Starts strong and has some decent mechanics but cracks start to show after a few hours.- 1/2 Star

The story was good but I found characters to be boring and lacking in personality, especially Aloy which meant it was hard to stay 100% invested. - 1/2 Star

Horizon Zero Dawn looks amazing which is one of its biggest drawing points, and the map is just the right size for an open world with not too many collectibles that it feels like a slog. However despite its impressive looking scenery it can a sometimes feel a little empty when it comes to enemies and things start to look the same. - 1/2 Star

The crafting system is one of the better I have used and offers a lot of different options for weapons and ammo, however I did find resource collecting to be a bit of a pain due to how rare certain plants and materials are especially early on. - 1/2 Star

Combat did not click with me, dodging is just awful and clunky, the bow felt awkward and a little unresponsive at times. The spear although does a good job of stunning and knocking down enemies, almost made this worth using but the dodging was just so bad that getting close in my opinion was not really an option when out of stealth. - 0 Star

Although this doesn't cover all aspects of the game, these are the main points I take away after 2 full runs on normal and Ultra Hard.