Horizon Zero Dawn Review: In a League of Its Own

I completed Horizon Zero Dawn the morning before yesterday. For long, Horizon lay inert in my collection of titles that had yet to be installed, and it wasn’t until recently that I opted to put it to the test. I entered the game with a lot of my cards down. But other than the fact that a woman would be the protagonist and that robots would play a role, I had no idea what to anticipate in terms of the plot or mechanics.

So, Here’s an overview of what I learned and heard!!!

The Plot Is Kindaaa Generic

You are introduced to Aloy, the daughter of an ostracized father, at the beginning of Zero Dawn. An abandoned mountainous region that we eventually uncover was formerly part of the American West lies in ruins in the aftermath of extermination. The bond involving Aloy and Rost, her dad, is shown well in Zero Dawn. Rost is compassionate, but he is also terribly tormented.

Aloy is inquisitive, driven, and wonderfully snarky. When Aloy discovers she doesn’t remember her mother, she gets obsessive with tracking out her lineage. Rost promises to help Aloy grow and mature, however, he could only bring her as far as an introduction into the Nora tribal group that he was expelled from.

One of my biggest gripes with Zero Dawn is that it refuses to embrace risks and instead relies on conventional storylines and personalities. The introductory prelude in particular connects with players more compared to any other storyline chapter. There are a few outliers to this norm, but I’ll get into the plot specifics in a moment. Horizon Zero Dawn’s fighting mechanics are what set it apart as a worthwhile purchase.

Although switching among Aloy’s many weaponry and wielding them is a breeze, the game’s foes nonetheless provide a significant challenge. Sophisticated battle robots that are modeled on real-world animals populate our planet. Where can I even begin with these magnificent beasts? T-Rex that blasts missiles from its teeth? That’s something. Not to mention, every piece of equipment is given a unique moniker.

The Gameplay

All through the game’s objectives and the open world, you’ll face off against a wide variety of mechanical foes in spectacular confrontations. Aloy’s go-to firearm is a bow and arrow, although Zero Dawn introduces a wealth of new options to her arsenal. In tactical battles, numerous arrow kinds are employed. Open combatants may make good use of booby traps. Slingshots that fire explosives are available. For lesser devices, Aloy’s lance comes in handy.

Have You Read: Super Mario Bros 3: Like It Was Yesterday

The exterior shell of each machine differs, as do the weapons, skills, and parts that make them up. Use these ingredients in building and damaging the monster during the fighting. Detonating equipment gives the player an edge in degrading the robots. Each machine’s unique blend of strengths and limitations creates a unique set of difficulties. A swarm of robots may be intimidating, but so may a machine moving at breakneck speed. Some robots love to sit back and relax, while some are right in your face and you’ll have to duck and slide to avoid being hit.

With regular foes, Aloy also gets into fights, although they’re far less terrifying. This means that I prefer using stealthy tactics against humans than open combat with robots. Aloy has trapping she can put up, but the impact isn’t significant enough to warrant the time it takes to set one up and wait for a machine to be struck. Another benefit is that a set-off trap immediately warns all machines nearby. As long as you’ve fulfilled specific objectives, Aloy may take control of larger robots to fight your battles for you.

A valuable approach, although it isn’t used until the latter stages of the play. Removing parts and having enough flame in your satchel to make an unlimited stream of flaming arrows is the underlying surviving rule of thumb. In addition to their obvious use, precision arrows may be made at a low cost.

This gets me to the subject of making the ends meet. Crafting systems have grown so common in sandbox titles that I’d like to avoid them. The commodities in Zero Dawn aren’t very scarce, as long as you can find sufficient pieces to purchase them. If Aloy wishes to be able to craft projectiles and have access to free medication, she must also be a flower picker. The ability to carry more materials and bolts is directly related to the level of skill you have in the crafting system.

A few additional Far Cry open-world tropes make an appearance in Zero Dawn, such as outlaw settlements and radio tower-shaped machine giraffes. Aside from some extra fighting, the bandit’s encampment doesn’t really contribute much. It’s not difficult to get on top of the machines, even if they are often surrounded by foes, so look for a good place to leap on them.

Additionally, Zero Dawn makes use of hiking, which is a confusing and annoying mechanic. In most games, scaling is restricted to specified areas of the gameplay and is identified by yellow handholds on the sides… unless it isn’t! Climbing certain peaks requires squinting to discern handholds carved into the rock face. In Zero Dawn, the most I ever perished was during an evacuation quest when Aloy had to race across a steep mountainside whilst evading missile attacks. I almost died a few times, hoping Aloy might spot a block to hold onto as I fell to my doom. As soon as Aloy realized she wasn’t happy with the rocky outcrop I was going for, she jumped down the vast ravine. Ouch!

Aloy’s character might have grown and developed throughout the plot, however, the script and language, combined with a weak ensemble, eventually let her down. Only a few of the people Aloy meets on her journey are remarkable, and they’re all either remembered for the wrong things or not at all. Aloy’s brother, Erend, is the most notable character in this regard since he first encounters Aloy and develops feelings for her, only to later discover that he’s an alcoholic who lacks self-confidence whilst his sister is out having a great time.

His vocal is great, however, his hair really ruins the image. In my opinion, he’s an adorable goofball who’s intended to be endearing, but he falls short in that regard.

The Final Verdict

Notwithstanding these qualifications, though, navigating about in Zero Dawn is a tad boring. Hoverboards and jetpacks are traveling means I wish to have in a post-apocalyptic world. I would like to have to conclude my review on a good note, by appreciating the visual design of Horizon Zero Dawn’s landscape. The architecture of the planet itself conveys a more engaging tale than any sound or textual logs you’ll uncover on your journeys. ‘

The vegetation and fauna are full of life and beauty. The peaks are tall and steep. The world-building in Horizon Zero Dawn perfectly conveys the harshness of the environment. During my travels, I was naive enough to not notice how quickly the time of day and night might shift and how the climate could shift. There is nothing but the best in the design of Horizon.

So, Horizon Zero Dawn Earns a Score of-

After a lot of thinking, we’ve come up with a revised ranking scheme for the titles we revisit: Do we keep awake till 11 PM or 1 AM during a workweek to invest two hours with it, realizing well that we have to get up at 8 AM the following day to get back into the rat race? So on that measure, Zero Dawn gets a score of 7.