Horizon Zero Dawn Review (PS4)
Introduction
This is an open-world and action RPG game developed by Guerrilla Games. The game is not dissimilar to other open-world action RPG games like NieR: Automata, Batman: Arkham games, and others.
Story
Gameplay
1) Exploration and Progression Section
This game uses open-world exploration and progression. You are free to explore many areas in the game except story-related areas, while also completing side quests from important NPCs or running errands for other people. You may run or ride a machine to places, as well as using Fast Travel to travel previously visited settlements or discovered campfires instantaneously.
The main story progression is simple. You must travel from one place to another to start a story Mission, and then complete it to advance the game's story. Mission objectives usually vary between tracking someone, fighting machines or human enemies, and etc. Occasionally, there are some optional objectives in the Missions where you can choose to complete if you want to.
There is a good variety of side activities that can be done in the game, such as hacking a certain tall machine to reveal map details, liberating bandit camps, completing Cauldrons, and etc. By doing so, you can get bonus experience points and other rewards as well.
2) Upgrading and Customisation Section
This game uses a basic leveling system, where you will earn a level by gaining enough experience points. Once you have gained a level, you will earn Skill Points which you can spend to learn new skills for Aloy. As you progress, you will need more points to learn more advanced skills, which is important as you may focus on different aspects on leveling when fighting your battles.
You may also buy new weapons, armours, health potions, and other items from sellers. Different weapon types offer different usage to you, such as Ropecaster-class weapons do not harm your enemies other than immobilising them. Some armour sets have different stats compared to others, such as some armour sets reduce elemental damage, whereas some other armour sets only reduce melee damage. Not only you must spend metal shards (in-game currency) to buy rare stuffs, you also need to trade in valuable materials which are mostly obtained by defeating machines.
You may also choose to upgrade your weapons or armours by equipping them modifications, which can be obtained by looting machines or opening treasure boxes. Different weapons and armours have a limited amount of modification slots, so be aware of it.
In many occasions, you must scavenge materials from machines, as well as from local flora and fauna to upgrade your capacity of carried weapons and other stuffs. For example, you must spend a certain amount of shards and animal skin to increase your health potions capacity. By scavenging regularly while playing the game, you will never run out of materials to create essential items as well as never buy them from sellers, such as your arrows, bombs, traps, and health potions.
3) Combat Section
4) Gameplay Conclusion
This game has excellent gameplay. Compelling combat, good story focused missions, lots of side activities to be done, and excellent machines enemy variety. This game also has different difficulty modes which you can change while playing the game. The machines have the best enemy variety, as each of them are unique, in appearances, behaviours, and attack patterns. The combat is also exciting, with adrenaline-filled battles against bigger machine enemies or when fighting hordes of them at the same time. The side activities such as climbing Tallnecks and exploring Cauldrons are interesting, too.
However, this game does have some issues. First of all, many inconsequential dialogue choices. While this game uses the same dialogue wheel like Mass Effect games for conversations, many of the main story or side quests' dialogue choices for important decision making scenes are not impactful enough in the game. Secondly, few boss enemies. While the game has enough regular enemy variety, there are very few boss fights in this game. Too few, personally. Finally, the variety of mission objectives. Many of the main story mission and side quests objectives are generic, but some of the lore behind them what made them tolerable for players. Collectibles also have underwhelming rewards when collecting them.
Regardless, the gameplay is great with some minor issues.
Graphics
This game has excellent graphics. Great looking environments, good looking human models, awesome looking machines, and no bugs and glitches encountered while playing the game. The framerate is also stable and smooth enough for me.
However, the inconsistencies of facial animations quality in both main story quests and side quests are noticeable, where main characters have better facial and body language animations during conversations and cutscenes. Unfortunately for the characters related in side quests, their facial animations, lip sync, and body animations look pretty mediocre. This is a minor issue compared to the overall amazing graphics of the game.
Sound
The voice acting is good, with many commendable voiceovers by all of the voice actors, especially Ashly Burch's role as Aloy. Other voice actors also did good job in making the characters feel believable in the game's world.
The soundtrack is good, with lots of fitting themes that suit the game's tone. Many themes sounded tribal, as well as good use of vocals. This game also has nice sound effects to listen, such as machines attack growls and etc.
Replay Value
This game has good replay value. You may play the game again in a new playthrough on different difficulty modes, collect all audio and text logs, collect all collectibles, complete all of the Hunting Grounds Trials, and many more. I personally think you will not be shortchanged of replay value if you like this game's gameplay a lot.
