3 Reasons Why Horizon: Zero Dawn Is So Great
Open world games and post-apocalyptic settings have really taken off in the last several years. From The Last Of Us to Skyrim, Breath of the Wild to The Witcher, it seems we really can't get enough!
One of my favourite of these style games that I've played through recently is Horizon: Zero Dawn. So, as my first content post of this blog, I'd like to take a moment to delve into the reasons why I loved this game so much.
For those that don’t know yet, Horizon Zero Dawn is set in a ‘post-post-apocalyptic’ world, where nature has reclaimed the earth, and animalistic machines roam free, threatening human life. The player character, Aloy, sets off on a mission to learn why these machines are growing more hostile, aided by a piece of futuristic tech from the time of the ‘Old Ones’.
I mean, this set up alone is enough to draw you in, no?
But if it’s not, don’t worry. There’s a bunch of other stuff going on as well - the main storyline twists and turns, and side quests help build the world and the people in it, aiding us while we try to uncover the truth behind the mysterious fall of The Old Ones and the machines they left behind.
So, I really enjoyed this game for a whole bunch of reasons (way too many to list!). To save this post turning into a novel, here’s a few of the more important factors in my opinion:
1 - Exploring the world
I'm a sucker for huge, open world games. The euphoric feeling of exploring a vast world - especially one as beautiful and overcome by nature as this one - is a feeling I can't turn down.
Horizon: Zero Dawn does this really well. At no point does the map feel empty or not worth checking out, as the developers made sure to place something worth finding around every corner. Be it breath-taking landscapes, new machines, informative collectables, or incredible dilapidated structures, I continually felt compelled to explore, and I loved it!
Not only were the graphics so immensely beautiful, but the sheer amount of attention to detail thrown into the game really helped bring it to life and create such an immersive experience.
My favourite example of this is the rain. When it rains in the game, the visibility is reduced, it gets foggy, the lights from machines glare in the wet in a super realistic way, and Aloy, if left to idle, holds her face skyward to feel the water on her skin. It's the little things that really make it, you know?
2 - The main character
Speaking of Aloy, she's another reason why Horizon: Zero Dawn was so enjoyable to me.
For starters, she's voiced by the incredibly talented Ashly Burch, who does a phenomenal job in bringing life and personality to the lovable red-head. Her performance is always delivered with believable emotion that is honestly a joy to experience.
Aloy is one of the most badass, realistic female characters I've seen in a long while. She's got fierce determination and a moral compass that she sticks to, she takes absolutely no shit from all the characters who persistently underestimate her, and she's not once over-sexualised. Refreshing.
3 - The story
The final point I'll touch on is possibly the most important: the story and the telling of it.
I won't go into too much detail here in order to keep this spoiler-free, so I'll just say that the story was a one-of-a-kind experience for me. It kept me hooked from the first underground bunker I explored, the first collectable I scanned with my focus.
I thought that not only was the story totally unique and fully developed, but the pacing of its telling was excellent. Obviously, some of this comes down to how fast you played and how much of the huge amount of lore you skip over, but for me, taking my time to watch and read everything given to me, I thought it was perfect. Not too fast to give you everything at once, and not too slow to make it boring. The truth and plot developments were drip-fed as you played, keeping you guessing and conspiring all the way through.
So, I think I've made it pretty clear that I loved this game a lot. Let me know in the comments what you think, too! I’d be interested to hear what made you enjoy the game, or what made you dislike it?
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