Horizon Zero Dawn

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☐ Old Fashioned
☑ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10
Like to pet the cat
　　　　　 　____
　　　　　／＞　　フ
　　　　　| 　_　 _ l
　 　　　／` ミ＿^ノ
　　 　 /　　　 　 |
　　　 /　 ヽ　　 ﾉ
　 　 │　　|　|　|
　／￣|　　 |　|　|
　| (￣ヽ＿ヽ)__) __)
　＼二つ

I am 65 years old, been playing games on the PC for a lot of years and let me tell you , this is one of the best. Practically bug free and joyous to play, great story, great characters, in fact great everything.

Buy, download, install and play.

---{ Graphics }---
☑ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato {sometimes)
☑ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

---{ Graphics }---
☑ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☑ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☑ Isn't necessary to progress (only if you go for achievements)
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

I love this game. I played through the Remaster several times, then a few months later I went through the Complete Edition multiple times as well. After experiencing both, I can say the Remaster is the better version only because of its quality-of-life upgrades. The game itself never needed a Remaster in the first place, and after finishing the Complete Edition again, I feel even more confident saying that. What I wrote in my earlier review still stands.
The setting reminds me of the early seasons of The 100. A world-ending catastrophe leaves scattered pockets of humanity living at a primitive level among the ruins of an advanced civilization. The result is a compelling blend of Fallout’s ruined world, Tomb Raider’s sense of exploration, and a slowly unfolding sci-fi mystery.
Visually, the game is stunning. Sunlit forests, snow-covered mountains, sprawling deserts, and crumbling cities all feel alive and meticulously crafted. Exploring the world is rewarding in its own right. Combat is another highlight. The variety of weapons, armor, and modifications allows for a flexible and strategic playstyle. Every fight with a machine feels like a distinct challenge, and I enjoyed changing tactics and loadouts for each new encounter.
Aloy and Sylens are easily the standout characters. Each is interesting on their own, yet even stronger in the uneasy relationship they share. Their conversations are some of the best moments in the game. Whether they are exchanging sharp remarks or wrestling with the implications of their discoveries, the tension between them adds depth to the story and balances the action-heavy gameplay.
Some cutscenes and a few supporting performances feel slightly awkward, but the overall narrative is gripping and supported by excellent worldbuilding. Through vantages, data logs, and environmental storytelling, the game slowly reveals a world rich in history and meaning. Players who take the time to dig into the details will find a story filled with clever ideas and emotional weight.
Horizon Zero Dawn remains a beautifully crafted experience that brings together storytelling, exploration, and combat in a memorable way.

TLDR: While I do recommend the game, I do so simply because it's a solid game, not because I enjoyed the ride. The game mostly consists of a giant map with hundreds of points of interest that are mobs, collectibles and side quests. This should be a good thing, but it doesn't feel like one after a short while, it gets redundant and boring as it doesn't manage to keep the player hooked, or at the very least this player.

Story: Shunned at birth, meet outcast Aloy, brought up by another outcast named Rost. Set out on a journey that will reveal what happened to the world to end up having dinobots everywhere and why everyone is acting like neanderthals. The plot is pretty decent, at least the one regarding the main reasoning of why there's... dinobots (I mean I can't help it, those are freakin' dinobots, I don't care what they're called). However it tends to be a bit hard to care for it as the game feels more like a map dotted with repetitive tasks rather than a map you will enjoy travelling to and from with different story bits. Don't get me wrong, it's a big nice map, it's just... oddly unsatisfying. I think the 2 biggest moments for me were in the DLC, which is completely optional, and holograms of past events. That should not be a thing.

