went to hell and tracing the steps is pretty neat. Favorite character is Sylens. Liked his motivations for doing what he did and his rude and logical attitude. Also liked how towards the end of the story he began to show more care for Aloy. Felt Aloy had some strange characterization in the beginning, going from telling Erend "I can't help you with your dead sister" in a main quest to immediately offering up help for anyone in a side quest. Wish they had kept her more like the Erend interaction, it's an interesting way to go for a main character where they are focused on themselves and not necessarily the kindest to everybody and willing to help everyone out. More looking out for themselves.

If the generic Ubisoft RPG formula had a baby with the absolute worst of modern Marvel writing during a messy divorce where the court deemed it best to be fostered by parents named “Actually pretty damn good visuals”, Horizon: Zero Dawn would be that game. Inoffensive in most areas, horrendous in many, Horizon is the type of game too safe to stray away from anything that might make it unique, making it ultimately a forgettable experience, not something that I could recommend to a more experienced player, but I do see it being an alright-enough and simple introduction into the open-world RPG genre.

É difícil ignorar o fato de que Horizon Zero Dawn é um jogo com algumas arestas a aparar. Das animações faciais esquisitas à travessia por vezes burocrática e/ou desprazerosa, é um jogo de escopo grande que nem de perto acerta tudo que tenta. Mas onde acerta, ele é magnífico.

O combate é engajante e cheio de possibilidades, algo potencializado pela variedade de inimigos - se não tanto pelo volume de inimigos diferentes, as diferentes formas de ataque e comportamentos das máquinas compensam. Depois do combate, a lore é bastante rica e a história em si também é um ponto forte, de mensagem pura e universal, como a jornada de uma heroína em um mundo depois do pós-apocalipse pedia. O subtexto ambiental e anticapitalista adicionam camadas bem-vindas à narrativa.

Horizon Zero Dawn é uma jornada épica por um mundo vasto e rico, com um momento a momento muito satisfatório e recompensador, pontuado por uma narrativa emocionante que traz ao jogador temas que a indústria dos vídeo games havia explorado pouco até aquele ponto.

Here is the biggest issue I have with Horizon Zero Dawn: it feels the same as most mainstream open-world RPGs nowadays.

Not to say that it’s bad. The gameplay is fun as all hell, the skill trees are nice, and it’s very well refined. I enjoy the combat and the lore, the concept is unique, the landscapes are pretty, and there’s plenty to occupy yourself with. I’ve probably sunk 100~ hours into this game with just two runs because it’s a very densely packed game, filled to the brim with quest after quest, discovery after discovery, and animal after animal. Plenty of merchants to buy from, bags to expand, arrows to build, weapons to collect, etc. The list goes on and on.

I enjoy Horizon Zero Dawn quite a lot. It’s a very good game, and it has a lot of very unique features that most open world games don’t. The movement is fun, ziplining around the world is very entertaining and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

But the characters and the world feel…empty. Not empty physically but devoid of substance. The game is very centered around the things you can do, not the people you can meet or the places you can go. The lore is often dumped on you via exposition and the NPCs don’t have very interesting personalities for the most part. Aloy is a pretty decent character, and so is Sylens, but you aren’t going to find anything especially unique about this game’s writing. It is definitely not terrible, mind you! Some moments shine, but in general, it’s rather dull.

So let me explain this point. Open worlds have always been difficult to set up well and to make interesting. Unfortunately for the case of Horizon Zero Dawn, the design of this world is far too classic to be really pleasant. With a map full of icons and boring missions, it's easy to get bored in the game. WHERE IS THE SURPRISE AND EXPLORATION IN THIS GAME? Everything is marked on our map and no reflection and difficulty in our exploration and location. The strong point of the game remains above all the gameplay which is very good against robots, but the fight against humans becomes quickly boring. The narration remains quite classic and no emotion was really provoked during my game session. In short, this game is too classic for my taste, especially when compared to open world games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and BOTW (and even skyrim and New vegas which are much older).
(I won't comment on the graphics, because I'm not interested in these aspects of a game)