Horizon Zero Dawn is a third-person action RPG developed by the same folks who put together the many, many Killzone games–none of which I have played.
Mr. Riven and I had been following the news about this game since we saw the first trailer for it. As time went on, we both had concerns that it was going to be an Assassin’s Creed clone …but with a pre-historic feel and metal dinosaurs guise!!11! Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
The game doesn’t have much in the way of traditional tutorials other than some very brief scenes when you’re a child. I, personally, love that. A game that encourages you to learn by playing it takes me back to simpler times. That’s not to say that prompts won’t appear on screen to help you out–press triangle to gather herbs or loot downed enemies, etc.–but you also won’t have to go through 10-minutes of forced actions with a new weapon, either. (“OK, use this weapon to kill enemies this way, now that way, now this other way, congratulations on completing the mandatory tutorial!” I’m looking at you, Batman: Arkham Knight, even though I think you’re otherwise a fabulous game.)
The world map looks small …until you start playing. Fast traveling costs resources, but I found that I preferred to hoof it from one place to another, anyway. The absolutely stunning world is populated with plenty of machines and wildlife, all of which you are free to kill as you please or not. I highly recommend killing everything that moves because I dislike being resource-starved. That said, as meticulously as I do hunt and gather, I haven’t out-paced the economy; there’s quite a few shinies for sale that encourage “saving up.”
The skill point system and accompanying skill trees offer some decent customization options regarding gameplay. Consider yourself a brawler? There’s a tree for that. Prefer a stealthier style? There’s a tree for that. The last tree seems to be largely environmental: gather more resources from fewer sources, override machines for longer, that sort of thing. But it should be noted–so, y’know, note it–that you will certainly max out each of these trees by the end of the game, so it really comes down to what you want first. I’d also like to point out that Mr. Riven plays like Deadshot (lots of ranged combat), while I prefer more of a Deathstroke approach (up close melee combat). So, like I said earlier, options.
Finally, the story is compelling and downright beautiful, and it shows you right away in the first thirty minutes (ish) of gameplay that the dialogue choices you make might come up again later. Not having played through the entire game, I can only hope that this continues to be the case. Mr. Riven is further along than I am, and there seem to be all kinds of tangled webs to unweave and mysteries to solve. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how it unfolds, especially considering how gorgeous that unfolding has been so far. (Seriously, the main character’s hair [and hips] are mesmerizing.)
9/10; will continue to bang.
If you have questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments below, and I will do my best to address them in a spoiler-free manner…after I put this game down for two goddamn seconds.
Comments
76 responses to “Review: Horizon Zero Dawn”
Video game reviews on the ‘Day Without a Woman’. Coincidence?
Fucking NERDS.
You bet!
Says the guy with an anime avatar to the guy with an anime avatar. My weebiichlorians are tingling.
I have no idea what you’re talking about, this is a self-portrait.
You mean, daughter of, right?
I HAVE BECOME THE WAIFU.
I put “weebichlorians” into Google. No results at all. Starting to ponder the possibility of a bona fide unique thought.
Somehow the internet has not managed to make the connection between anime and Star Wars.
Humanity has failed.
Lol. You know what I meant: a neologism that may be my own. As far as Google is concerned, it was tabula rasa with respect to that word before I used it. That is increasingly unlikely these days.
You can’t buck Rule 34 though. It’s immutable
As the Glibertarian Alpha Weeb, I’m not sure whether I should be offended by this or not.
I don’t know how we determine the Alpha Weeb, unless you own a katana and several pounds of Pocky.
First test is ownership of a waifu pillow. I’m hoping that nobody here does.
Failing that, it’s whoever’s into the most embarrassing shows. I… probably win that.
I looked up your previous avatar. It’s from Sword Art Online.
You win.
My old avatar was Sword Art Online. My current one is Gunslinger Girl.
(I don’t like SAO, I just like the character)
But how did you come upon your copies of GsG?Also whats your gripe with SAO? I thought first season of SAO is pretty solid, though it quickly departs the rails afterwords.
