Horizon Zero Dawn is a technical marvel...
... trapped in a shell of utterly tiresome and uninspired game design and mechanics.
I got about halfway into Horizon and none of it was fun. If you have played Grand Theft Auto III, any Assassin's Creed, or any other big blockbuster Western open world game of the last decade or so, you have played Horizon. You have a big map cluttered with icons. Lazy designed and poorly animated side NPC quest givers all around. You will spend half your game time micromanaging needless inventory, loot, ingredients, etc. One hour into the game and you will hear the main character already begin to repeat item pickup lines with all the trash littered around the world. A constant need to craft ammo. The game plays itself during platforming and running segments, just hold up to play the game. Big tall tower things to climb to open up a map with icon clutter, a checklist of where you need to go. The game is constantly telling you what to do and where to go, you are an aimless errand runner.
Except I'm done running errands. I banked on the fact that Horizon was a fresh new IP and had an interesting looking world, but those elements didn't save it for me at all. I am just about 100% done with this genre at this point. "Open world" has now become a literal turn off to my eyes and will get me to look elsewhere and invest my time and money into other games. This is a genre I loved say, back in the mid 2000's. But this is 2017 and a lot of Western developers have completely failed to develop anything interesting. This is one of the "safest" games I've ever seen in all the wrong ways. All that shine with no soul.
It was also a big turn off how this game has an emphasis on stealth. Stealth... in an open world? No thanks. And despite how much technical flair it has with its graphics and all that, I never once really stopped to just look at anything. The towns especially, were so busy with poorly scripted NPC's popping in and out of place, it took me out of the experience. There's lists upon lists of things to do constantly generating and bogging you down. The game is simply far too busy to even take a breath of air in. Compared to say, Dark Souls which probably had a tenth of this budget, but I will never ever forget those environments and its art direction.
I can make some excellent direct comparisons. Breath of the Wild was a real scare to me going into it, because of the open world fatigue. But it escaped all the pitfalls. You can climb everything. The pacing is better with dialogue not taking up too much time or the story being thrown in your face. The game never really tells you exactly where to go. YOU are the cartographer and design the map. I cannot put into words how thrilling and rewarding it was to complete this game and look at the map, all the icons I had manually marked and explored, was done by my hand.
I also went into Horizon directly after finishing off Rise of the Tomb Raider, which I loved. Both games share similar elements with the climbing/adventure and an emphasis on bow combat. But one of these I beat and loved, the other I didn't. Simply because Tomb Raider is more linear, it felt focused and never disjointed. It has ~2-3 open maps that would take you maybe a few minutes to run from one side to another, nothing too dramatic. You know what? I LOVE collecting and doing everything I can in these small little open areas sprinkled throughout the game. It has some branching paths and although there is some loot and crafting, it's more deliberate and less than Horizon. I even need to be in the mood for the heavily scripted types like these Tomb Raider reboots, but by the end of the day... I will easily take these kind of games over open world now. Rise of the Tomb Raider ruled. (somehow, I think it looks even better than Horizon too. Again, because of its focused direction they can intricately design things better).
Here's my favorite comparison though, Mega Man Legends. A 20 year gap between this game and Horizon, if we really break things down there's honestly quite a lot to compare here. But Mega Man Legends does everything better. There are no quest markers or Bible sized menus of text and lists of things to do. Equipping armor takes one second. Mega Man Legends lets you truly be free and explore its world, engage among the townsfolk and side quests on your own accord. There's nothing ever bogging you down or any disingenuous game design that's trying to nickel and dime you into menial tasks and rewards. When things aren't held over my head or demanded, I feel more compelled to put in the work and do quests. It lets me experience its world and gameplay my way. It's amazing how hard Mega Man Legends destroys Horizon Zero Dawn.
Horizon Zero Dawn, biggest disappointment of the year.
I was at least interested enough to finish off the story with a "movie cut" on youtube, but still don't really see the fuss. This is no Nier Automata. Anyways, there is no turning back. I have not traded in games in like a decade, but went ahead and threw out Horizon along with two other PS4 regrets, to put them towards Yakuza 0. I do not regret this at all.