Gameplay: Definitely one of the stronger aspect of the game, though some enemies can be a handful.
You will have a decent selection of weapons to choose from, and up to 4 to equip at a time, each with modifications slots (stats, mostly) with more powerful variants.
Your arsenal will mostly be old fashioned weapons ranging from bows, traps and slings. It sounds a lot worse than it really is as many types of ammo can be crafted, ranging from elements to effects like tearing; which deals no damage but removes armor, which who would've guessed it, robots wear.
Each mobs have weaknesses that are important to consider, you can brute force things but it's a lot more efficient, and funner tbh, to play the game as intended. Removing a giant gun from a giant T-Rex looking robot and firing it back at it while making it catch on fire is much better than flinging puny arrows at it for 20 minutes straight because it's bouncing off armor that you're too stubborn to remove.
There is a decent amount of stealth in the game, none of which is necessary but it works well and is of a big advantage to the player.
Each removed components from enemies and kills each award XP (with bonuses if they're on fire, or killed from stealth, for instance), allowing you to level up, up to lv 60.
Each lv gives a skill point, as do some missions, allowing you to put much needed skills in your skill tree. The skills range from being able to execute bigger enemies to slowing down time while aiming. They are useful, but not necessarily game changing.
You can craft ammo pouches, provided you've gathered all the required mats. Sadly, many mats are a little random (killing a mob does not guarantee the right mat as rarer mats are, uh, rarer).
You can craft every type of ammo yourself, and you easily do it within your weapon selection wheel, it's easy and fast.
You can craft potions and traps too, but they weren't as useful as I thought they were gonna be.
Dialogue choices can sometimes be made, though they will often do very little to impact the story. Unless it's obvious... Like, usually, killing someone instead of sparing do lessen your chances of meeting them later down the road, just saying.
Oh, and get the gold fast travel pack from a vendor as soon as you can, unless you want to always hope you have enough fast ravel packs.

Graphics: Surprisingly good, even by today's standards. While the base game has some off putting facial animation at times, the environments are good, the characters look good, and the chosen art style just works. The DLC's animations are plain better.

Audio: While I found the tracks lacking, the general audio of the game was fine. Aloy can be a bit too chatty at times, but it was probably just because I couldn't help but loot every single plant I saw. Cuz they're ''hardy little plants'', they'll be ''useful later''. ''Wind's howling'', no wait... That's a different game.

It's also worth mentioning that the game crashed quite a few times for no real apparent reason and there hasn't been a fix for this. I would also like to state that the Frozen Wilds DLC is a huge leap in difficulty, but totally worth it.

The Hook: Mechanical Apex Predators
The "elevator pitch" for this game is simple: Primitive tribes vs. Robot Dinosaurs. It sounds like a child’s fever dream, but Guerrilla Games executes it with a level of sophistication and scientific rigor that makes the world feel chillingly plausible. You play as Aloy, an outcast seeking to uncover her origins and the mystery of why the "Old Ones" (us) vanished.
The Gameplay: Tactical Hunting
Forget "hack and slash." If you try to melee a Thunderjaw, you will die. Combat is a high-stakes puzzle:
The Focus: Using your earpiece to scan components, highlighting weak points and elemental vulnerabilities.
The Arsenal: You aren’t just using a bow. You’re using Tripcasters to set traps, Ropecasters to pin down flying behemoths, and Slings to freeze armor plates until they’re brittle enough to shatter.
The Satisfaction: There is nothing quite like tearing a disc launcher off a mechanical beast and using it against them.
The World & Story
While the "open world" follows the familiar tropes of clearing bandit camps and climbing "towers" (which are actually giant walking giraffes called Tallnecks), the narrative is what sets it apart.
The Lore: Usually, audio logs in games are a chore. Here, they are haunting. Piecing together the final days of humanity through 21st-century "remnants" is genuinely emotional and occasionally terrifying.
The Visuals: Even years after its original release, the Decima Engine delivers. The contrast between lush, over-grown jungles and sterile, high-tech underground "Cauldrons" is breathtaking.
The PC Experience (2026 Update)
The initial rocky launch is a distant memory. On modern hardware:
Performance: Runs flawlessly with wide support for DLSS 3, FSR 3.1, and Ultrawide monitors.
Controls: The mouse and keyboard support is excellent, making precision shots on tiny machine components much easier than on a controller.
The Remaster: If you’re buying the Remastered Edition, the facial animations and lighting have been brought up to the standard of the sequel, Forbidden West, fixing one of the original game's few flaws.
Pros:
One of the most original and cohesive sci-fi stories in gaming.
Deeply satisfying, tactical combat that rewards strategy over button-mashing.
Aloy is a grounded, compelling protagonist.
The Frozen Wilds expansion is included and offers some of the best content in the game.
Cons:
Human-to-human combat is significantly less interesting than hunting machines.
Standard "Ubisoft-style" map clutter can feel a bit dated if you’re a completionist.
Final Verdict: 9/10. If you haven't played this yet, you are missing out on one of the definitive action-RPGs of the last decade.