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brendannowak
Reviews
Horizon Zero Dawn (2017)
The start of an interesting, new franchise
Horizon Zero Dawn was developed by Guerilla Games, and published by Playstation Studios on February 28th, 2017. It is an open world, action adventure game, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic 31st century. In it, you play as Aloy.
The story and setting: the plot itself is great, and there is a constant sense of mystery surrounding it. However, for some reason it never really gripped me as much as similar titles, possibly due to the underwhelming voice acting, and stale cinematography. It's setting is amazing though. I never knew I needed dinosaur robots in a half sci-fi, half prehistoric world, but now I know I did. The character are solid, although none of them are really memorable, apart from our protagonist Aloy. But overall, it is a very well written story, and an essential for the fans of narrative driven games.
8/10
Gameplay: I love the constant switching between weapons, taking down monsters is alot of fun, and there are many ways the player can approach a fight. I did find human enemies to be a lot less fun, as they dont really require much to kill. Exploring the massive open world is a great amount of fun too, and you'll find yourself travelling through it and discovering new places alot.
9/10
Visuals and audio: this is where the game truly shines. Horizon Zero Dawn is simply one of the best looking games that has ever been made, masterfully blending photorealism with a more artistic style. The OST is superb, and I often found myself hanging around in the main menu, just to enjoy the theme.
10/10
Overall, Horizon Zero Dawn is a great game, and an essential for anyone who like story-heavy games, open world games, and just games in general. More importantly, it creates and opportunity for Sony and Guerilla Games to turn Horizon into a proper, long-running franchise, and I'm all in for it.
Score: 8.5/10.