Horizon Zero Dawn on paper sounds like something I wouldn’t play, a huge open world, stealth to action transitional game play, and a tiresome crafting system that seemed like I would be playing the crafting menu more than the game; but surprisingly it all comes together like the gears on the machines you fight against (at least that’s how I imagine it). The story is just as impressive as it engrosses the player with mystery and the lore of the world that Aloy, the character you control, occupies in which creates a great setting for this wonderful story.

In Horizon Zero Dawn you play as Aloy, a skilled hunter who was born an outcast and has been living Rost, another outcast who was forced to raise her by his tribe. Later in adulthood due to events, Aloy is made a seeker to confront the tribe that ambushed Mother’s Heart, the Nora capital, during their annual Proving celebration; but Aloy has own mission, to find out more about the mother she never had and why she was made an outcast.

The game play in Horizon Zero Dawn is probably the most fun part of it, it feels like a true, fully immersed open world where everything is interact-able and alive. Conversing with other characters still feels stiff in both facial animations and how they interact outside of main quest conversations, but besides the usual out of sync audio during these interactions it is still good, typical RPG conversation mechanics that we have been use to since Mass Effect with the dialogue stems. Crafting in this game is surprisingly pretty easy and simple, no need to go hunting forever for ingredients as everything is pretty much laid out where to find it and what machines/animals to kill to obtain certain resources. Upgrading your armor and weapons is simple as well, throughout killing machines in the world you will loot them and acquire components and there are specific ones for armor and for weapons such as your bow ranging from uncommon to very rare that adds stats to whatever you equip it to (e.g. +10% sneak or +7% damage). Throughout my play through of the game I acquired a copious amount of components and resources, that even playing on normal I didn’t have to prioritize what to upgrade besides when it comes to your skill tree that you upgrade using skill points that you acquire from quests and certain side quests.

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Horizon Zero Dawn does a lot of amazing things for open world games, creating a lively setting that encompasses what open world games are at this generation. The combat is nice and refreshing and every encounter feels new enough that I don’t purposefully sneak around combat because of the repetition. The story is great and while it does drag at some points, the game play keeps it interesting and pushes me to play the main quest even further. If you have a PS4 then I would definitely recommend this game if you love a simplified Farcry-esque crafting system and a world that is insanely beautiful, lively, and ever changing.