Venturing out into the cold wilderness on your own may feel like a common theme in the game industry these days, but never has it felt more real than in Guerrilla’s latest title, Horizon Zero Dawn.

A Modern Classic

Horizon Zero Dawn is an open world adventure game where you take on the role of a young woman named Aloy. (A bit on the nose considering you hunt machines, but whatever) in fact, there are a lot of metallurgy based puns in this game, all you really need to do is look for them.

The basic premise of the Horizon Zero Dawn is that the world has ended and has essentially given rise to the age of machines. Mankind has been reduced to living in tribal packs after hundreds of thousands of years. It’s beautiful in a way that makes the idea of humanity being cyclical almost seem hopeful.

The world is a massive, beautifully detailed masterpiece. Every strand of grass blows in the wind and reacts to your presence and that of the machines. Every texture and facial expression is spot on in this game. I won’t call it perfect because the game does have flaws, and we’ll get to those but for the moment we’re going to discuss everything that this game does right.

A Champion Rises From The Dawn

Many games over the past few years have been making grand claims of being the next big title of whatever year (Yes I am talking about the No Mans Sky.) However, I can say, at this moment, with 100% certainty that Horizon Zero Dawn will be praised as a landmark in the game industry for years to come.

The game opens on an infant being prepared for a journey to the sacred naming land by an outcast member of one of the tribes. After the baby is named you are taken through what may be one of the greatest tutorial sequences ever devised. This is a perfect example of how players should be introduced to a game’s mechanics. The game leads the player in a way that forces you to figure out what to do instead of holding your hand the entire way and builds on characters along the way.

I spoke earlier about how large the map of this game is and I’d like to just touch on that again by pointing out that the game is littered with campfires. These act as save points and fast travel points. In order to fast travel, you need to use fast travel kits that can be created in the crafting system. There is a skill that allows you to make a permanent one, but it’s worthless. At no point in the game are you going to want to use the fast travel option and there are several but only two of them matter. You’re going to want to wander the world in order to make sure you always have the loot required to craft weapons, armor, and equipment. More importantly, the world of Horizon Zero Dawn is just so goddamn pretty. It feels like the first time I played Skyrim all over again except I still haven’t encountered a “What am I looking at” moment.

Elements of the past

The crafting in the game is glorious to say the very least. Often you will find yourself just spending hours traversing the landscapes and hunting for herds of machines and living animals to keep yourself fully stocked. The only true problem with the crafting system is the issue of specific rarity and classes of weapons using certain ammo types. Barely a complaint I know, but I really like freezing things and I can’t do that with my current bow.

Horizon Zero Dawn uses a skill system like something you would find in an action RPG. There are three skill trees, each of which is non-inclusive to itself. Certain skills in one tree require that you’ve learned a different skill in another. It presents its own challenges and requires the player to think about what skills to acquire and when to progress tactfully. However, in contrast to the last paragraph, I’ll say this. You can strong arm your way through the entire game simply using the spear because it is laughably overpowered.

The game’s story is an emotional roller coaster from start to finish and at no point during Aloy’s journey are you ever going to feel bored. Even if you have zero attention span and somehow become bored with the story you can still just spend your time wandering around the world and discovering lost ruins.

The ruins act as a means of growth that can only happen upon discovery. Making your way through several of the ruins of the old world will allow you to learn to override the machines you find in the world. Some of these you can ride, others are simply a means of causing havoc and destruction. Kind of like the Thunder Jaw but I’ll let you discover the terror that magical beast will bring forth on your own.

Overall, everything about this game is as close to perfect as we’re going to get this generation. The only thing stopping it from being such is the stealth properties the game has. Aloy has can learn the ability to whistle to get an enemy’s attention, draw them in and then stab them in the face with your spear. For machines, this is often an instant kill, aside from the larger ones. In regards to human enemies, however, the formula works like this.

Hide in bush>Use precision whistling to gain the attention of said enemy>Lure in>Stab>repeat until bandit camp is cleared out.

Now I’m really not sure if the stealth mechanic was a last-minute throw together or if the A.I. was improperly programmed or they simply didn’t care but it’s something that bothers me. It, in no way, takes away from the experience of the game because, as I believe I’ve overstated, this is a game that every living person needs to play at least once.

Anything else?

Enjoy the story, explore the world, go on a murderous rampage, or just take pictures in photo mode. Either way, enjoy your stay in this wonderfully crafted world.