Horizon Zero Dawn™ Complete Edition

Got the game on steam, still I want to share the my expirance with the game. It's excellent. Story is well tailored, graphics are great [and it gave my RTX2080S some hard times - especially the lighting in some areas like the insides of cauldrons) , views are woah (too bad I never make screenshots, but who has the time for it :P ) The only problem I've got with the game is.... well, We gotta wait quite a while for the "Forbidden West" for PCs, which is quite a bummer. If you're into God of War, Monster Hunter or Assassin's Creed-like games, this title is for you.

Excellent Story wise. Enjoyed playing immensely. 3rd time around. Except the Beginning - can only be seen once. Not even on Game Plus!

Horizon: Zero Dawn is a bit dated now (graphically and technically), but it's still a nice game. The setting is quite unique: You enter a world where humans live in primitive tribes. The main character belongs to the Nora tribe, where people live in primitive wooden huts, their villages are often surrounded by wooden palisades and watch towers. The Nora survive by hunting. However, it's not just animals that roam the wilds: Machines (robots in animal-like shapes) also frequently roam the wilderness. As the NPCs will tell you: The machines used to be calm and peaceful, but have become more aggressive over the last 10-15 years. Also, ever more dangerous types of machines are appearing. I won't spoil the story here, suffice to say that it's unique, captivating and takes a few surprising turns. You'll uncover secrets about a sect that unearthes machines slumbering in the ground, covered by the centuries of dust. And that's just the beginning. The game has a huge open world, and it's kind-of engaging to explore (there are some surprises), however there's not much to do in this world. Some side quests here, some hunting challenges there... (Don't get me wrong: the world is certainly doesn't feel empty.) On the positive side, the things that you *can* do offer a good amount of variety, and don't feel generic. What I don't like about the game is that the controls feel clunky and slow, and your character's strength plateaus quite quickly. The skills you unlock through levelling don't make your character that much stronger, and when you buy new bows (or so) usually they don't make more damage to the enemies than the previous ones, they just offer an additional type of ammunition. (However, I find myself using mostly two types of ammunition: One to deal damage, and one two detach pieces of the machines I'm fighting, usually to deactivate their most dangerous types of attacks.) Overall, it's a solid game. Expect 40-60 hours of gameplay. Get it when it's on sale.

The Witcher 3 was superb. I just don't care for swordplay, and the quests bundles got too dense, and while it started off challenging, it soon became too easy even on hardest difficulty. That's different in HZD. I was not expecting much; my expectations are entirely left behind. I couldn't stand the horrid voice acting in Skyrim and the idiotic writing, and that damn world filled with apples and cups. HZD gets it right: It simplifies everything, leaving all the small bits to your imagination (not that there's no detail, quite the contrary, it's very very meticulously done, it's just that you can't pick it up and stick in in your inventory). The voice acting is top-notch (not everywhere but where it counts). The writing is very good, even if the premise is utter nonsense (machine animals?!), but I can suspend my disbelief if the rest is decent. It's exceptionally well orchestrated. And speaking of orchester, the music is really noteworthy. The costumes and makeup are good. The way the protagonist moves is good. Even the climbing is good. There is some rudimentary level-up system that seems to be stolen from the Far Cry series, as is much of the crafting, but the rest seems stolen from the Witcher, and that speaks for it. Horizon Zero Dawn even does Monster Hunter World better than MHW: The beasts are not giant bullet sponges, there are real meaningful tactical choices to make, and even the "little" machines are fun and challenging. Even the weapons are better than MHW. This is turning into the best FPS-ish RPG I've ever played (back in the day, that was the original Deus Ex). I play it on a decent laptop, on which it performs without a hitch. It comes highly recommended.

This kind of a warning. I -->really<-- enjoyed the game, the story, the mechanics, the world you name it. Progression is slow item wise which makes the skill progression (both of you and Aloy) more meaningfull. The reveal was a cool WTF Moment, which I did not experiance in any other game so far. Really cool. HOWEVER: and this is a gamble I think. I could not complete the game because it keeps crashing. On my old rig, it was not that much of an issue, once in 90 minutes or so the game would hang, freeze everything and after a cold start I could keep going. Then I got a new rig and it went from not so good to totally fragged up: I am at the next to last mission, and when I open a certain door the games crashes to desktop. This might have something to do with my graphics card (ati 6700) but no info from customer support from the publisher and all youtube help I could find did not resolve the issue. I watched the ending on youtube to have some closure... these are the 2 stars I deducted. I sincerly hope that Forbidden West is a better port when it comes out. Cheers!