Conclusion
This is an excellent game, and it is an interesting new IP by Guerrilla Games, as well as a bold attempt in making a unique open-world game among it's peers. The real highlights of this game are the interesting lore, incredibly realised game world, exciting combat, great graphics and smooth game performance. This does not mean that this game is flawless, as it has some issues such as not enough variety of mission objectives, poor lip sync in side quests conversations, and etc. A highly recommended game for players who like the weird yet effective combination of machines based on fauna in a once highly advanced game world.
Score
Story: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Final Score: 9.0/10 or 36/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Well-realised game world.
- Excellent lore.
- Interesting story.
- Aloy is an interesting and strong main character.
- Many likable characters, in both personalities and designs.
- Vast world to explore.
- Excellent combat.
- Great enemy variety, especially the machines.
- Good amount of side activities.
- Excellent graphics.
- Well-designed environments, human models, and machine enemies.
- Good voice acting.
- Good replay value.
Cons
- Many inconsequential dialogue choices in decision making scenes.
- Not many variety of mission objectives.
- Too few boss fights.
- Unrewarding collectibles.
- Mediocre facial and body animations of side quest characters.
- Lip sync issues for side quest characters.
This is an open-world and action RPG game developed by Guerrilla Games. The game is not dissimilar to other open-world action RPG games like NieR: Automata, Batman: Arkham games, and others.
Story
Find out Aloy's mysterious past.
Aloy is an outcast in the Sacred Lands, taken care by her guardian Rost ever since she was a baby. Due to an event occurred in her childhood, she is determined to find out her past by overcoming the Nora Tribe's ritual called the Proving, where she must train to proof herself as a tribe member. However, during the Proving, a mysterious masked group of people tried to kill her, and it is up to her to find out her past as well as find the group of killers' identity.
The story is simple but interesting, with some good use of plot twists. The game's world is incredibly fascinating, with the remnants of extremely advanced civilisation scattered around in the game's map with different tribes populating in different areas in the game. The game's lore is incredibly well-done and intriguing, with many of the audio logs and text logs provide interesting background story on certain events happened prior to the game.
The characters are also interesting, especially Aloy. She is a battle-hardened woman, with good survival skills as well as being intelligent. She is also compassionate to the people in need, for both outcasts or tribesmen. While you may choose different dialogue options on certain conversations such as the compassionate, threatening, and witty replies/actions, they do not impact much of the game's story however. Other characters such as Olin, Rost, Helis, Erend, and Sun King Avad have interesting background stories as well.
1) Exploration and Progression Section
Explore the different lands in Horizon Zero Dawn's world.
The main story progression is simple. You must travel from one place to another to start a story Mission, and then complete it to advance the game's story. Mission objectives usually vary between tracking someone, fighting machines or human enemies, and etc. Occasionally, there are some optional objectives in the Missions where you can choose to complete if you want to.
There is a good variety of side activities that can be done in the game, such as hacking a certain tall machine to reveal map details, liberating bandit camps, completing Cauldrons, and etc. By doing so, you can get bonus experience points and other rewards as well.
2) Upgrading and Customisation Section
Learn new skills to take down tougher machines.
This game uses a basic leveling system, where you will earn a level by gaining enough experience points. Once you have gained a level, you will earn Skill Points which you can spend to learn new skills for Aloy. As you progress, you will need more points to learn more advanced skills, which is important as you may focus on different aspects on leveling when fighting your battles.
You may also buy new weapons, armours, health potions, and other items from sellers. Different weapon types offer different usage to you, such as Ropecaster-class weapons do not harm your enemies other than immobilising them. Some armour sets have different stats compared to others, such as some armour sets reduce elemental damage, whereas some other armour sets only reduce melee damage. Not only you must spend metal shards (in-game currency) to buy rare stuffs, you also need to trade in valuable materials which are mostly obtained by defeating machines.
You may also choose to upgrade your weapons or armours by equipping them modifications, which can be obtained by looting machines or opening treasure boxes. Different weapons and armours have a limited amount of modification slots, so be aware of it.
In many occasions, you must scavenge materials from machines, as well as from local flora and fauna to upgrade your capacity of carried weapons and other stuffs. For example, you must spend a certain amount of shards and animal skin to increase your health potions capacity. By scavenging regularly while playing the game, you will never run out of materials to create essential items as well as never buy them from sellers, such as your arrows, bombs, traps, and health potions.
