The open world sandbox, one of the biggest and popular genres among the gaming landscape. Everytime a developer gives a crack at the open world genre, they always aim to make the biggest and most vibrant world possible. Even it means following the same game design choices as everybody else. The type of open world design I like to call, "the guided open world philosophy," which has been prevalent since the early 2000s. Rather than provide the player ultimate freedom the game instead guides them towards points of interest. Otherwise to where the content lies. However, this comes at a risk of boring your players and treating them like toddlers without proper thinking patterns. It's a very flawed design philosophy, because half the time you remove the fun from the game. Not saying it's always bad, because some developers find ways to work around these restrictions and provide an experience that is of course fun. Moments that are memorable, incentives to do the side content, and the motivation to work towards the end. The freedom approach is much better as it allows the player to get creative and it adds more replayability to the game, but the guided approach can provide some genuine moments you don't see in a lot of other video games.
Personally I think what makes a good open world game is not how big it is, where it provides freedom or not, or if they blast spectacular moments into your face. It's how quick you can settle the player into the position they are and engage them with the story and setting. These wide sandboxes hand you a bunch of tools to mess around with and give you several missions that can be approached at any angle you want, but the story is what keeps me pushing forward. Always reminded of the goal I have to work towards. Slay Ganon, bring peace to the Mojave, or connect civilization to the Chrial Netwrok. That's why so many of the most well acclaimed open worlds out there are the ones that present gargantuan journeys. The personal adventure into unknown worlds and realms. Ask someone what their favorite open world game is and you may get several different answers. You’ll get quite a few folks stating it's Grand Theft Auto V. Then there are those who will answer Fallout 3, Skyrim, and a few modern examples like Red Dead Redemption 2, Breath of The Wild, or The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. However one of the best open worlds I ever played probably came out during one of the greatest years in video gaming. We’re here to talk about a game that came out of nowhere and blew my mind away after the first few hours. A game that can be summed up as basically Monster Hunter but open world and with superb ranged combat. The game I’m talking about was created by Guerilla Games, developers of the Killzone series and eventually the beautiful Horizon Zero Dawn which is today's subject.
The game began development straight after the release of Killzone 3 in 2011, and during that time several ideas were drafted for the game. Eventually the team chose to make an open world game that took place in a post apocalypse where mechanized animals freely roamed the earth. They didn’t want the project to center entirely around a devastated world made up entirely of ruins and ash. Rather lucious wilds filled with beauty and wildlife. They wanted to make art and there’s nothing bad about making art as long as it’s in your image. A small team began drafting and programming the game. Constantly having to scrap concepts and figure out how to design functional ranged combat that didn't just nail down a cover shooter which they did before. They tried using the same engine Killzone: Shadow Fall used, but this only lengthened out the development process even further. After four years of sweat and tears, Guerilla Games finally announced their new project at E3 2015, Horizon Zero Dawn.
It would make full use of the Playstation 4’s hardware. Feature talented actors in the game industry like Ashley Burch, bless her for god’s sake she’s awesome! And the main story would be written by John Gonzalez, the lead writer for Fallout: New Vegas, a game remembered for it's genius world building and political ideologies. Fans at the expo were hyped for this new Playstation exclusive, and it wouldn’t be until two years later that they would get the final product due to a few delays. Finally during the first quarter of 2017, Horizon Zero Dawn was finally released and it was a massive hit amongst the public! Many praised the game for it’s narrative, stunning environments, and challenging action packed gameplay. Some even declared it a Game of The Year contender.
However, this doesn't mean Horizon Zero Dawn went untouched. The game was released a few weeks before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild, another open world game that was hyped beyond belief and was going to redefine what it meant to be an open world game. It quickly overshadowed the release of Horizon Zero Dawn, and for the next few months the public was focused on Breath of The Wild. Many joked that Horizon Zero Dawn was basically a knock off Breath of The Wild, and some gamers review bombed the game so that Breath of The Wild would look like the better choice among the two. Don’t get me wrong I love Breath of The Wild, it’s a great game that I look back at frequently, but no matter how much praise the game gets it’s not perfect. Some gamers even drew comparisons to The Witcher 3 and stated Horizon Zero Dawn was apparently trying to copy ideas from CDPR as well. Even though the developers at Guerilla Games stated they weren't trying to copy them and that they drew light inspiration from The Witcher 3. It's also really unfair to compare all of the three games together, because they are so different in design. Whenever we talk about open world games do we always have to mention The Witcher 3 or Breath of The Wild?
