Horizon Zero Dawn – Great Graphics, Questionable Everything Else
Graphics
The game looks gorgeous. No complaints there. The environments are beautiful, the effects are impressive, and visually the world is easily the strongest part of the game. Character design, though? I liked maybe one or two characters. That's it. So yeah, the game looks expensive. It just doesn't always feel well designed.
Gameplay / Mechanics
This game is exhausting. In theory, you're supposed to play as a hunter. You have traps, stealth, different ammo types, enemy weaknesses, preparation, all that cool stuff. In reality, the game constantly throws you into close-range 1v1 fights where you have no time to prepare anything. Amazing hunter fantasy.
The skill tree is also almost completely useless. The best ability is basically slow motion while being mid-air, and the funniest part is that you can abuse it by constantly jumping and aiming. Jump → aim → free slow motion → repeat. Peak gameplay. Most missions are actually easier if you just run past everything instead of spending 15 minutes fighting random machines. Combat is basically: shoot bow → drink potion → shoot bow → drink potion → maybe place a trap if the game gives you enough time. Probably not. Stealth is technically an option, but if you actually try to play stealthily, it takes about twice as long for almost no meaningful reward. So why bother?
The progression system is also a mess. You can't really increase your HP or damage through normal leveling in any interesting way, and most of your actual power comes from weapon and armor modifications. And here's the funny part: you can't remove modifications normally. Want to take one out? Too bad. You need to spend a ridiculous amount of skill points just to unlock the revolutionary ability of... removing a modifications from your equipment. xDDDD. Imagine locking basic inventory management behind character progression. Also, every merchant sells basically the same garbage, so finding a new shop is almost completely pointless. The whole system feels like somebody designed ten different mechanics separately and then forgot they were supposed to work together.
Story / Characters
The story pacing is absolutely insane. For most of the game, you barely learn anything meaningful about the world, the old civilization, the main villains, or what actually happened. Then around level 18, once you finally start pushing the main story: BOOM. LORE. AUDIO LOG. DATABASE ENTRY. ANOTHER AUDIO LOG. Here's 10 journals in one bunker because apparently nobody thought about spreading this information across the previous 30 hours. Earlier locations? Maybe one useful log. Late-game bunker? Welcome to Lorepedia.
The story basically has two main plots. One is about the Shadow Carja and revenge for what happened in the prologue, while the second is Aloy doing archaeology and discovering her own past. The Shadow Carja plot is incredibly boring. What do we learn about them? They're outcasts, they're angry, they hate people, and some AI is helping them. That's basically it. The game barely explains the motivations of the main villains until you're already close to the final part of the story. Then it suddenly tells you, "Hey, you should probably finish your side quests now," and immediately after that: HERE IS THE ENTIRE PLOT.
Then Sylens shows up and starts dumping even more lore on you. Meanwhile Aloy went from shooting arrows at robot dinosaurs to understanding programming, databases, AI systems and ancient technology like she just finished a computer science degree off-screen. Five minutes ago: "What's this ancient machine?" Five minutes later: "Ah yes, clearly this database architecture uses a corrupted access protocol." Sure. There are also places where supposedly only Aloy can enter because of her unique access, and then suddenly there are human enemies inside. How did they get there? Who knows. Don't think about it. The game doesn't.
And then there's Rost. The guy is basically Aloy's father figure, and she wants revenge because of what happened to him. Massive emotional moment... and then the game basically forgets he existed. xD. Aloy apparently completed the five stages of grief during the loading screen.
The funniest part is that the actual lore is pretty interesting. The backstory of the world is probably the best part of the entire narrative, but instead of slowly revealing it throughout the game, they shoved half of it into two bunkers and called it storytelling. So instead of mystery → clues → discoveries → answers, you get nothing → nothing → nothing → nothing → final missions (yes missions)→ 37 audio logs → end.
Final Thoughts
Beautiful game, interesting world and cool concept, but terrible pacing, weak progression, repetitive combat, underused stealth, and a skill tree full of abilities that should have been basic mechanics. The story waits most of the game before suddenly throwing an entire encyclopedia at your face.
7/10 graphics. 4/10 gameplay systems. Story would be way better if someone discovered the revolutionary concept of distributing exposition evenly.
