Posted October 04, 2021
Now I've also completed Horizon's The Frozen Wilds DLC as well as platinum'd the base game.
It's super high quality DLC. When I saw the new area on the world map I was worried that there would be barely any content but no, the area is larger than it seems and it took me over 13 hours to complete the thing, including all the side missions and other optional content. And importantly, it's pretty much of even higher quality than the base game. There's a pretty epic side story with a really long quest line, side quests of higher quality than most in the base game, a bunch of well-developed characters, really tough (though admittedly a bit annoying) new enemy types and a whole bunch of new gear, including entirely new weapon types. That's besides a bunch of other things (like an expanded skill tree) that you can also enjoy without actually playing the DLC area. There's also new music and, what really impressed me, the new conversations have a ton of unique animations which are perfectly synchronised with the dialogue, which makes them almost feel like cutscenes. So in terms of sheer size an quality the DLC has exceeded my expectations by far.
Oh, and the new area itself is just utterly gorgeous. What's funny, there were also snowy areas in the base game, but there the snow didn't react to the player which felt weird in a game with such good and detailed graphics. Well, in the DLC you get some of the most visually impressive snow in any game ever. They even added a snow angel pose in the game's photo mode which actually works, lol.
What I'm not that big a fan of is how the DLC is integrated into the base game. It's one of those cases where you have no idea when you should approach the DLC and where exactly it's supposed to be set in the narrative - while following the base game's main quest line there's never a "right moment" to go into the Frozen Wilds. Difficulty-wise playing it after completing the base game felt appropriate but you also unlock a whole lot of stuff here that you will barely get to use if you're done with everything else (I guess you can carry it over into New Game+ on a higher difficulty level but I'm not sure how much you can carry over). At least it seems that the developers wrote multiple versions of much of the dialogue so no matter when you approach it, the DLC will fit into the overall context. So, I do not at all regret playing the DLC after completing the main story, it felt right, but I wish the game were more clear about the right moment.
As for the story: its only problem is that it's a side story. Like many DLCs it's constrained by not being allowed to venture into things that are reserved for the sequel. Besides that it's top notch and largely revolves around what I love most about Horizon's writing: the problem of superstition. It's honestly brilliant stuff with a great conclusion. Horizon's writers do not get enough credit.
It's super high quality DLC. When I saw the new area on the world map I was worried that there would be barely any content but no, the area is larger than it seems and it took me over 13 hours to complete the thing, including all the side missions and other optional content. And importantly, it's pretty much of even higher quality than the base game. There's a pretty epic side story with a really long quest line, side quests of higher quality than most in the base game, a bunch of well-developed characters, really tough (though admittedly a bit annoying) new enemy types and a whole bunch of new gear, including entirely new weapon types. That's besides a bunch of other things (like an expanded skill tree) that you can also enjoy without actually playing the DLC area. There's also new music and, what really impressed me, the new conversations have a ton of unique animations which are perfectly synchronised with the dialogue, which makes them almost feel like cutscenes. So in terms of sheer size an quality the DLC has exceeded my expectations by far.
Oh, and the new area itself is just utterly gorgeous. What's funny, there were also snowy areas in the base game, but there the snow didn't react to the player which felt weird in a game with such good and detailed graphics. Well, in the DLC you get some of the most visually impressive snow in any game ever. They even added a snow angel pose in the game's photo mode which actually works, lol.
What I'm not that big a fan of is how the DLC is integrated into the base game. It's one of those cases where you have no idea when you should approach the DLC and where exactly it's supposed to be set in the narrative - while following the base game's main quest line there's never a "right moment" to go into the Frozen Wilds. Difficulty-wise playing it after completing the base game felt appropriate but you also unlock a whole lot of stuff here that you will barely get to use if you're done with everything else (I guess you can carry it over into New Game+ on a higher difficulty level but I'm not sure how much you can carry over). At least it seems that the developers wrote multiple versions of much of the dialogue so no matter when you approach it, the DLC will fit into the overall context. So, I do not at all regret playing the DLC after completing the main story, it felt right, but I wish the game were more clear about the right moment.
As for the story: its only problem is that it's a side story. Like many DLCs it's constrained by not being allowed to venture into things that are reserved for the sequel. Besides that it's top notch and largely revolves around what I love most about Horizon's writing: the problem of superstition. It's honestly brilliant stuff with a great conclusion. Horizon's writers do not get enough credit.
