Horizon: Zero Dawn. Stunning.
GAMEPODD RATING: 8.5
There’s something about being dropped into a brand new game world and finding it to be dense with deeply considered lore, terrifyingly aggressive creatures, and tantalizing questions that leaves an indelible mark on the memory. Horizon Zero Dawn is one of those games, and it carves out a unique identity within the popular action-roleplaying genre. Coupled with wonderfully flexible combat and a story that touches on unexpectedly profound themes, I found it hard to tear myself away from Horizon even after I’d finished its main campaign some 40 odd hours later.
A sense of urgency is established from the get-go, as Horizon’s premise is a big mystery that begs to be solved. The questions raised by protagonist Aloy and the primitive, feral machine-infested open world she inhabits kept me guessing throughout: what’s at the centre of it all? Although Horizon suffers from occasionally corny dialogue that belies its smarts, the broader ideas it prods at - the nature of creation, for example - are remarkably ambitious
Aloy’s personality helped me care about her journey on a more personal level. Nimbly voiced by Ashly Burch (known for her performance as Borderlands 2’s Tiny Tina), she’s a charming character to watch and play as because of the wry wit that tempers her big-hearted heroism; some of my favourite smaller moments came from Aloy’s sarcastic interactions with other characters who didn’t get the joke. Though you have some say on the way she responds to situations in the interests of dialogue flavour, she remains largely a well-intentioned character, which is in step with Horizon’s broader story.
There’s much more flexibility to be found once Aloy’s out in the big wide world. Horizon’s combat is its most compelling feature, thanks to the variety found within 26 distinct species of animal-like machines that roam its great far-future expanse. These beasts have several weak points that can be scanned using Aloy’s Focus (a lore-friendly device that gives you Witcher-like heightened senses), and hitting different points can have different results that change the way a fight plays out.
Send a piercing arrow into the bulging ‘cargo sac’ of a giant fire-spewing Bellowback, for example, and you'll set off a massive explosion. Down a flying, ice-shooting Glinthawk by destroying the armoured sac on its chest to temporarily freeze the bird, or shoot the cannon off the back of a tiger-like Ravager and pick it up to blast a T-Rex-esque Thunderjaw, who you only just noticed approaching from the corner of your eye during the fight. It’s breathless stuff, and there are no hand-holding tutorials telling you how to best approach the beasts, which makes for more rewarding wins.
After I learned how to fight competently, Horizon continually made me feel like a ridiculously accomplished warrior without sacrificing the vital sense that every major battle could easily result in my death, in large part thanks to the ferocity of the machines themselves. Though they patrol on set routes, even the 'herbivores' will immediately attack when you’re spotted, and will continue to scan for you if you manage to find a hiding place.
On the offense, these robotic beasts are authentically animalistic. Snapmaws – enormous, mechanical alligators – will swipe with their tails and spew ice blasts from their mouths, while tiger-like Ravagers will charge at you with alarming speed for a full body slam up close. Dodging their attacks requires constant use of Aloy’s roll move, all the while using the quick on-the-fly crafting system to build ammo specifically to counter the threat.
For Aloy’s part, her arsenal is largely tricked-out ‘primitive’ weaponry. Her upgradable bows and elemental-infused arrows - your primary weapon - feel great to use thanks to her Concentration skill that slows down time, allowing for dead-eye aiming. She also has access to a handful of more elaborate devices like the Ropecaster, which shoots out ropes to immobilize enemies, or the Tripcaster, a weapon that creates explosive tripwire traps at a range. Though these more creative weapons sound great in theory, in practice they’re annoyingly slow and fiddly when you're up against multiple threats, and I found the most challenging machines were too fast and too powerful to use them in a genuinely effective way. Fun to play around with on weaker enemies during more casual hunts, then, but far from crucial when you're up against a wall.
Not that Horizon encourages you just to blindly wander into every fight and start shooting. A lot of the machines roam in packs, with larger beasts flanked by velociraptor-like sentry bots called Watchers, so if you’re not careful you can be outnumbered and devoured within seconds. To counter this, there’s generally a silent path to take: hiding in swatches of tall red grass and drawing machines in gives you a chance for a stealth kill, and if by some misfortune you’re spotted, Aloy’s Concentration skill is vital in helping you land an arrow right in that Watcher’s prying eye before you make a quick escape. It’s a shame luring specific machines away from their packs is so time-consuming, though; often simple hunts for a single animal evolve into massive fights against several types.
Alternatively, Aloy doesn’t have to do all the work herself, as she’ll discover how to override the machines’ brains in the field while exploring her world (to tell you how would ruin a wonderful surprise). Overriding has different effects depending on the machine - some become docile mounts, for example, while others will fight on your behalf, killing their own kind. As you upgrade your skill tree, these overrides can last for longer, which allows you to essentially build up a small army of loyal, vicious steeds. Watching them wreak havoc on the field from a place of safety is smugly satisfying.
A Great Big World!
You don’t just fight machines in Horizon. While not as engaging as their mechanical counterparts, there are human targets too - many of whom populate the bandit camps peppered throughout this massive open world. Though you’re free to take them on as you please, I found it’s best to take a stealthy approach through the tall grass and pick off these heavily armed NPCs one by one. That’s a largely satisfying approach, aside from the fact that, like in other half-stealth games like Uncharted 4 or Watch Dogs 2, you can’t hide bodies. It’s a design decision that sticks in my craw when an NPC’s curiosity piques after he or she spots someone sprawled on the ground with an arrow sticking out of its chest from a mile away.
Clearing these enemy camps is one of the many incidental side activities scattered across Horizon, a variety which also includes digging in ancient bunkers for clues from the past, tracking machines through dedicated hunting grounds, and climbing to the top of a giant brontosaurus-like Tallneck to unlock more of the map. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before in other games of this ilk - the Tallneck is basically a walking Far Cry tower - but thanks to the promise of XP and loot that you can trade for currency to buy better weapons, it’s all very compulsive.
The Verdict:
Across a vast and beautiful open world, Horizon Zero Dawn juggles many moving parts with polish and finesse. Its main activity - combat - is extremely satisfying thanks to the varied design and behaviors of machine-creatures that roam its lands, each of which needs to be taken down with careful consideration. Though side questing could have been more imaginative, its missions are compelling thanks to a central mystery that led me down a deep rabbit hole to a genuinely surprising - and moving - conclusion.