Anyways I decided to replay Horizon Zero Dawn recently, do a majority of the content I didn’t get to on my original playthrough, and see if it was any better than my first time through. I used to have a review of this game out, but I deleted it because it was rushed and I didn't take enough time to fully analyze the product on hand. Managed to obtain the Platinum Trophy meaning one hundred percent completion. After all this is Horizon Zero Dawn as decent as before. No, it was much better. In fact, this is one of my new favorite Triple A games and open world sandboxes. So much stuff I didn’t understand the first time through and now I’m cramming it down my throat like a fat man at a buffet. Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the best examples of how you do an open world game and it may as well be my gold standard for this style of guided open world sandbox until a new contender arrives. It's just so brilliant and I want to show my deeper appreciation with this game. Today we’ll be talking about why I absolutely love Horizon Zero Dawn and why it deserves your attention. So string your bow, power up your Focus, and prepare to journey across a world unseen.
Story
Being shunned by the Nora tribe ever since birth and for unknown reasons, Aloy grew up as an outcast. Tossed in the snowy outskirts of the mountains and was taken in by another Nora outcast named Rost. Ever since then, Rost has taught Aloy the rules of the wilds and how giant mechanical beasts roam freely for prey to feast upon, but most importantly of all he has taught Aloy to never touch anything related slightly to The Old World. We can quickly piece together that mankind has fallen ages ago, and the machines that now roam freely could be one of the few causes for their downfall or something at least created by it. However, after several years humanity has begun to reform in the now urbanized ruined world. Establishing tribes, religious beliefs, and spreading different political ideologies across the land over how it shall be governed.
At the age of six, Aloy is picked on by a bunch of children from the Nora tribe, and while running away in sadness she falls into some ancient ruins. These ruins happened to be a laboratory belonging to The Old Ones, and while searching for an exit Aloy picks up a small piece of technology named a Focus. This device allows her to analyze the beasts she encounters, and interact with the remnants of humanity’s past. Rost pulls her out the ancient ruins, but once they start traveling back home Aloy asks why they are treated as outcasts and if their lives will ever change for the better. Rost states that the only way to be welcomed back into the tribe is to partake in The Proving, a competition where the winners get whatever wish they want, including coming back into the tribe. Rost states it will take a lot of training to prepare for The Proving, but Aloy being the dedicated person she is spends the next few years of her life training to become the best huntress Nora will ever see. Even better than her old man Rost, who already gained a ton of experience for being more exposed to the wilds than the rest of the tribe.
It’s not until Aloy is a fully grown woman that she finally builds up the strength to compete in The Proving. She makes her way to the Nora Village, and is greeted by one of the elders, Teressa, one of the few individuals kind enough to give her name at birth. While at the Nora Village she watches a speech declared by officials from the Oseram tribe, a tribe once ruled by a mad king. A man named Erend states that the corrupt king was brought down by his son, who became the new king and promises to bring peace to the land. Aloy also encounters a scavenger named Olin, who mysteriously has the same device Aloy has. Eventually, Aloy competes in The Proving and after getting screwed over within the first few minutes she uses her skills and reflexes to reach first place by taking a dangerous pathway. She is then announced a member of the Nora tribe, but out of nowhere she and the rest of the competitors are attacked by a strange group of cultists. The leader of the cultists tries to kill Aloy before she and a group of remaining survivors make it back to the village, but Rost shows up in time to sacrifice himself and save Aloy. Falling down a cliff and being knocked out unconscious.
Aloy is brought back to the village wounded, and when she finally wakes up Teressa decides to tell her the truth. Aloy was born behind a giant metal door within the mountains. The ruins that once belonged to the Old Ones and can’t be unlocked at the moment. Aloy also finds out that the cultists were spying on her using Olin’s Focus, and that they want her dead because she contains the genetic resemblance of an Old World scientist woman named Elisabet Sobeck. Aloy states that she must journey out of her homeland to track down the cultists, so the elders of the Nora Village announce her as a seeker. Someone who will not be ridiculed for venturing outside the sacred land, and can make peace with outside tribes who they physically haven't talked to in years. Now Aloy must venture across overgrown lands, fight the toughest of beasts, help whoever she encounters, and piece together what happened to the old world before.
