Horizon: Zero Dawn Review

With the rapidly approaching release of Horizon Zero Dawn's highly anticipated sequel, Forbidden West, I decided to dive back into the game that started it all. This was originally a PlayStation 4 exclusive title but it's now available on PC as well. I already owned the game for PS5 but I decided to buy another copy of the complete edition on Steam, which includes the Frozen Wilds DLC along with the base game.

I've got to say, right from the top, that the story and setting are what makes Horizon Zero Dawn truly special. Without dipping into spoiler territory, I love this game's story. This was my second playthrough and even though I already knew what was going to happen, I still found myself getting pulled into the game's mystery. 

Unlike other post-apocalyptic games which are usually based on a nuclear war or zombie virus, Zero Dawn presents civilizational collapse as a mystery that Aloy will uncover along with the player throughout the game.

As for the setting, Horizon Zero Dawn has a gorgeous game world to explore. Even five years later, this is hands down one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. I absolutely loved exploring this game world, taking in all the gorgeous vistas, lush vegetation, rolling deserts, and snowy mountains. 

In addition to the countryside, it was fascinating to comb through precursor civilization ruins and the high-tech machine cauldrons that reminded me of Isu sites from Assassin's Creed or the RemTech vaults in Mass Effect Andromeda. 

The attention to detail that Guerrilla Games put into these environments and how you interact with them is truly impressive. When you pass through tall grass, I love the way Aloy runs her hands through it or makes little comments to herself when the weather changes.

However, the beautiful world of Zero Dawn is incredibly dangerous. The ruins of civilization are teeming with killer machines that want nothing more than to kill our protagonist. This is probably a good time to talk about how Aloy can defend herself against a horde of machines. 

I usually play video games for the story instead of the combat. If you've read some of my other reviews, you've probably picked up on the fact that I typically don't enjoy fighting waves of goons as much as making impactful story choices, exploring, or engaging with the characters. Unsurprisingly, Horizon Zero Dawn is no different for me, and while the combat isn't my favorite part of this game, there is an incredible degree of depth and room for player choice, which engages me in a way that most other games fail to achieve. 

And so, I did have more fun with the combat in this game than I normally would. Aloy has a variety of tools at her disposal to deal with enemy threats, and her most prominent weapon is the bow.

There are three main categories of arrow-shooting things. First, you've got warbows, which deal elemental status effects but sacrifice base damage. Then there are sharp shot bows, which are slow to fire but inflict more damage. Finally, hunter bows provide a nice balance. 

Aloy can also craft different types of arrows with status effects like tear, freeze, corruption, and fire, among other things. She can use the focus tool to identify weak points on enemy machines. The name of the game is targeting these weak points to blast off vital machine components for extra damage. 

You can target fuel tanks or power sources on certain machines, which will explode, causing massive damage and potentially taking out nearby enemies as well. Sometimes, you can even knock off enemy weapons and pick them up for your own use. In one of the early game fights, I was thinking how this game would be more fun if Aloy had an AK. I mean, what kind of post-apocalyptic America doesn't have a bunch of guns? At that moment, I was able to grab this giant railgun off an enemy and go to town.

For closer encounters, Aloy uses a spear. The melee combat is pretty shallow, to be honest, and it kind of seems like a last resort for Aloy. You basically just have light attacks and heavy attacks. There are no parrying, counter-attacks, or special moves, although you can use your spear for silent strikes against unaware enemies for massive damage. 

Aside from bows and spears, Aloy has a wide variety of other specialty weapons and tools that she can use to get an advantage against machines and humans alike. The trip caster allows her to place tripwire traps that will shock or explode on contact. The rope caster allows her to tie down and immobilize enemies so she can escape or inflict massive damage while her target lies defenseless. The rattler is a spread-shot bolt gun that fires five projectiles at once. She can also place handmade traps that detonate on contact and finally, Aloy can use the sling to lob more bombs than Eminem during a freestyle rap battle. 

Another interesting twist to combat is Aloy's ability to override machines. Once overridden, Aloy can use the machine like a horse for mounted combat or overland traversal. The machine will also fight on Aloy's side on its own if hostiles are nearby. The DLC adds in additional skills like the dismount strike, which is a lot of fun.

The combat gameplay loop in Horizon Zero Dawn can be incredibly fun as it requires some degree of skill to accurately target weak points, especially when machines are alerted and moving rapidly across the battlefield. It was always satisfying to watch components flying off killer robots or exploding fuel tanks taking out massive groups. 

If you're not looking for a direct fight, then you can utilize many of Zero Dawn's stealth gameplay systems to sneak past or quietly take out enemies. Most of these systems feel familiar and borrowed from other franchises like Assassin's Creed and Far Cry. 

Guerrilla Games does acknowledge this influence with some AC easter eggs in the game, like this haystack and assassin logo at the top of the Bitter Climb. You can hide in tall grass, throw rocks, or whistle to distract and lure enemies, and use the silent strike ability to one-shot most machines, thereby maintaining stealth. I don't really have much to say about the stealth in this game. It's functional, if not terribly original. In fact, you could say this about most of the gameplay systems in Horizon Zero Dawn - it borrows a lot of ideas from other games in the genre.

