A few years back I wrote a post all about my most anticipated video games in this post. Horizon Zero Dawn was the one I was most excited for and let me tell you, it does not disappoint. It feels like it's taken forever but I've finally recieved it (and spent an awful lot of time playing it) and it has quickly became one of my favourite games for a number of reasons.
IT HAS A FEMALE MAIN CHARACTER. Despite endless excuses for the lack of female lead characters in games, (most notably that games with female leads do not sell) Horizon Zero Dawn completely obliterates this argument by being the best selling game on the playstation store for the month of March and selling 2.6 million copies in under 2 weeks! Please tell me again how female lead games don't sell.
ROBOT DINOSAURS.
It's futuristic yet archaic and primitive at the same time. It's a strange world to explore, set in the future but everything looks so archaic, with small relics of the futuristic past waiting to be discovered. It's so interesting to explore the world and uncover the hidden secrets of how humanity returned to such primitive conditions.
The mix of story to combat is perfect. The story lines are super intriguing and there are a range of political and combat based quests to complete, so there's something for everyone. Nothing bores me more than a game that centre solely on purposeless violence, and Horizon Zero Dawn gets the story/acton mix just right.
OK, the combat system. It's clever and gives you the option to take the stealthy route or fight your way through. With the robot dinosaurs, the combat system for fighting them is amazing and actually makes you think. Each machine has it's own weaknesses and the game encourages you to target those areas to do maximum damage. No purposeless violence here. You gotta think about what you're doing and where you're aiming, such a refreshing feature.
Plus the tools and weapons in the game go right back to the basics. The game mostly features classic and interesting weapons such as the bow and arrow, spears and slings, over guns. Yes please.
The characters! Aloy is amazingly badass and determined, yet emotional, compassionate and ultimately human, showing that you can be all these things - they do not have to exist separately. The first rulers you meet are matriarchs and the characters of the world are dynamic and flawed in that uniquely human way. They are memorable and unique and I love them. The dialogue animation is sometimes a little disjointed but the work put into the environment is absolutely stunning.
Everything takes place in an open world setting and there are very few loading screens (only when you load the game up and when you die) My only wish is that there were more interactive elements in the environment, especially when travelling to different parts of the world. The missions and quests seemed quite sparse when exploring the world which is beautiful, but I just wanted more interaction and more interesting artefacts along the way.
ROBOT DINOSAURS. I was not wrong about the robot dinosaurs, they are awesome.
If that isn't convincing enough for you, Horzion Zero Dawn gets a 9.3 rating on IGN and 89/100 on Metacritic! You can watch the trailer here if you're intrigued. It's how I fell in love with this game for the first time, and you can too.
Have you played Horizon Zero Dawn?
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