I actually picked up half a dozen packs of Pocky and a My Friend Totoro drink flask about an hour ago. But Scout’s Honor, not for me.
You stole my comment!
As if gamers do any less. Most games don’t even bother to punish you anymore for killing anything you shouldn’t have. Discretion is apparently not the better part of most games’ valor. 😉
It looks really nice graphically. Any libertarian themes?
“Any libertarian themes?”
Did you miss the part about “killing anything that moves”? Duh!
Ideal killing anything that moves track.
Ah, AnCap justice. Of course, how could I have missed that? 😀
The economic incentives for saving!
Well, yes and no. There’s some free association stuff if you really look for it.
I’d say it really depends on how you play the main character. Mr. Riven recently got a quest and the short of it is that people were stealing from the rich to give to the poor. You don’t have the option (yet?) of straight murdering the thieving bastards, but I suppose you could choose to decline the quest on principle.
PC? or do i have to play on my roommates ps4? god, that thing is LOUD.
Ps4 exclusive right now. We both prefer PC, so if that had been an option, we’d have taken it
Is yours annoyingly loud too, or is his defective? I threatened to drill holes in the side and attach my spare fan to it. It sounds like I’m in Cape Canaveral for a shuttle launch when he plays FF.
It’s miles quieter than the Ps3, I’d say, but louder than Mr. Riven’s sweet, new gaming laptop.
maybe it’s just his, then. It seems to be worse than my old ps3.
Amazon says they have it for xbox one, which is what I have. It is 5 bucks more than the ps4 version. What is up with that?
Huh! I had thought it was an exclusive title for PS4… That’s…weird.
And you are correct. I typed in Horizon Zero Dawn Xbox one and it gave me For Honor. I didn’t notice that because, well, I don’t pay attention.
Looks really good on a PS4 pro if you have a friend with one
Mr. Riven suggested that after we finish our basement and put a 4k tv in there, we ought to buy the PS4 Pro to go with it. I have married the perfect man.
It works best on 4k TVs with HDR. The color is amazing.
Yeah, I can’t believe how incredible HDR is. Just load up Last of Us or Uncharted 4 and turn the option off then on again. The difference is huge. I really hope HDR starts to become a standard in games now, especially with the PS4 Pro (and Xbox Scorpio later this year) emphasizing being for 4K TVs.
Jesus that child face is terrifying.
Yeah, thankfully you aren’t a child for long. But I found her childhood face realistically ugly.
Ugh. Mad Max II “Feral Kid” …
Looks like an Ur-Gelfling
I preordered because of this freckled pretty redhead prehistoric cyberpunk girl.
I like that they made her approachably hot and that her armor is largely realistic*
* though there are mid-riff baring outfits available later in the game.
*perks up*
her armor is largely realistic
Unless she’s into counting coop, that ‘armour’ ain’t even tomahawk proof.
I finally beat Castlevania 3 on the NES I keep in our guest bedroom last month.
Castlevania has some of the best and most iconic game music ever. I don’t remember what’s different between all the games but I definitely remember the music
I have yet to beat OoT on the N64. -_-“
With or without continues? Spirits?
Just something for old school strategy gamers: The V4V series is available at abandonia.com. If you remember setting up game boards with hexagons and actually putting small cardboard counters on them, this is for you. It has the additional benefit of calculating all the fight results.
As the title suggests, these are WWII games. Velikiye Luki is my personal favorite, with the note that it’s hard to pick a side between Nazis and Commies. Utah Beach, Market Garden and Gold-Juno-Sword don’t offer the flexibility of gameplay IMO. YMMV.
My wife is going to hate you for this.
At least it’s free…
A note – you also need to get DosBox to play it, as it’s so old.
But they were insanely good for their time. I’m surprised they weren’t more popular.
Just something for old school strategy gamers:
Really old school strategy gaming
Ah, the Great Onions.
Ted, do you like post-war Japanese cinema?
