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Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn is an action role-playing game developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The plot follows Aloy, a hunter in a world overrun by machines, who sets out to uncover her past. The player uses ranged weapons, a spear, and stealth to combat mechanised creatures and loot their remains. A skill tree provides the player with new abilities and bonuses. The player can explore the open world to discover side quests.
How have machines dominated this world, and what is their purpose? What happened to the civilization here before? Scour every corner of a realm filled with ancient relics and mysterious
buildings in order to uncover your past and unearth the many secrets of a forgotten land.
Game Discussion
Teddy Bear 0
Enjoyed the atmosphere. Love everything melee/bow related, while also in sci-fi setting.
The plot is as well cool, both side quests and main story are deep enough to keep on exploring after some time into game.
End Boss 1
Haters gonna hate, but Horizon Zero Dawn is really great because of a fresh sci-fi story. This mystery around the world full of robo-dinosaurs, no it doesn't look stupid. You really get into it, and actually it turns out to be logical. Kind of a Sci-fi Witcher for me. The gameplay was also fresh - difficult enough combat, with melee and bows.
Steam User 321
Came for the story, stayed for the scenery. Very good game, can't wait for forbidden west to come to PC,
Steam User 391
Spoiler-free review.
Technical
Finally a console ported game worth buying on pc - in three playthroughs I've only run into two crashes and a couple of glitches here and there. The game's well polished and not the buggy mess, I've come to expect by now, when going for AAA games. I suppose it helps, that the game has been out on console for ages now and yes, also running top end hardware. Nevertheless I'm usually very sceptical when it comes to ported games. Hence: BRAVO.
Story
Complemented with the soundtrack and visuals, the story was absolutely breathtaking. Been a long time I invested emotionally into a game. Give them writers a raise :) Even on third playthrough I still had shivers running down my back on some scenes.
Gameplay
The (story) missions themselves are pretty linear, with some hidden side rooms, if you want to explore and get some background infos to the lore/history. The map is, after a first/short walled of segment, open. Side missions and objectives scattered all over the place. Its left up to the player, how he wants to deal with the world. You ain't forced into specific areas and not even forced to complete every side quest. Overall you can get around 80 hours of gameplay, if you want to collect all, listen to all datapoints and so on. If you just focus on the main-missions, I estimate it'll last 40+ hrs ez.
Price
Well worth the 60 bucks on pc.
Addendum
I don't expect Sony's gonna read this, but just in case: This game was one of my favorite games this year. I'd even hand over more of my hard earned $$$ for quality products like this. I will not buy a console however, just to get access to exclusive games - even if they all as good as this one (looking at you there "God of War" or "The Last of us"). So why don't you do us all, and frankly yourself, the favor and learn from this - ease up on exclusives and seize the potential cash cow that is pc gamers ;)
Cheerio
PO3T
Steam User 632
THE IDEAL OPEN WORLD GAME
What could have been better:
Optimization:
• Its kinda iffy still. It took me a while to get the perfect settings. There's a pretty big dip in fps on everything on high or ultra at certain areas. So i put everything at medium to high and everything was smooth. (My specs - Ryzen 5 3600, GTX 1660 super, 16GB RAM)
• Also there's something wrong with the anti-aliasing, its noticeable on certain sections of the map with a lot of foliage.
• I had 2 hard crash and it was in the last mission, but it was just after a save so i didn't mind that much.
• Sometimes when you launch the game it says "Optimizing Shaders" in the main menu (it takes about 3-4 min) if you don't wait it do its thing, its gonna be laggy as hell.
• About 3-4 times the weather just completely changed in a instant for no reason.
Lip syncing / Conversation cut scene / Facial Animation:
• All these are a hit or miss. Most times its really good, but other times its distracting or funny.
Audio logs:
• Hear me out. I love the audio logs in this game, the're very well voice acted and I've listened to almost all of them. They are the one of the major sources for world building and is used heavily throughout the game. But when you put me in a room with 5-6 audio logs, each of which is 1 min long it forced me to stand there and listen to each one. I know you can listen to them later but most use the area where it was scanned to tell the story. At least I would have liked these audio logs to be spread around so I could at least go from point A to B listening to it.
