Horizon: Zero Dawn came out earlier this year, but I feel as if it does not have as much love as it should. It is probably one of the few games that actually pushes the medium forward. The protagonist is someone that women can relate to without ever feeling like she is being sexualized, along with being quite the badass. The overall story, background, and lore is quite incredible with how original it is. It explores the theme of motherhood quite well which is a rare theme in games. The gameplay also while not revolutionary is fun and interesting. The enemy design and the variety is quite nice. The graphics are simply some of the best that have ever been in a game. However, it's quite odd that it simply is not brought up as much as I thought it would be. I think that's a real shame. The world is designed very well with allowing the player to breathe, you never really feel the need to seek things out, but you want to because you are always curious about what you are going to discover next.
The game may have a few shortcomings. A couple of late game enemy designs being simple stronger versions of others, than new designs. The way the lore is treated involves a lot of standing, listening to a voice memo or reading it in the menu, which is not as fun as it could be. The side quests seem just there in order to pad out content. Overall though it's weaknesses don't detract from the game at all; there's very little to complain about.
I think it is also quite impressive from a developers perspective. The developers were known for creating a game that was dubbed as a Halo-Killer, where the basic objective was to kill Nazi's in Space. They went from a generic shoot-bang to creating a unique experience. I don't think it gets enough love among the gaming community and I'm quite surprised at that.
What say you Era? Do you feel as if this game has been forgotten?
