Horizon Zero Dawn™ Complete Edition

I bought this on Steam, and it didn't have a very good rep over there at the time, because the early versions were, apparently, quite unstable in the Windows port. I started with Patch 1.04, and had a great time with it. I don't think it ever crashed. Patch 1.05 had a thing where it downloaded textures too slowly sometimes, meaning that Aloy (eg, you) didn't always look right for a minute after changing outfit, but I think that's been fixed since. I found the game brutally hard when I started, but eventually developed the skills to fight well. Part of that is cheesing the AI a bit, but that's okay, because this actually _is_ AI.... you're mostly fighting robots, and robots being a bit predictable is to be expected. The difficulty scales well, and one of the more rewarding parts of the game is that you, as a character, don't get that much stronger from beginning to end. You probably about triple in strength from start to end, but the monsters scale up by, sheesh, maybe twenty times? You compensate for the remainder with skill, and it's *very* satisfying when things start to work. The story is good, the engine is good, and I had a fantastic time with this. And there's no microtransaction crap, at least on the PC port. This is computer gaming the way it should be. If I had known it was coming to GOG, I would have waited, but I'll suffer along on my Steam version. Oh, I played this on a 4790K with a GTX 970, at 1080p on Medium settings. This was very playable and looked excellent. I saw it stutter exactly one time, when first entering a very crowded area. It was otherwise smooth and playable at all times. That's old hardware, so if you've got something newer, it should look and play even better.

Positives: The game looks really pretty. Lots of colour use. The setting is one not too often seen before. The plotline was interesting enough that I slogged through it to the end. The combat works quite well and is mostly interesting too. Look at all the other reviews around to see a lot more in depth for all the positives. For me the negatives dragged the game down from close to a 5 to a 3(.25): Pacing! The main gripe I have is, that the game seems to have a complete disregard, if not a completely derisive attitude towards the player's time. Most quests will ask you to trek across most of the available map to do something, and then trek all the way back again. Fast travel is a thing, but if a game bothers me enough that it manages to make me want to use it, that's a failing in either quest design or a bland world. Add Far Cry 2 style "speedbumps" if you do want to trek (respawning enemies to avoid or deal with) and the desire to take in the world diminishes greatly. As does the enjoyment of the combat system. Additional pacing issue is the way lore is delivered. I spent over an hour on one mission, most of the time of which was spent standing still listening to audio logs to avoid going forward and triggering an overlapping conversation. Also, it seems they wanted to put in loot boxes to help skip the grind. At least they are free, not sure if that was the initial plan. In summary: This is a very good game whose disregard for the player's time and very rough pacing soured my enjoyment of it to suck a degree the last third of it was played out of spite to see the story, not because I enjoyed it. If you don't mind repetetive combat and wandering back and forth, this game may be for you. If you, like me, have a low tolerance for doing the same thing over and over, at least wait for a sale.

I've completed the game in PS4. Now finishing again in PC. Playing it with keyboard and mouse make it feel like a new game. Best graphics and more accuracy control. Really recommended!

Pro's : [✔] Graphic game looks amazing [✔] Requirements average [✔] Performance runs without frame drops [✔] Didn't encounter any bugs so far [✔] Gameplay intuitive only climbing mechanics needs to be improved [✔] Story rich and well delivered [✔] Music gives a game great atmosphere [✔] Pricing full game for one price no micro transitions, no DRM, no DLC, [✔] Replay vale High [✔] Game length long (50 - 90 hours) [✔] Grind is little for size of the game Con's : [✖] Traversing trough terrains sometimes can be problematic.

I really enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn, i played though it fully on Playstation (Platinum trophy) and was overjoyed when it came to GOG.    Absolutely no regrets in re-buying this game again especially here on GOG where i dont need to worry about online/drm things.   There's a lot of games here for a great price and not only is it a lot of game quality.  it never felt like a grind and it was really one of the few games i couldn't put down and even though between work and younger kids i managed to find time often at the cost of sleep. Absolutely recommend this game, especially on GOG.