Spoiler:
End boss fight: I wanted to fight the big octopus looking thing on the mountain so much, but all we got was another deathbringer. I expected more of a final boss fight, still the last defending section with waves of robots was cool though.
WHY ITS SO GOOD:
Aloy:
• I really like her. Character design wise and how shes written. What I love is that she's not perfect. She has selfish goals and at times act childish just like any real person.
• But she's also strong and independent and isn't afraid of calling people out. (I especially love it when she calls people for being sexist, its hilarious)
• Alloy strikes a good balance between being strong but vulnerable.
The World:
• Probably one of the most unique open worlds I have explored. Every new location had me in awe to see this future where nature and machine co exist.
• It is of perfect size with lots of verticality which I really enjoyed.
• You can see the remains of the old ones while exploring like old tanks, buildings and so much more which creates this immersive world where your intrigued to know what happened there.
• Also it has almost no loading screen, except a few areas, but its amazing considering the size and details of the world.
The Story:
• I loved the story. Its such a breadth of fresh air.
• It has a pretty slow start (The first 5 hour or so was pretty slow, but after "The Proving" sh*t gets real, real fast).
• The lore was interesting and made me wanted to know more about this weird world.
• Overall the writing is solid. The way the characters interacts with each other, alloys random one liners etc were all a treat and genuinely got a few chuckles out of me.
ENEMIES:
• HOLY SH*T ITS AMAZING. ITS ANIMALS BUT MACHINES!! Such a simple concept but done with such elegance.
• There were quite a few surprises along the way with made my JAW drop ;)
• The audio queue for each machine is distinct and clearly understandable even when they' are off screen.
• Also the dismemberment is oh so satisfying and looks freaking cool.
Side Quests:
• There aren't a lot which is actually a big plus. I would have hated if they went with the ubisoft copy past missions.
• But here there are a few and most are amazing with unique and interesting motive like in the witcher 3 but less in number.
NPC:
• Every single NPC is interesting and has their own opinion, believe and motive. Everyone won't accept you even if you prove yourself which is great because some people are just d*icks, and the game doesn't change that.
The Combat:
• It will seem pretty basic at first, but it builds on those concepts and makes a system that all feels cohesive together. Whatever load out you carry, everything synergies really well.
• The game has a good combat loop
• Even after maxing out everything and having good gear the game was pretty challenging which is a plus.
Costume Design:
• I have to praise this. Its amazing! Everything Alloy and the other main characters wear are so aesthetically pleasing and appropriate to the respective tribes.
• Each tribe's believes and customs are visible from what they wear.
Photo Mode:
• I have to put this here, I'm a big sucker for virtually photography and this game was a treat. Every single location looks stunning and the photo mode was the icing on top. *mwah*
DLC - The Frozen Wilds:
• A completely new section of the map to explore? A new Story with even more interesting sh*t to do? New machines? OH IT COMES WITH THE GAME AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY EXTRA!?? SOLD
• Shout out to the amazing snow physics in this section
• Also most of the issues I had with the main game are greatly improved here, so they are going in the right direction.
Misc:
• Thank you Guerrilla games for not charging full price for the port.
• Thank you Sony for finally bringing this to PC (please bring more)
HYPED FOR HZD: FORBIDDEN WEST !! WO-WO !!
P.S: Thank you Xena for gifting this on my birthday! I finally get it why this is one of your favourite games. It was a treat to play through this.
P.P.S : I might have went a little overboard with this review, I should have just posted "yes", oh well.
Steam User 290
Finally finished this after procrastinating for over an year.
THE GOOD:
+ Memorable story & characters.
+ Combat is exciting & well executed.
+ The machines are formidable with good AI.
+ Fun boss battles.
...AND THE BAD:
- A couple of minor graphical glitches.
- Waypoint update was a bit confusing.
RATING: 9/10
Steam User 358
I'm glad Sony discovered the existence of PCs
Steam User 191
Zero Dawn is a game I would love to forget. Only in doing so, I would be able to relive the truly wonderful experience I gained from playing this addicting masterpiece.
Steam User 330
The sun came up over a mountain as I was looking up to scout out some glinthawks. I literally raised my hand to my forehead in real life in an attempt to block the sun's rays. That's how immersive this game is. Or how dumb I am. Either way, you should buy this game. One of my favorite single-player open-world experiences ever.