I don't think there's anything bad or wrong with this, and it actually works quite well. It's like the developers did a survey of all the best open-world RPGs and action stealth games from the past decade, borrowing and building on the best gameplay systems from those titles. Using the focus tool for investigations reminded me of Geralt's Witcher senses. The climbing mechanics were like Uncharted. You clear outposts and use a grapple hook like in Far Cry. Scaling tall necks to open the map was like synchronizing viewpoints in Assassin's Creed. 

However, I've got to say the Tallneck missions are a lot more interesting than AC sync points or radio towers in Far Cry. There are these giant giraffe robots that survey and transmit location data to other machines. Aloy can jump onto them, scale up to the top, and override them to get the mapping data transmitted to her focus instead, thereby unfogging the map and identifying noteworthy locations. I always enjoyed doing these, and it was satisfying to watch Aloy repel down at the end like a badass.

There's also crafting and mods in this game, like basically every other action game. You can craft ammunition, potions with various buffs and debuffs, and install mods that improve the stats of your weapons and armor. There's also a typical leveling and RPG-light skill system where you unlock new abilities like concentration, multi-shot arrows, and other more passive traits. We've all seen this stuff before. Horizon Zero Dawn does all of these things well, but aside from the combat, not many of its gameplay systems are innovative. It takes ideas from other franchises and either builds on them or just integrates them well, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Let's talk about the quests and characters in Horizon Zero Dawn. There is a big discrepancy in quality between the main quest and side quests in this game. The side quests were honestly just not that compelling or interesting for the most part, presenting you with your average open-world fare. "Oh my sister is sick, can you get her some medicine? Oh no, my brother is missing, can you make sure he's not dead? Oh, this guy's on trial, but he's actually innocent, can you help spare his life?" and so on and so forth. 

Most of the NPCs you speak to in this game are hugely lacking in personality, aside from a few standouts like Sylens, that drunk slob with bad facial hair, Vanasha, and Vanasha's ab muscles - I mean, what kind of post-apocalyptic protein have you been on, girl? 

Sylens was hands down the most memorable character in this entire game. I love the dynamic between Aloy and Sylens, where he helps her out, but she doesn't really feel like she can trust him. The dude just gives off major Elusive Man vibes, and he's always telling Aloy to quit wasting his goddamn time. “I've told you quite enough. If you still have questions, be quick about it and stop wasting my time”.

What about our hero Aloy? She is an interesting character, but I don't feel like she's my character. At the beginning of the game, you're given a tutorial on dialogue options with three flavors: heart, brain, and fist. However, the dialogue options feel undercooked and more like window dressing than a fully-fledged system. I didn't notice any tangible change in Aloy's personality based on the conversation options I chose, and dialogue choices are presented so infrequently that they could have been removed entirely, and I wouldn't have noticed. 

Aloy makes her own decisions without input from the player. As someone who primarily plays RPGs, I really wish I had the option to shape Aloy's character more in conversation and story choices. I feel more connection to characters like Cassandra in Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Femshep in the Mass Effect trilogy than I do with Aloy.

At the end of the day, this is not an RPG, and that's totally fine. I think it just comes down to personal preference. Aloy has a strange personality that I found it difficult to connect with. She's kind of socially inept, owing to her background and upbringing, so a lot of social cues seem to go over her head. 

Again, this is fitting for the context of her character, but I just found it difficult to connect with her. If Aloy existed in real life, I think it would be pretty awkward to speak with her. She doesn't emote much in conversation. The only emotions we see from her throughout the game are sadness and anger. I can't remember Aloy laughing, smiling, or showing one shred of positive emotion throughout the entire game.

Now, you might be saying, “She's had a tough life. It makes sense that she's not cackling with joy”. That's a valid point, but let's compare her with Cassandra from AC Odyssey. Cassandra was thrown off a cliff at a young age and grew up as an orphan on a poverty-ridden island, but that didn't stop her from developing a personality. She frequently laughs, cracks jokes, and shows a full range of human emotions throughout the story. Aloy has a dry and morbid sense of humor - at least, I think this is intended as humor. It's really hard to tell what the writers were going for here.

You might think after all I've said that I don't like Aloy, but that's not the case at all. She does have a lot of admirable qualities. For instance, she's incredibly strong and resilient in the face of challenges, immensely curious, and able to provide a new perspective and uncover things that other people missed. She's also incredibly compassionate and seeks to help others, not for any kind of reward but because she feels like it's the right thing to do.

I'm incredibly invested in Aloy's journey and I'm excited to see how her story continues in Horizon Forbidden West. I don't usually go into DLC in these reviews, but I just want to briefly mention Zero Dawn's only expansion called Frozen Wilds. It's not a can't-miss experience by any means, but if you like the base game, you'll enjoy this DLC. 

Frozen Wilds adds a few additional gameplay wrinkles like control towers, more complex Tallneck missions, a handful of new weapons and armor, and a bunch of environmental puzzles. Frozen Wilds took me about 10 hours to complete, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.