Horizon: Zero Dawn - Thoughts
This week’s review is special. Later on in the week, I will be posting a guest review by Alex Stasenko. Be on the lookout for that, I was super excited to have Alex weigh in on a game I have played, hopefully you all enjoy it as well. Be sure to check his newsletter out over at GameDev Relay, I may or may not have written something for him as well 😉
Horizon: Zero Dawn was released in 2017 on the PlayStation 4. The game was almost never made, beginning development after Guerilla Games released Killzone 3 in 2011. Several drafts of a script were created. Other games in development had to be cancelled. But Zero Dawn eventually gained traction and was announced formally in 2015.
The game was an immediate success, especially for a new intellectual property. Reviews from critics were overall positive, praising the story, combat and sci-fi/post-apocalyptic world.
I played the main game and got all Trophies as well as finished the story from The Frozen Wilds DLC.
What I liked 😃
The Setting
The setting of Horizon: Zero Dawn is one of the elements that set it apart from other open world video games of its kind. The science fiction / post-apocalyptic setting is not one that is commonly represented in video games, at least not in this way.
It’s the 31st century and the United States has reverted back to a wide-open wilderness. There are small villages and towns populated with some humans, but the rest of the country has been taken over by animal-like robots, flora and fauna. Humans have reverted to hunter gatherers and hunt the robots for scrap parts. However, a recent development called The Derangement has made the robots more aggressive toward humans. You might even say they’ve become…deranged.
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This all sets the stage for our main character Aloy, a female outcast of the Nora tribe. She grows up training with her father-figure Rost in the hopes of one day re-joining the tribe. Instead, she finds a strange device in the deep caves of the earth which gives her the ability to scan items and listen to pre-recorded voice messages from the past. Thus begins Aloy’s journey to figure out why she was outcast and possibly why the Derangement began in the first place.
I absolutely loved the setting. Not only because of its uniqueness within video games but also because it’s just really well realized. The world is full of detail that leads you to believe that this was once the good ole US of A and something along the way has gone very wrong. Fallen cities can be seen in places and artifacts (coffee mugs are everywhere, seems like those would be broken) are strewn about everywhere.
On top of all the “normal” are the robots. These robots range from small gazelle-like creatures to massive multi-story monstrosities. The first time I encountered a Tallneck, my jaw dropped. Imagine a giraffe but bigger than a high-rise building. Tallnecks are one robot type that aren’t aggressive, but Aloy must climb to the top of its head in order to open up more of the map’s fog of war.
In addition to the overworld areas, there are caverns and other places to explore underneath the ground. Underground is where Aloy will find the most relics from the past that allow her to understand what happened to the world.
I, Robot
The other unique thing about Zero Dawn are the enemies. Yes, at certain points you will be fighting other humans. But, with this being during Derangement times, Aloy will be fighting robots. And wow, this is just such a neat game mechanic.
Obviously the first thing that stands out are the robots themselves. Each robot type has their own move sets, weaknesses and resistances. The Grazers, which are deer-like robots, can be hit in the eyes to deal more damage. They also have these cannisters on their back that can be hit with an arrow to deal extra damage. They are one of the weaker enemies in the game but can trample or kick Aloy. On the other end of the spectrum is the Thunderjaw. This thing is massive and looks kind of like a T-Rex without the short arms. It has devastating attacks using its tail as well as simply stepping on Aloy with its foot.
There are a bunch of other enemies in-between as well. I liked the variety of robots along with their various abilities. It was always fun to battle a robot and see parts flying off of it which then become scraps or other useful items for selling or crafting.
What I didn’t like ☹️
Combat Was Okay
Combat in Horizon: Zero Dawn is okay. I wouldn’t say it was bad by any means. However, I thought it could have been better. The spear weapon which is the primary melee weapon for Aloy seemed like a secondary weapon, especially after getting all of the upgrades for the bow. The spear is slow and so why would you want to get up close to a Thunderjaw and hit it with a spear when you could just stay back and pew pew it to death? This is exactly what I did, and the spear took a back seat for much of the second half of the game. I would have liked to see some really neat spear moves or upgrades that significantly increased its speed.
Map Overload
This game just has a lot of “stuff”. There are so many collectibles, side quests, challenges, etc. Thank goodness the trophies list for this game doesn’t require you to get every single collectible. There are 150 text collectibles and 88 audio collectibles alone, not to mention the other “required” ones. I’m all for stuff to do in a video game, but sometimes there’s such a thing as too much.
It’s possible I’m feeling a little open-world fatigue, as it seems like a lot of the games I am most interested in conceptually are open world in nature. But it certainly felt like Zero Dawn had more markers on the map than your average open world game.
Overall Thoughts 🤔
I had tried to play Horizon: Zero Dawn several times previously and always ended up getting stuck. I think this game is a bit overwhelming in its first few hours. But, if you stick with it, the experience is worth it. The game is visually stunning and presents a setting that is unlike any other. Aloy is a great female character and fighting robots is fun. I think it’s possible to have too much stuff to do which could result in some analysis paralysis. But as long as you can break the game up into smaller pieces, you will have a great time.
Where Can I Play This? 🕹️
Horizon: Zero Dawn is easily available to play either digitally or physically on the PS4, PS5 or PC. A story DLC, The Frozen Wilds was also made available and adds another 5-10 hours on top of the already huge experience.