This one surprised me with the depth and quality of its worldbuilding. It's like an epic fantasy novel, and the story-rich sidequests are like an RPG.

The combat did take some getting used to, because you can die very easily if you're not careful. But once it clicked, I marveled at all the various options at your disposal: traps, tripwires, tie-downs, stealth, sniping, spear knockdowns, elemental weakness, OVERRIDES. Oh, the joy of knocking off a thunderjaw's cannon and then shooting him with it.

The game is also just gob-smackingly beautiful. I'm glad I waited to play the PC version on a 4K OLED TV, because damn.

I have a few minor complaints: the voice acting feels a little off sometimes (too modern? too American?). It follows in the now-stale, Ubisoft-style map-marker-activity-center open world theme park design. The enemy stuns are too short, the potion/trap dpad wheel is cumbersome. Too many characters get mortally wounded, live long enough to spout some plot when Aloy comes along, and then keel over like a B movie. The weapon/armor progression is uneven, topping out quite early in the game. And glinthawks are the most annoying enemy since Morrowind's cliff-racers.

But ultimately these are minor gripes. I remember when HZD came out right around the same time as Zelda BOTW, and thinking how similar they seemed. And whereas BOTW got glowing reviews proclaiming the reinvention of open world games etc., HZD didn't get as much attention it seems.

Having now played them both, I think HZD is the superior game, no question.

Reviewed on Oct 26, 2022


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