Gameplay
Horizon Zero Dawn is an open world sandbox that follows the usual guided open world formula trends. Explore diverse environments, stumble upon unique locations, maybe liberate an outpost full of bandits, climb a tower to reveal the map, and fight enemies using a spear and ranged weaponry. The trends we expect to see from these types of games, but unlike a majority of titles in this sandbox genre Horizon Zero Dawn is doing something right. After a while I began to ignore the icons on the radar and quest descriptions constantly being dropped, and casually played the game for fun because it was more focused on engaging me with the world rather than what I was being forced to do. The first hour or two is spent teaching how the game works, but afterwards it dumps the player into the world and allows them to roam freely. Even more once you are given access to regions outside the mountains and begin stumbling upon townships and more world ruins. It shows, but knows when to have fun.
Combat is straightforward enough, but get complex as the game exposes new enemies and tools to use. You have to kill the enemies around you and if you take too much damage you die and restart at the latest checkpoint or save. Usually in open worlds you wail away at standardized human enemies or stealth kill them. You would especially think with so many ranged weapons focused on quiet shots that combat would be extremely trivial. However, in Horizon Zero Dawn they find a way to make the player think decisively on how you approach battles even if they gain access to every ammo type in the game. There are normal human foes, but a majority of the time you’ll be fighting the many mechanized beasts that roam freely. All of which come in various forms and have different abilities. Even a small group of smaller mechanical beasts can quickly turn into a cascade of madness if you decide to play recklessly. That’s why you want to take any opportunities you are offered, and always come prepared.
You can sneak up on mechanical enemies and perform sneak attacks, but bigger foes may not die as easily so you might want to save them up last which gets the player to prioritize who should die next. You could override a machine, allowing it to fight by your side for a short while. Human enemies on the other hand are pretty basic. They fight using weapons similar to yours and they die quickly when you headshot or sneak attack them. It’s the machines that require skill to get around. You can’t just wail on them like any ordinary action game using a melee weapon. You have to find their elemental weaknesses and break off brittle components on their body to reveal weaker points and deal more damage. This is where the Monster Hunter element comes into play, because to truly get good at the game you have to study your prey.
You’ll mainly have to use your bow to shoot off components, but sometimes using special ammo types or equipment can turn the tides of battle. Shooting fire arrows at an explosive canister may make a machine blow up into flames and damage enemies around it. Setting an explosive trap and luring an enemy towards it may kill them without enemies being cautious of your presence. Tearing off the cannon of a stronger foe and using it against it allows you to wipe away their humongous health bar. Larger machines especially take a long time to bring down, but there's a huge level of satisfaction when you pull it off. Another factor I do like is that unlike Monster Hunter where every few seconds the monster runs away instead the monster will constantly be wailing away at you. That may sound frustrating as the monster knocks you about, but it helps keep the player in the fight and on their toes. Quickly switch their playstyle and loadout on the fly so they can adapt to the current situation. When you finally destroy machines you can harvest their parts and either use it to purchase material from vendors who want to buy the parts or upgrade the gear of your own. I like it a little more than the economy of Monster Hunter as well, because it means even if you have a part you don't want then you can exchange for a resource you actually need.
You will encounter NPCs throughout the game and each of them provide side quests or errands for you to do. Some may require you to collect certain items, track down other characters, or just kill more machines nearby because why not? Yet, Horizon Zero Dawn finds a way to make this linear quest design fun and get you interested in side content. Sure like most open worlds they require a lot of backtracking or follow basic tasks, but the stories behind each one is interesting. They followed The Witcher 3's quest writing and how each bit of info you get should add to the world rather than make the player feel like they fulfilled a shop list for somebody. It's called proper world building.
You level up as you progress, and by leveling up or doing certain quests you gain skill points which can be spent at a skill tree. Some of these skills are basic perks they could have given you at the beginning of the game, but the goal of an open world is to make the player feel stronger as they unlock more stuff. If you instantly handed them the strongest items and abilities in the game then the gameplay and combat would feel underwhelming as all challenges had been removed. Horizon Zero Dawn also finds a way to balance the player’s power with the world even during the later parts of the game, which is nice because in Breath of The Wild you eventually reach that point where you easily overpower everything else around you and the game does an inconsistent job to match up with the player’s skills and abilities. You just reached the edge of the map and now a giant mechanical eagle is diving into the ground!
In Horizon Zero Dawn when you take too much damage you can heal using berries you pick,, but what makes berries special is that they are always provided to the player. An easy source of healing the player can rely on during a stressful fight without having to break the flow entirely. You could also use health potions, but the carrying capacity for them is limited and they require hard to gather resources to craft. They also fixed fast traveling in this game. In other open world sandboxes, fast travel is easily abusable and can remove the charm of exploring the beautiful world the developers spent so much time making. To fast travel here you need a fast travel pack which has to be crafted and are one use items, so you are limited to abusing a common mechanic. They also fixed the problem of climbing a map to reveal more of the map. To reveal more of the map in Horizon Zero Dawn you must climb a giant mechanical giraffe. Instead of figuring out how to get to the top of the tower, here you have to figure out how to use your surroundings to actually board the giraffe who is always moving. Horizon Zero Dawn keeps building upon each system it sets up. There’s not much creative freedom like Breath of The Wild, but it’s still a very fun game. Hopefully you can track down the men who killed Ross and save the new world from ending once again.
