Horizon Zero Dawn™ Complete Edition

As a AAA open world large scale affair, with all the trappings you have come to expect from the genre (crafting, multiple activities, huge world map with tons of icons, collectibles, outfits, upgrades, etc.) it's a totally fine game. It will feel familiar and easy to play for anyone who's played something like this in the last 10 years. Fun and a bit endearing, even if written/voice acted a bit poorly at times. I want to dive into this game more, but I keep having technical issues with it despite having the specs to run it. Seems nigh impossible to maintain 60 fps so I'm constantly getting stutters and drops. So I would say make sure you have the recommended specs to have an enjoyable experience, it at LEAST a 6gb GPU with a decent wattage. My 3050 (95W) laptop isn't cutting it. My 1660 super desktop fares much better, which is disappointing as it's an older card. In short, a fun experience that requires higher than entry level hardware to fully enjoy.

I already run my gaming pc in an essentially isolated environment, so the Sony data collection issue doesn’t phase me much. Plus, when compared to some of Meta and Apple’s policies, it’s fairly average. Overall, I love the graphics and story. It turns my PC into a nice foot warmer for the winter.

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Bought it on GoG, as it deserves to be preserved DRM free in for the ages. Graphics and Animation: It's a beautiful game to just stop for a moment and look at the many nice views. I was surprised noticing trees where destructible and components shoot off machines rolling down a snow covered slope leave a trail. While there are games with even more impressive hair, cloth, foliage physics I feel this is as good as it should be, anything beyond has diminishing returns. Story: The story took a while to get rolling but once it did was very good. For my liking it was telegraphed too much. Though even knowing what Hades and its goals where halfway through, the writing kept the story interesting. Gameplay: On normal combat in the base game has just the right balance between too easy and frustrating bullet sponge enemies. If you can think of a way to kill something the game almost always let's you use it. In Frozen Wilds however new machines, especially Fireclaws, are almost immune to anything while ridiculously easy to kill with the Icerail. I wish they would have allowed any approach to be equally viable here as well. I would have preferred if instead of cut scenes it would just use in game scenes. Each time a cut scene took control from me, my expert huntress, sniping and trapping her way through hordes of enemies, became a bumbling fool.

Absolutely amazing game with the most well executed open world ever. The story is timeless and engaging in its own right, but it's elevated further by just how good the gameplay is. Absolutely flawless design and execution. Learning how to utilise all of Aloy's different weapons, outfits and skills to take out all the different machines effectively is ENDLESSLY fun and rewarding, and despite what some others have said, the game does not reward a stealth approach over an aggressive one in any way. I found the opposite to be true. Stealth is just one one of Aloy's many tools. Resource gathering and management is simple and easy, the world is lush and teeming with everything you need, you simply gather while you explore all the gorgeous vistas. Most of the NPC's are fairly bland and interactions are basic, side quests are simple, good-natured and generally charming. I enjoyed them and personally I found the key characters in the story memorable (I really enjoyed Rost, Sylens, Ourea and CYAN). Aside from that, the map is just littered with so many fun things to do, I especially loved exploring each of the Cauldron's. Obviously there are misogynists whining because they're pressed about playing as a non-sexualised woman in an action game with a coming of age story (despite the fact there is literally no other notable female NPC until Ourea appears in The Frozen Wilds - guys, all of Aloy's mentors are dudes!). But, if you're not a pressed misogynist you're in for a touching story and some amazing gameplay. As an aside I'm running an RTX 2080 Super one of the i7 CPUs with a mix of high & ultra setting, everything ran beautifully, no crashes or stuttering, maybe 2 graphical glitches in 100+ hours. Can't wait for the sequel!