This is not a set-up for a bad joke, I’m just curious.
They accept game reviews? Sweet.
I would write one for NioH, except I haven’t played it in weeks ;_;
Just finished the main story for this game earlier today. Loved it, personally. The style reminds me of Witcher 3 with the open world and quest structure. Gameplay actually reminds me of Rise of the Tomb Raider with all the resource gathering. All in all, a really solid game. Definitely makes me glad I bought a PS4, alongside Uncharted and Last of Us.
All of this. I love the Witcher series–or at least I love watching Mr. Riven play it 😉 Same goes for Uncharted and the Last of Us–I actually can’t play the Last of Us because I’m a candy-ass fearful spaz about zombies.
Really enjoying Witcher 3.
have yet to touch an expansion.
You should get both expansions. Blood and Wine especially. With the amount of content in both, they remind me much more of the old school expansion packs we used to get back in the day, and less of the modern day minor add-ons that DLCs too often are.
That’s good to know. I haven’t beat it yet, it’s giant to me.
Indeed. I know there’s still plenty of content I haven’t yet run across in the base game and in both expansions. The game really is enormous.
Spent three months playing Witcher 3, getting roughly 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Completely fucked up my schedule. Worth every minute.
Having skimmed the article, is this some kind of a spiritual sequel to Turok?
Different genres. And the dinosaurs are actually metal.
Turok is on Steam though.
I’ll accept that they’re different platforms, but they’re both science-fantasy. Also, having now read the plot synopses of the Turok ark to refresh my recollections and the synopses of this game I’m seeing quite a bit of overlap in the thematic elements.
I only play Spiderweb Software games.
That fucking Donkey Kong. Every time I think I’ve freed Pauline, he figures out a way to take her away again.
This might be outside your wheelhouse, but did you get in on the Wildlands “beta”? I found it contemptible in a lot of ways. I played the first Ghost Recon back when it was new, having had a long-running love of Rogue Spear. Both games were played straight, no melodrama or character arcs, just tactical infiltration-based shooters. And they were tons of fun. Years later I played the first R6: Vegas and discovered somewhere in the interim Ubisoft had gone all-in on insipid character-based storytelling. The end of the game has you no-shit fighting a former colleague turncoat flying a helicopter. Total dreck. It quit the franchise after that, but Wildlands looked promising. Well, they haven’t improved much in the plot department, with overacted, overscripted, tedious monologues and canned dialogue, and the gameplay has only deteriorated. The third-person view has no business in a tactical shooter, Splinter Cell be damned. The open-world is sprawling but shallow. It’s pretty much JC3, which is a triumph of gameplay, but without the things that make JC3 absurd and fun. I didn’t mind the repetitive nature of liberating Medici because grappling hook + reusable parachute + wingsuit was an intoxicating combination. What does Wildlands offer in comparison? A mostly useless cover system, flighty vehicle handling, and crummy AI.
Siege was pretty good for modern Ubisoft.
(Oh, and since this is a gaming thread: any other Minecraft players out there? I’ve been toying with the idea of putting up a FTB expert server.)
Not in a while, but would.
Only if you REALLY like a really aggressive, destructive griefer running around.
Say hello to my 96×48 vertical Nyan cat memorial, complete with redstone illuminations.
Gaming reviews? Woo hoo! I love this site. Thanks Riven and thank you Glibertarians.
As long as we’re talking gaming, just a heads up, since I know some of you play CK2.
The new Monks & Mystics DLC is ridiculously imbalanced. Satanists are ridiculously OP right now. You can sacrifice your crappy kids to Satan, and get a +1/+3 health bonus in return. It makes dealing with Gavelkind a hell of a lot easier.
Honestly, this whole expansion seems more like a gimmick for modders. I’m sure the Warhammer modders will have a field day with this. (Fantasy, not 40K.) But expect a lot more orgies to Slaanesh.
I’m enjoying the heck out of this game as well! The goodbye scene with Rost made me tear up…