Few things are more satisfying for seasoned gamers than seeing a brand-new IP succeed on its own merits, without leaning on an established franchise. Back in 2017, Guerrilla Games proved that point with their fresh take on the open-world action-RPG formula.
The result? The post-post-apocalyptic Earth of Horizon: Zero Dawn. The game follows a tribal huntress known as Aloy as she tries to survive in a world were mysterious, Zoid-like mechanical beasts dwell, and man is still trying to hurt his fellow man. Despite being the new kid on the block, Zero Dawn managed to become one of the most popular PlayStation 4 exclusives and later got a neat PC port. The following retrospective looks at the Complete Edition, which includes the Frozen Wilds DLC, while also posing a simple question: was it really the phenomenal title almost everyone said it was?
The intro introduces the protagonist Aloy when she was a young kiddo, portrayed in a refreshingly realistic way. It makes it easy to empathize with her need to be accepted by the matriarchal Nora tribe, who consider her an outcast that must be shunned just because she is motherless. Away from the comfy beds, she braves the wilds with an older man named Rost. An outcast himself, but one who respects and doesn’t question the tribe’s traditions, he takes the role of Aloy’s father figure, protector and tutor. Rost is the one who reluctantly proposes “Proving” – the ancient rite of passage that could grant her entry into the Nora and hopefully let Aloy learn about her past. The beginning sets up the main character and her motivations, and through visual storytelling explains that, rather than being born super-talented, her very impressive skills were earned after years of intense practice.
Aloy wants to learn about her mother. This is the mystery that will lead her away from the relative safety of her homeland, and into the dangers of the world. The biggest mystery for the player is the existence of the robotic creatures that “live” there. These two are interconnected and each step towards the truth is great. This is essentially a tale about the past, about how life on the planet was almost annihilated, and how it is once more on the verge of destruction.
Horizon: Zero Dawn is a very well crafted, cautionary sci-fi story about how humans are their world’s own enemies. Sadly, while the plot is one of the reasons for which one should play Zero Dawn the writing quality is inconsistent. It’s a gargantuan world full of people who have plenty of things to say, but very few things that are interesting. And that’s not the only issue.
In this world, humanity is still living as not-quite-there-yet-Bronze Age tribesmen. They treat treating recordings and advanced ruins with deep religious reverence. Everyday items like coffee mugs are collected as though they were sacred relics, while the machine beasts that roam the wilds cause humanity both fear and respect. The trouble comes when the script occasionally asks these same tribespeople to slip into the roles of philosophers or technicians whenever the plot requires it. Aloy herself sometimes suffers from this inconsistency: while she’s convincingly portrayed as sharper and more resourceful than those around her, there are moments where her insights feel a little too conveniently impressive.
All the flaws of the writing wouldn’t matter in any other video game with typical video game logic, but as this leans more towards realism, it mars the believability of it all. Characters behave like real people – a cinematic kind of real, but real nonetheless. Right next to those folk there are many that act like sitcom characters, those that would easily fit in Resident Evil (the original ’90s one). Others are okay for the most part, but don’t really look or talk like people than live in such a world. This is also one of those games where like 90% of the male population are the morons, the oafs, the imbeciles, the bad guys of the world. At the same time the most interesting, well-written, and capable character here is voiced and motion-captured magnificently by the magnificent Lance Reddick.
Before learning about the sky-high stakes (many hours into the adventure), there’s isn’t a memorable enemy or danger to talk about. Even the robo-foes feel more like part of the background rather than something that’s out to get you. Horizon: Zero Dawn also has a severe lack of challenge and as a result ends up feeling like Assassin’s Creed. Yes, that wasn’t a compliment. A shame, because combat is generally one of the things the game is good at. Aloy’s main tool of the trade is a bow. Those who have played games like 2013’s Tomb Raider know how good the use of a bow can feel. Here, the intricacies of the bow (judging the trajectory and so on) are very important as combat revolves around shooting at the small weak spots of a big cybernetic pile that can run at the speed of a raging dinosaur.
There are many weapon types, each having at least one additional ammo type. Numerous stat-increasing modifications can be socketed in equipment, traps can be placed in the battlefield and there are enhancing or healing potions to gulp. Aloy is also in possession of a fantastic and super-cool piece of highly advanced tech, with which she can tag and track enemies, observe their weaknesses, and visualize their patrolling paths. It all helps when trying to be stealthier. Well, too bad that encounters are so easy that players will rarely have to think too hard on a strategy.
Picking the highest difficulty doesn’t alleviate the issue. It simply increases tedium through inflated enemy health and damage, instead of favouring a more tactical gameplay style. Combat is also a bit weightless, something that undermines the power fantasy of being able to bring down a thing that is supposed to be frighteningly tougher than you.
In many ways, this is the best Ubisoft-action-RPG not made by Ubisoft – distractions everywhere you look. Weapon-centric challenges, bandit camps to destroy, dungeons whose completion provide the means to controls certain mechanical beasts, many side-missions, and even more collectibles to find. Unfortunately for those who aren’t fans of the Ubisoft formula, Horizon: Zero Dawn falls into that category where most things will be done just to be done and not because the rewards are useful or the process entertaining.
All this criticism doesn’t stem from a bad experience. Doing all the things there is to do is fun, but there’s nothing that special about the gameplay to talk about. Again, the story and setting turn out to be the best thing, since finding pieces of lore like audio recordings turns out to be far more rewarding. These help flesh out the world, and especially the past.
A typical problem of the modern triple-A game: the map is filled with icons that tag locations, and a cursor always points the way. Sure, all these can be disabled (or ignored), yet the terrain has few spots that look interesting from afar, and mission givers don’t really provide Aloy with useful info. Because of this, one sort of has to accept the handholding. Many missions will have players listen to a dull conversation, run like a lunatic for about ten minutes between locations, kill a bunch of enemies, retrieve an item or simply follow a coloured line in the ground.
Maybe this reviewer has been spoiled by the open-world perfection that is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – where every problem can be creatively approached in multiple ways, going from A to B is never a straight dull line and exploration is a fulfilling adventure on its own.
It’s okay. This critic knows he is in the minority. The Complete Edition is the right pick – as it includes The Frozen Wilds, a seven-hour-long adventure on a snowy region of the world. Here a new threat is corrupting the machines making then even more dangerous than before. It’s more Zero Dawn, and for some that will suffice. To conclude: was this something phenomenal? Horizon: Zero Dawn is a well-crafted, entertaining open-world action-RPG, but beyond its story and possibly its main character, it doesn’t really have what it takes to be something more than that.
Maybe the perfect way to describe it are its stellar graphics. This is one of the best-looking titles of its generation, with an unparalleled attention to detail, and wallpaper worthy scenes almost everywhere, but at the same time there’s nothing that unique or striking here that truly stands out.
