This isn't a proper review: I've only played the game about 10 hours. Too long for a refund, too short for a review. So far, the game seems to run quite well, it hasn't had a single crash or even bug on me, and it looks and sounds great. I'm on a Ryzen 5 5600X, 16G memory and an RTX 2080. Running at 4K, I can set basically everything on High and use DLSS Quality mode for a pretty solid 60FPS. Content-wise it's a more mixed bag. I think Aloy as a main character is pretty okay: It's cool that we're getting a female lead who isn't overly sexualized but instead a competent human being. There is still a whiff of "the chosen one" type character building here, this time through some tech Aloy finds at the beginning of the game. The problem with that is, this is never really adressed between the characters of the game, so eventually it's functionally like being just another chosen one. What isn't so hot is the game hasn't really pulled me in to its world or plot. I get that 10 hours isn't that long to play in the general RPG scale, but honestly, 10 hours SHOULD be enough to build something. But within our 10 hours there's not really any characters around to care for, nor anything I'd be super excited to explore. The one real plot twist in the opening was so easy to anticipate and so worn out I actually blew a raspberry at my screen when it happened, thinking "Really? Really?" So, for now, I'm giving the game 3 stars out of five for excellent presentation and some intriguing elements, but for lacking any real pull into the world or plot.
