REVIEW - Horizon Zero Dawn - Brave Meets Jurassic Park (Plus Robots)

Title: Horizon Zero Dawn
Developer: Guerrilla Games
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Platform: PlayStation 4

Hoping the title of the review didn't give too much away, Horizon Zero Dawn sets you on Earth in the far distant future. Somewhere between now and then civilisation as we know it will crumble, machines will start roaming the land like feral packs of animals and humanity is reduced to small tribes of superstitious, proto-primitive nomads. (Yay)

You play as Aloy, a woman who has been brought up as an outsider to her people for reasons unknown. Your surrogate father, a fellow outcast called Rost, raises you from infancy and trains you to survive in the wilds. While out exploring one day you fall down into some ruins of "The Old World" where you find an earpiece called a Focus. With it, you can scan your surroundings and detect enemy weak points and patrol routes.

Once old enough you take part in a trial that will allow you to join your clan, the Nora. (The game splits most of its people into the traditionalist Nora, the sun-worshipping Carja or the tinkering Oseram) Having not been raised within a tribe, Aloy has a tendency to speak her mind when it comes to matters of tradition, faith and law which can lead to some of the best dialogue I've heard in a game for quite some time. The game adopts the use of a dialogue tree to carry conversations. There are points where your actions are determined by three choices; aggression, logic or compassion. From what I've seen these are just to create different outcomes to a conversation, not influence the game as a whole. (I could be wrong, I've only retried one example early on) That being said, the options are interesting and I'm considering a second play through to see some of the others.

As you may be able to tell already, this is an excellent looking game. Scanning from a high vantage point, you're gifted with some stunning views of the valleys, mountains and plains that you're fully able to explore. Previously I've talked about sci-fi doing Ice Planet, Desert Planet etc. HZD does these separate environments and connects them together brilliantly into a rich and vibrant world. Day/night cycle and weather changes add to each area, making the world seem that much more real. At times the light change can take the game by surprise and it looks like someone has been messing about with the Gamma level on your TV but it quickly sorts itself out. (I've only had a couple of instances of this in about 10 hours of gameplay)

As for the people in the game. Oh boy, these are some beautiful people. (I mean some of them have a face only a mother could love... but still beautiful) Every person you meet looks like someone you would bump into on the street. Hair, eyes, facial expressions, everything is done so damn well. Aloy is brilliant. Her design, the way she moves, pretty much everything she says. If I had played this sooner she would have been on my list of "Top Heroes" without question. [She was on a list of excellent female characters in games "The Girls Are Back In Town" by Billy] Aloy takes shit from no one but is always prepared to help anyone in need. She constantly questions authority where authority is being abused and when it comes to faith she always asks the question "why". (I can't remember the last time I was this taken by a fictional character)

The way the art design works in showing you people from not only different tribes but also different castes is fantastic. Take the first picture below.That's Nil, a former Carja soldier and now bandit slaying mercenary. You'll meet other Carja soldiers, you'll meet other mercenaries. You won't meet another one like Nil. (Possibly because he killed them, I'm unsure) Comparatively the lower picture is Aidaba, the Carjan Hunter's Lodge shopkeeper. You'll be tripping over merchants through out the game but you'll never see two of the same in the one place. (Or even two of the same at all, at least from what I saw) I love the makeup and tattoo designs, very simple but done in such a way that catches your attention.

Now on to the gameplay. Horizon Zero Dawn is a fantastic open world adventure. The tutorial is handled very well, placing you in control of Aloy at a younger age. (Perfectly demonstrating what I ranted makes a good opening level)

You're shown the basics of camera and character control, a brief but revealing view into the world you're being introduced to and even teased as to some of the hidden areas you'll be able to explore once the game opens up. Combat is pretty straight forward. You have a spear for hitting things and a bow for hitting things further away. Before you go off and start hacking and slashing God of War style, don't. The fights in HZD can be some of the most intense situations you'll be involved in. Taking a hit is something to be avoided, not quite to Dark Souls level, but enough to always gauge a situation before jumping straight into the fray. (The best comparison would be The Witcher 3) Making sure you have the right weapon to exploit the right weakness is key to winning some of the bigger fights later on. (Also as soon as you can, buy the Ropecaster. Then buy something that can shoot freeze ammunition, a great combo for taking down big enemies fast) A few of the fights had me so absorbed with all the shooting and dodging that I didn't notice until it was over that my whole body had been clenched like a fist.

A wrinkle I've found is on some of the bigger enemies their hit box can be a little inconsistent. During one attack I could dodge out of the way no problem while dodging the same attack a few minutes later I would take damage. Also when using the slow-motion while aiming the camera can get lost in the bushes/tall grass. On saying all that, I didn't really find any real difficulty with the fighting, I died only a handful of times during combat. You get the ability to control the machines you're fighting shortly into the game, this is a fun addition that can lead to some spectacular bot-on-bot clashes. The bots you control become a bit tougher than regular bots so it's fun seeing a horsebot (strider) trample a group of wolfbots (scrapper) without breaking a sweat.

With the last few "open world" games I've reviewed, there was a certain amount of difficulty filling it with enough stuff to keep you interested in exploring. There is no issue at all here. The map, which is spectacularly detailed when you reveal it, is full of little corners that seemingly have nothing in them but turn out to have a wee out-of-the-way ruin or village. I had a friend round, gave him the controller and told him to take a walk. He proceeded to head in a northerly direction from the starting location and inadvertently found a village filled with people and tame machines. This place had no sign posts pointing us here. There was no bigger reason to be at this location other than our own curiosity. There was a wee mission that involved the tamed machines and when that was done, that was it. A nice wee day out exploring a games wilderness and being rewarded with actual content. Bugger me, how novel. There are collectables in the game. Blessed be they are not worthless pieces of tat. Most of them come in sets that can be traded for goods at certain merchants. They even come with lore. Guerrilla Games gets it. I don't want to pick up flags or marbles or whatever to sate the kleptomaniac in me, I want to find interesting baubles that expand the universe they've created. (Pro Tip: Upgrade your Resources pouch to max as early as you can, just saying)

The platforming is pretty standard for your action/adventure game. Grabbing ledges and shimmying along cliff edges is pretty much your bread and butter here. There are times where you're expected to climb something and the correct ledge (the ones highlighted in yellow) isn't particularly well highlighted. This is an issue that links back to the lighting problem I mentioned before, it solves itself after a bit but still, a bit of a nuisance as not every ledge is climbable. Nothing game breaking and overall the climbing and running about is really nice. (And relaxing between assaults from roaming mech-pets)

Would I recommend Horizon Zero Dawn to you? I can't recommend it enough. (In case you hadn't guessed from all the writing above) The visuals, the writing, the gameplay. It all comes together to make what I'm considering my Game of the Year (so far). There are a few flaws here and there but overall this is a finely polished gem you should add to your collection. (Here's a picture of a giant, lightning firing bird as reward for scrolling to the bottom of the review)

Horizon Zero Dawn is exclusive to PS4 for various prices. (So as ever, shop around. Also, buy a PS4 if you don't own one to play this awesome game)