It's horizon zero dawn just with more fluff, and a weaker story

I enjoyed horizon zero dawn, even replaying it a few times, but that's because everything was new and unfamiliar. The world, the story, characters. There was a sense of mystery. So it felt fresh. I also enjoyed it because the story felt more personal, it began with Aloys own personal conflict and search for her sense of identity and only became about saving the world later on.

But the story for this game is so generic. It's 90% boring exposition. Gaia bla bla bla save the world bla bla bla. It's so damn boring. I'm not invested at all and the new characters suck too, I mean characters was never a strong suit of this series anyway but when the story is so bland you need interesting characters. Zero dawn had more human conflicts, the antagonists were all generally human with human problems, weaknesses and motivations. This applied to the world building too. This made the story feel more grounded and relatable, but now we're beyond that realm. The enemies are these super space soldiers with alien technology and its so boring.

The map is so over saturated, so many icons and most of it is shallow and boring. I saw that the horizon developers were complaining about elden ring and its makes so much sense because this game is the opposite. It holds your hand and treats you like you're either stupid or 10 years old.

Great game. The graphics are stunning, the environments and cutscenes are all nice. There's a very immersive atmosphere and ambiance to the game, whether at night with rain pouring down, in a tomb or navigating dark corridors.

The missions ie traversing through map fighting enemies feels varied, engaging and refreshing. There's always a moment like a cool scene to keep it from feeling stale. The story is very character driven, unlike some of the uncharted games which were driven by plot. In this game there's a lot of character moments, dialogue from the protagonist Lara Croft, more cutscenes etc

Although the focus is on Lara croft coming into her own as an adventurer, there's a sinister background plot with the cultists on the island being revealed through the journals with some great voice acting narrating the journals.

The combat is solid, it gets the job done.

The setpieces and action sequences are really good, not only do they feel intense and give off an adrenaline rush but theres a lot of them. When playing games there's periods and stretches of time where it's just gameplay, like in uncharted games where you're just killing waves of enemies. This can get stale and repetitive. This game keeps me engaged by mixing it up. In between the gameplay there'll be a cutscene or a intense action sequence. You'll be walking and something sudden happens. It isn't just moving from point a to b whilst killing people.

The game is incredibly cinematic, it feels like a movie at times. It's really brutal on the protagonist Lara putting her through some crazy experiences, which is refreshing and nice as when the game ends it does feel like she's been tested.

Positives: Good story, mainly due to the characters. The overall plot is simple good vs evil but there are sub plots which consist of grey morality, flawed and interesting characters with key choices to be made determining conflict resolution. The characters in your party are all very multi layered with engaging personalities and come together to produce some great character interactions.

Negatives: Graphics are horrible, gameplay is slow and clunky. There is a tactical aspect to the gameplay which I personally don't care for but others might. The one postive of the gameplay is that there is the ability tree which consists of many different abilities to choose from, resulting in many possible playstyles

This game was such a chore, was so desperate to finish it. The music is good and there are some decent story beats and moments of fun gameplay but it's all buried under garbage.

The story sucks, it's all over the place. Vague character motivations, most characters just acting as plot devices, events happening and there is little context behind them. The side quests are bad, no creativity and no incentive to do them.

The gameplay is OK but the dodging mechanic is terrible. It doesn't work when you're facing multiple enemies with unconventional and random attacks. You dodge an attack just for another enemy to attack you instantly after. The mission where you're on your own looking for Prompto is the worst mission in gaming history. The open world is empty, the same activities and places replicated to fill a space.
This game is the opposite of fun

A great game with many positives but also quite a few flaws. My rating is primarily based on my personal enjoyment and investment in the dragon age universe. It has my favourite protagonist, a very well written cast of characters and a non conventional story structure which isn't perfect but works well. It also has one of the best villains I have seen in gaming. In terms of its issues, very bland graphics, the game design is also bland and lacks variety. Environments and locations all look similar, gameplay whilst enjoyable gets repetitive due to the constant horde of enemies. The final act of the game is quite rushed and slightly illogical with some bad character writing. There are a few plot holes throughout the story aswell.