Horizon Zero Dawn had me hooked from the very start. I’m a sucker for a training montage and that transition from Aloy as a child into a young adult immediately got me invested. Using Rost as a tutorial guide felt like a nice touch as well.
The world itself is just stunning - the flora and fauna looks absolutely gorgeous, and the overall art design is phenomenal. I actually had an animated scene depicting the day and night cycle from the game as my desktop wallpaper for months before even playing it. Speaking of the night cycle - I usually hate night time in games but here it’s oddly inviting. The way the light from enemies can be seen in the distance, the way collectibles pop, it’s got this cozy yet mystical vibe that’s hard to resist. The moon glow is stunning and makes for one of my favorite depictions of night time in any game I’ve played. The soundtrack also helped sell it with the way it matched the different vibes of the environments and story moments.
The different tribes and cultures all felt really distinct and fleshed out, as if they truly had their own rich culture. The character designs, especially the intricate outfits, were stunning. I particularly love what they did with the Banuk shamans and wires in their skin.
The core gameplay loop was a ton of fun for me. Crafting, elemental weaknesses, balancing weapons – it all sounded overwhelming at first, but it's surprisingly approachable. Mastering different weapons felt like a natural progression, especially with the hunting grounds and optional tutorial quests. The resource collecting scratched an itch for me - there’s just something so satisfying about picking up all those plants and machine parts. The combat felt rewarding. It was super satisfying to hit enemy weak spots or snipe small animals from a distance. The various weapons were fun to play around with and by the end I had a loadout that I felt comfortable decimating anything with.
I found the inclusion of overrides to be a fun mechanic and more fun was the way you unlock them. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the cauldrons weren’t just reskins of each other and provided a unique challenge each time.
The datapoints as a form of worldbuilding throughout the game did a great job of painting the events that took place prior. I loved piecing together the story and even being able to predict one of the big twists before it came based on theories I developed after reading the datapoints. A few sets contained surprisingly strong narratives and I have to give a special shout out to the vantage points and The Last Girls on Earth as standouts.
The Frozen Wilds DLC was also excellent, with a gorgeous new area set in Yellowstone (genius!) that felt like a whole other world while still connecting back to the main map and feeling cohesive with the base game. I loved the addition of being able to see footsteps and even the marks left from the tips of Aloy’s arrows in the snow and wish this was something that was included in the base game as well. The side quests here were all high quality and some of the best overall in the game with their own stories feeding into expansion on the lore of the Banuk.
My main gripes were the lackluster mount controls and the lack of any meaningful inventory organization. I really didn’t care for how the mounts controlled, especially on PC with a keyboard and mouse. The concept was something I could have loved if it was better implemented, but they felt cumbersome and useless to the point that I was almost always faster on foot. The inventory organization, or lack thereof, was disappointing. You can sort resources and that's about it. I hated that I couldn’t rearrange my weapons or outfits and the only option was to drop them on the ground and pick them back up in the order I wanted them to appear in my inventory. While not as poorly done as the aforementioned mechanics, I found the platforming to be lacking. I loved climbing things but I never truly felt secure. I always felt like I could fall at any second, whereas Aloy is more than capable so it felt disconnected.
Overall, it seems like Horizon Zero Dawn achieved pretty much everything it set out to do. The world feels alive unlike many other open world games that came out around the same time, the gameplay is engaging with satisfying mechanics, and even after 100% completion, I still didn't want it to end. Any game that makes me feel that way must be doing a good job in my book, and I think at the time I played it, it was exactly the sort of game I needed.
The world itself is just stunning - the flora and fauna looks absolutely gorgeous, and the overall art design is phenomenal. I actually had an animated scene depicting the day and night cycle from the game as my desktop wallpaper for months before even playing it. Speaking of the night cycle - I usually hate night time in games but here it’s oddly inviting. The way the light from enemies can be seen in the distance, the way collectibles pop, it’s got this cozy yet mystical vibe that’s hard to resist. The moon glow is stunning and makes for one of my favorite depictions of night time in any game I’ve played. The soundtrack also helped sell it with the way it matched the different vibes of the environments and story moments.
The different tribes and cultures all felt really distinct and fleshed out, as if they truly had their own rich culture. The character designs, especially the intricate outfits, were stunning. I particularly love what they did with the Banuk shamans and wires in their skin.
The core gameplay loop was a ton of fun for me. Crafting, elemental weaknesses, balancing weapons – it all sounded overwhelming at first, but it's surprisingly approachable. Mastering different weapons felt like a natural progression, especially with the hunting grounds and optional tutorial quests. The resource collecting scratched an itch for me - there’s just something so satisfying about picking up all those plants and machine parts. The combat felt rewarding. It was super satisfying to hit enemy weak spots or snipe small animals from a distance. The various weapons were fun to play around with and by the end I had a loadout that I felt comfortable decimating anything with.
I found the inclusion of overrides to be a fun mechanic and more fun was the way you unlock them. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the cauldrons weren’t just reskins of each other and provided a unique challenge each time.
The datapoints as a form of worldbuilding throughout the game did a great job of painting the events that took place prior. I loved piecing together the story and even being able to predict one of the big twists before it came based on theories I developed after reading the datapoints. A few sets contained surprisingly strong narratives and I have to give a special shout out to the vantage points and The Last Girls on Earth as standouts.
The Frozen Wilds DLC was also excellent, with a gorgeous new area set in Yellowstone (genius!) that felt like a whole other world while still connecting back to the main map and feeling cohesive with the base game. I loved the addition of being able to see footsteps and even the marks left from the tips of Aloy’s arrows in the snow and wish this was something that was included in the base game as well. The side quests here were all high quality and some of the best overall in the game with their own stories feeding into expansion on the lore of the Banuk.
My main gripes were the lackluster mount controls and the lack of any meaningful inventory organization. I really didn’t care for how the mounts controlled, especially on PC with a keyboard and mouse. The concept was something I could have loved if it was better implemented, but they felt cumbersome and useless to the point that I was almost always faster on foot. The inventory organization, or lack thereof, was disappointing. You can sort resources and that's about it. I hated that I couldn’t rearrange my weapons or outfits and the only option was to drop them on the ground and pick them back up in the order I wanted them to appear in my inventory. While not as poorly done as the aforementioned mechanics, I found the platforming to be lacking. I loved climbing things but I never truly felt secure. I always felt like I could fall at any second, whereas Aloy is more than capable so it felt disconnected.
Overall, it seems like Horizon Zero Dawn achieved pretty much everything it set out to do. The world feels alive unlike many other open world games that came out around the same time, the gameplay is engaging with satisfying mechanics, and even after 100% completion, I still didn't want it to end. Any game that makes me feel that way must be doing a good job in my book, and I think at the time I played it, it was exactly the sort of game I needed.