Thoughts
Horizon Zero Dawn is a very good game and redefines what it means to be an open world experience to me. Yeah, I’m choosing this game over Breath of The Wild so you may as well deal with it. That's mean to say out loud, but there are reasons as to why I'd choose it over BOTW. The combat is certainly much better and goes beyond slapping an enemy with the weapon containing the highest damage number. It may take some time before it properly clicks as usual melee combat isn't encouraged, but once you understand how it works then you’ll start feeling heavily immersed. An agile huntress dodges each attack of a mechanical beast and picks away at its body until it stumbles onto the ground and it opens up its weak spot for a critical strike. Deep within a forest she sees a pack of Grazers. She points a fiery arrow at the back of one of them making it explode and the other ones scatter. However, she laid trip wires around the vicinity and a couple of other ones exploded. The huntress has claimed her prize. Sorry, I was trying to make whatever I just wrote down sound somewhat dramatic and cool. The game embraces the fantasy it wants you to live and is willing to challenge you.
The world is breathtaking and full of bright reflective colors. Just like Uncharted 4 or God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn is another fantastic game that showcases the technical capabilities of the Playstation 4 by pushing it to its limits. Generating vast open fields, dry barren deserts, jungle with spiraling trees, the ruins of mankind’s past, snowy mountains, and all the while several beasts and characters wander around the world. It's a lively world and there should never be a point where it feels empty or boring. Some people may complain that after the main story there isn’t much to do and that’s where I prove them wrong. There is so much to find a nd do in Horizon Zero Dawn, I can basically list them all. Enemy camps, Tallnecks to climb, collectibles to trade in with merchants, Hunting Grounds to test your skills, side-quests, errands, audio logs which are less valuable than everything else I just listed, and much more. Some of the actions you take and side quests you complete will actually affect how difficult the endgame mission will be. I decided to gain the trust from as many people as I could during my second playthrough and end up unlocking the Platinum Trophy for this game while doing so. Took a while to achieve and I wasn’t planning it at first, but I can say Horizon Zero Dawn is a game worth completing for those fellow completionists out there. It’s one of the easier sandboxes to complete and unlock the Platinum Trophy for.
Some may say the story is annoying and forgettable, but I think it’s really well written. Fantastic actually! It’s one of my favorite things about Horizon Zero Dawn beyond the gameplay, and the writers poured a lot of passion into it. Aloy is just a lonesome girl trying to find her purpose in the world. Constantly helping out those in times of need and sympathizing with their struggles. No matter how many times she falls she gets back up and takes another step forward towards the truth. When the story bits about Elizabeth Sobeck and the Old World start to kick in the plot gets really good. As the game talks about evolution, mankind's drive to advance, and how eventually these advancements led to their downfall. Like Icarus flying too close to the sun. How Aloy is connected to the woman who failed to save the world, and the weight of the world being placed onto her shoulders. Pressured into perfection. The writing is superb and the characters you encounter are so memorable.
Can I just say one thing? Ashley Burch is an incredibly talented voice actor. She started off small with a Youtube series poking fun at games and she got involved with many amazing projects. She voiced Tiny Tina from the Borderlands series, Chloe from Life is Strange, and one of my favorite characters from The Outer Worlds, Parvati Holcomb. Ashley Burch has gone through some hard times, but she puts her heart towards things she loves. I absolutely love Aloy as a character and a lead for the story. Aloy is now my favorite video game protagonist. Anyways, back to what I think about this game
I’m so glad I decided to replay Horizon Zero Dawn. It's a game you have to play the entire way through to fully appreciate the amount of love and quality packed into it by Guerilla Games. By the time of this review it will be coming to PC soon, and with the recent announcement of the sequel Horizon Forbidden West I’m so excited to hop back into the world of Horizon. Overall I highly recommend Horizon Zero Dawn and that’s why I give it a 10/10 for being incredible at best. It's not a completely free open world, but it's certainly one of the better releases in the guided sandbox category. It’s a beautiful masterpiece and it may be on my list for favorite games of all time.
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