3) Combat Section
Different machines have different strengths and weaknesses.
The combat is third person shooter combat, where you must aim your weapon and shoot at your enemies to defeat them. You may use a bow, a hunter bow, a sling bomb, and other weapons to fight your enemies. You may also engage them in melee combat if you want to. There are two major types of enemies that you will fight in the game, which are human enemies and machine enemies.
Different machines have different weak points, which are actually the components of a machine that you can tear them off as well as scavenge them for materials. You can scan different machines for their weaknesses using a device, and exploit it. For example, Sawtooths are vulnerable towards fire attacks. The bigger the machine is, the stronger it is, and more components it has. There are also variety of human enemies, such as archers, heavy weapon users, as well as melee enemies.
It is also highly recommended to equip different types of weapons to handle different combat situations in your Weapon Wheel. When you open your Weapon Wheel, time will slow down and you can change weapons on the fly. You may also craft ammo while opening the Weapon Wheel, which is useful if you have run out of arrows while fighting tough machines.
You may also choose to engage enemies using stealth. You can blend in bushes or behind obstacles, and kill them stealthily. However, not all enemies can be taken down using stealth kills, such as large machines or elite human enemies.
Great gameplay with some setbacks.
This game has excellent gameplay. Compelling combat, good story focused missions, lots of side activities to be done, and excellent machines enemy variety. This game also has different difficulty modes which you can change while playing the game. The machines have the best enemy variety, as each of them are unique, in appearances, behaviours, and attack patterns. The combat is also exciting, with adrenaline-filled battles against bigger machine enemies or when fighting hordes of them at the same time. The side activities such as climbing Tallnecks and exploring Cauldrons are interesting, too.
However, this game does have some issues. First of all, many inconsequential dialogue choices. While this game uses the same dialogue wheel like Mass Effect games for conversations, many of the main story or side quests' dialogue choices for important decision making scenes are not impactful enough in the game. Secondly, few boss enemies. While the game has enough regular enemy variety, there are very few boss fights in this game. Too few, personally. Finally, the variety of mission objectives. Many of the main story mission and side quests objectives are generic, but some of the lore behind them what made them tolerable for players. Collectibles also have underwhelming rewards when collecting them.
Regardless, the gameplay is great with some minor issues.
Graphics
Excellent graphics.
This game has excellent graphics. Great looking environments, good looking human models, awesome looking machines, and no bugs and glitches encountered while playing the game. The framerate is also stable and smooth enough for me.
However, the inconsistencies of facial animations quality in both main story quests and side quests are noticeable, where main characters have better facial and body language animations during conversations and cutscenes. Unfortunately for the characters related in side quests, their facial animations, lip sync, and body animations look pretty mediocre. This is a minor issue compared to the overall amazing graphics of the game.
Sound
Good voice acting and fitting soundtrack.
The soundtrack is good, with lots of fitting themes that suit the game's tone. Many themes sounded tribal, as well as good use of vocals. This game also has nice sound effects to listen, such as machines attack growls and etc.
Replay Value
Good replay value.
Conclusion
Excellent game by Guerrilla Games.
This is an excellent game, and it is an interesting new IP by Guerrilla Games, as well as a bold attempt in making a unique open-world game among it's peers. The real highlights of this game are the interesting lore, incredibly realised game world, exciting combat, great graphics and smooth game performance. This does not mean that this game is flawless, as it has some issues such as not enough variety of mission objectives, poor lip sync in side quests conversations, and etc. A highly recommended game for players who like the weird yet effective combination of machines based on fauna in a once highly advanced game world.
Score
Story: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Final Score: 9.0/10 or 36/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Well-realised game world.
- Excellent lore.
- Interesting story.
- Aloy is an interesting and strong main character.
- Many likable characters, in both personalities and designs.
- Vast world to explore.
- Excellent combat.
- Great enemy variety, especially the machines.
- Good amount of side activities.
- Excellent graphics.
- Well-designed environments, human models, and machine enemies.
- Good voice acting.
- Good replay value.
Cons
- Many inconsequential dialogue choices in decision making scenes.
- Not many variety of mission objectives.
- Too few boss fights.
- Unrewarding collectibles.
- Mediocre facial and body animations of side quest characters.
- Lip sync issues for side quest characters.
Comments
Post a Comment