My verdict having spent 65 hours and earned the Platinum trophy. My second ever with the first being Uncharted 1 back in 2008. Played Horizon Zero Dawn on a PS4 Pro and a LG B6 4K HDR OLED. It has consumed the last two weeks of spare time I had to detriment of other tasks.
CONS:
- Facial animations & lip sync can be a bit jarring. While Aloy is good the NPC's vary drastically. You can freeze-frame this game anytime and the expressions will look totally fine but not so much in motion. Somehow the motion capture used in cutscenes as well seems to be missing frames making it 'shaky'. They also need to increase their stock of pre-canned NPC animations used to setup various quest events as it can look very stiff and in line with every open-world game ever (similarly stock NPC audio i.e group cheering). It's a bit amusing how every dying individual sits in the exact same elbow pose before… wait for it… comfortably leans back and *dead*.
- In terms of environment content the game is a bit lacking in 'interactive secrets'. There's lots of lore spread around and indirect world-building that's really well done and some interesting NPC's to interact with but there's no rare beasts that only show up at moonlight, a haunted house or a secret music cave or what have you. The Cauldrons does deliver on the mystery side of things but ultimately they are too short and not challenging enough.
- Human A.I, while functional, is very barebones. They are enjoyable enough bow-fodder but not highly interesting.
PROS:
+ Fantastic story. The pacing of the main campaign and the emotional impact of it is nigh on perfect. There are several mouth-agape moments to surprise you and the lore is seriously grimdark. Speaking of the lore, it's almost overwhelming how comprehensive and neatly tied together it is considering it stretches from the ancient past to the distant post-apocalypse future. Major subjects range from science vs religion to gender roles and several levels of motherhood. On top of this you have all the different tribal houses and how they differ from each other and the history amongst them. I like how this sci-fi game is set in a real-world USA in the far future yet the tone is very much set within ancient Inca & native-american societies. The title of the game actually makes perfect sense in the end and the story also manages, against all odds, to create legitimacy for having armed robot dinosaurs.
+ Aloy is probably the best new game protagonist in years. We get to see her from birth through her youth which sets her on a distinct path. Already within the first half-an-hour there's tear-jerking material to witness and you start to root for her. To follow is a Great training montage as she rises to adulthood. She develops as a character throughout the game from being a bitter yet determined outcast to someone who uniquely sees and participates in a much bigger picture with a heartfelt emotional payoff in the end. She is perfectly voiced and she looks realistically rugged and well-trained in accordance to her skills with distinct triceps and veins showing and all her tools. She's considers most things cooly and in a pragmatic fashion though often expressed with a witty comment. Notice how she always makes her own quests. It's hard to not fall in love with her.
+ The most responsive gameplay controls yet in an open world game only challenged by MGS5. It has clear individual face buttons for every action like crouch, jump, and roll. If you sneak around and you need to jump or climb a bit it will automatically resume the crouched stance after. You need a quick roll or a long dive it only depends on how long you press the button. The bow action at first glance makes you think it's a sniper rifle replacement but you very soon discover how incredibly flexible it is and you end up doing moves like Legolas. Pull the bowstring all the way back for a steady longshot or gradually start tapping the trigger faster and faster the closer an enemy gets for more rapid yet uncontrolled shots. Load up your next shot with extra arrows ahead of taking the aim by tapping the shoulder button. Shoot while sliding, while balancing from a rope or from the back of a mount. You have different bow categories for different purposes and all those bows again have different types of arrows. The weapon wheel is genius and combines together three aspects in weapon selection, ammo selection and real-time crafting! Stealth is organic with bushes and the size of objects hiding your character instead of a rigid cover system. The game simply feels great to play and to control.
+ Lean RPG & hunting mechanics that strikes a great balance between the addictive chase for better stats and loot (without drowning you in it) and the need to have a highly responsive and directness in gameplay feel. The skill-tree is mostly ability driven and not stats-driven. The loot is like most RPG's post-World of Warcraft classified as common, rare, very rare etc. But unlike most RPG's the different loot within their specific category i.e Sharpshooter-bows actually don't have statistical/elemental base differences but rather they open up options by supporting a broader range of ammo types and having more slots for inserting Modifications. The latter component is what actually injects the weapon with specific stats and this component can be moved from gear to gear. Notice how the beasts in Horizon never drop gear but rather just modifications and crafting material. This you use to upgrade all aspects including a big focus directly on the inventory system itself with there being different pouches for different purposes. The crafting is actually really nicely interwoven into most aspects of the game.
+ Scanning enemies for weak points and analyzing those weak points ahead of real-time precision attacks is the action genre's answer to pen & paper statistical strategy. Fine aiming and bullet time is a big part of Horizon's combat and knowing how to strip your enemies of components in the fastest way possible. Similarly planning ahead with elemental traps and using special tools like the ropecaster to tie enemies down. Hack & convert enemy machines to have them fight beside you or to attack everything moving. Ultimately Horizon leans very much towards the 'hunter' genre while striking a greater balance with shooters and RPG's.
+ I really like that the game re-sets the story to just before the final mission after the credits (while keeping your final mission xp intact). It's an elegant way to make it viable for players to enjoy the main story first or however they seem fit without having to tie-down the story in having to 'continue the world' after the final cutscene. Similarly I really appreciate that the game has no difficulty-based trophy or any missable trophies. No matter how you choose to play you will eventually reach 100% given enough time.
+ The soundtrack is simply brilliant. 'Prologue', 'Years of Training' and 'A Boon' are beautiful. 'A Wanderer's Work', 'A Resplendent Soil', 'Across the Daybrink'... there are so many great tracks. And there's wonderful palette cleansers and unique scene setters in 'Song to the Sun' and 'Nora u Norawea'.
+ The graphics and technology is fantastic and mindblowing. More than anything the volume of content and not just how it stretches into the horizon but also how vertical everything is continues to stun me. The better looking open world games out there seem to be more flat in layout while Horizon has large mountains and hills and complex forest environments all over. The large amount of detail presented at any angle no matter where you look feels unprecedented. And somehow all of this is running at a locked 30fps with crystal clear image quality. The combination of sci-fi elements, naturalistic colors and colorful tribalism really makes this game shine in 4K HDR. The game has kept stunning me throughout the 65 hours of playtime I have spent with it.
+ The robot animals are an absolute triumph. They are in visuals, animation, sound and behavior just sublime. Their animalistic aspects make them more intimidating and interesting than your ordinary soul-less mechs and their modular nature make them super fun to try to de-construct in intense combat. Being robots they also have a skillset that goes far beyond animals with radar technologies, drone launchers, lasers, earthquakes, underground tunneling, shields… They are the perfect canvas to make a great franchise and gameplay opportunities around.
Horizon Zero Dawn is amongst the very best games Sony has been behind and in the same conversation as the original Gran Turismo and Demon's Souls. It's huge, meaty, polished-to-a-shine and full of spirit. Guerrilla Games has a clear line drawn for before-and-after.