Horizon: Zero
Dawn is a 'once in a while' kind
of game. As in, once in a while a game comes along that surprises
the Hell out you, reawakens that child-like sense of wonder, and
winds up being way better than it has any right to be. It is sharply
written and cleverly plotted, and it ticks all the boxes technically,
but it is also a revelation and a joy. It will elicit many a 'whoa'
during its quiet moments and leave you utterly breathless during its
loud ones (plenty of those!). It is that exceptionally rare third
rail of platform gaming, a title that feels crafted rather
than mold-pressed, patiently realized instead of pumped out. It is a
redemption, of sorts, for this jaded gamer, and it has kept me
riveted from the moment I first hit 'New Game'.
It's
so easy to be cynical: Triple-A titles cranked out with assembly-line
regularity, plots as recycled as the dungeons themselves, 'sequels'
that offer nothing new, generic dudes, sex-bomb dudettes, oodles of
uber-violent pap jammed into padded discs indistinguishable one to
the next. I've said it before. It's unlikely I won't ever be saying
it again. Sure there's innovation and sure there's still a host of
creative voices out there working hard on the next generation of
thumb-based distraction, but increasingly those are found in the
indie publishers and companies lurking on gaming's lunatic fringe,
not the big studios. Then we have Guerilla Games, without a major
release is nearly a decade, ever straddling that line between indie
and biggie while they worked on this Faberge egg of a title. They
took a chance of H:ZD and
their patience and faith has been rewarded in spades.
Set
in a verdant mountain valley cleft by trilling brooks and loomed over
by snowy peaks, the game follows Aloy, a scrappy huntress of the
primitive Nora, a matriarchal tribe of hunters, warriors, and
shamans. We follow her from her formative years as an outcast,
shunned by her people for reasons unknown, to the bloom of adulthood,
her lion's mane of fiery red hair underscoring her fearsome will and
hero's heart. Aloy seeks the answers to her lifetime of banishment,
and the identity of the mother she never knew. Her chance comes at
the Proving, a grueling test of brains and brawn that will allow her
formal entry into the tribe and a boon from the ruling council who
guard the secrets of her origins. But when the Proving is attacked
by a band of masked savages, Aloy finds herself thrust into a much
larger conflict, one in which her personal quest becomes intertwined
with larger mysteries and much, much graver consequences.
Sounds
simple, right? Hell, I just described most
movies starring Channing Tatum. But here's the catch. Horizon:
Zero Dawn is set hundreds,
perhaps thousands of year in the future.
Civilization as we know has long since run its course, the only
hints of our once-mighty presence a handful of vine-encrusted
skyscrapers and automobile husks. In the ruins of our failed
society, hardscrabble clans like the Nora have struggled on,
reclaiming a few scraps of the Earth which has otherwise been
reclaimed entirely by nature. Or has it? For the Nora, and all
humans in this distant time, war daily with machines, metallic
automatons that mysteriously mimic an entire cross-section of the
animal kingdom both present and prehistoric. Mechanized horses, elk,
bulls, crocodiles, hawks, even T-Rex's all stalk the landscape,
jealously guarding their territory and attacking any human they
chance to encounter. Where did an entire genus of animal-like robots
come from? Are they following some ancient programming, or, perhaps
more frightening, are they merely in a kind of 'stand by', waiting to
rise up in earnest and destroy what remains of humanity? It is just
one of the mysteries Aloy must solve if she is to get the answers she
so desperately seeks and avenge her tribe.
I
won't even compartmentalize my impressions of the game's various
qualities, for the game is such a marvelous case study of seamless
melding of play mechanics, challenges, and surprises it seems an
injustice to break it all down into static layers. Aloy's journey is
equal parts exploration, combat, platforming, puzzling, and
storytelling, every component slipping effortlessly one to the next,
forming a kind of tapestry that is more experienced than simply
played. In this it shares many of the same qualities as Witcher
3: Wild Hunt. Thanks to this
versatility, as well as a massive and gorgeously rendered map,
players can guide Aloy in any fashion they choose: play it cool and
stealth your way through most encounters, wandering on the fringes of
the wilds like the outcast you are, or go full Xena, shredding any
foe dumb enough to cross you and harvesting their metal carcasses for
literal scrap. Plow through the main missions on an arrow's path to
ultimate victory, or lose yourself for countless hours exploring the
ruins of old human cities uncovering the mysteries of what destroyed
us. This last element provided me with a particular thrill, and
massive props to the developers for their patient, breadcrumb-trail
style of filling in the intriguing backstory that is at least as
interesting as anything happening in this far-future 'present'.
A
clever crafting system that combines on-the-fly weapon swapping with
specialty ammo types (freeze arrows, sticky bombs, the ubiquitous
fire-tipped...everything) means you can dish out a huge variety of
punishment to the machine monsters, or utilize some more specialized
tools like rope casters and trip wires to lure the metal beasts into
a clever trap. Every encounter teaches you more about your foes,
such as the vital weak spots to strike for a convenient explosion or
which elemental type to use for maximum effect. With a little
practice you'll soon be stalking the wilds like a true badass, which
is good because this game is never short on challenges. For an added
thrill, make constant use of the 'Override' ability, which allows you
to take command of the various machines, turning them against one
another or just mounting a cyber-horse for faster transition across
the plains.
Aloy's
journey takes her from the snowy valleys of her home to the soaring
mesas of the desert on the other side of the mountains and eventually
into the wintery hinterlands of the mysterious north. Along the way
she encounters the new cities of man – often wedged up against
rusting radar dishes and desiccated office parks – and here and
there the ominous black structures of unknown origin that dot the
landscape, hinting at a lost future where vast machines loomed over
the Earth, as Kyle Reese once ruefully observed, “...hooked into
everything, trusted to run it all.” Did they rebel against their
creators? Even if they did, how did we manage to survive in any form
at all? And what was the mysterious 'Project: Zero Dawn' that reset
humanity back to an almost-literal stone age?
The tale grows in the
telling, or in this case, the playing, and we are so very fortunate
to have such a marvelous protagonist as Aloy for a companion. The
writers eschewed all the Amazon chic stereotypes and cliched
girl-power tropes in favor of well-rounded and wholly real person
whose graceful savagery with a spear is matched only by her lightning
flashes of sardonic wit and charming bluntness. At times her
penchant for sarcasm and tented eyebrows seem almost to probe the
Fourth Wall, as though she is aware there's a kind of “second
dialogue” occurring between herself and the player to which no one
else is privy. It is a quality that makes you root for her all the
more as she unlocks the conspiracy set against her, and it is the key
to taking a great sci-fi game over the line into the realm of truly
exemplary.
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