A New Dawn--Horizon Zero Dawn

After 79.9 hours of play, I've officially finished my first playthrough of the excellent Horizon Zero Dawn! If you're a PC gamer who hesitates over console games that make the migration over to PC, it's one that is worth checking out.  It doesn't go on sale very frequently, so try to grab it on the rare occasions that it does (although, it's one that would be worth paying full price for).

Pros:

+ Gorgeous environments.  The world of Horizon Zero Dawn sprawls across snow capped mountains, grassy, forested valleys, dusty, dry deserts, and lush jungles.  Each zone has its own unique beauty and the changes in biome offer much variety.  Another fun feature tied to the environment is that the weather effects vary based on the biome--occasionally snow will gently fall in the snowy areas; dust storms kick up in the desert zones and can make it difficult to see; and windy, rainy storms can pop up in the grassier areas.  The world is sprinkled with evidence of the "old world"--rusted ruins of a technologically advanced society that no longer exists.

Aloy overriding a Tallneck.

+ The tribes who inhabit the different areas of the map each have their own unique look and story.  The Nora are a matriarchal society led by elder priestesses; the Carja are ruled by a hereditary king and occupy a great stone city set into the desert cliffs; the Banuk live high in the mountains and have a more spiritual connection with the machines that occupy the world; the Oseram are tinkers who have an almost steampunk feel.  It's fun to explore and encounter the many different groups and learn about their histories.

+ Large, sprawling world that isn't overwhelming.  The 79.9 hours that I played was a fairly completionist playthrough--I tried to complete all the side tasks and errands in addition to the main story (*this also included the Frozen Wilds DLC).  I didn't find myself hitting too much of a wall or that the world was needlessly chocked full of repetitive tasks to complete (I'm looking at you Assassin's Creed).

+ Collectibles that aren't a PITA to find (some people might not like this).  You can purchase maps (cheaply too!) that show the general area where collectibles are located.  They don't show you the exact location and you still have to do some searching, but they aren't too difficult to locate.  I appreciated this as I am someone who doesn't have the patience to meticulously search for every single item.  *I did not find all the logs--those are scattered all over the map and it seems to be mostly a matter of luck to come across them.

+ Combat that is challenging.  Fighting humans isn't anything too remarkable, but fighting machines is where the fun is at.  Each machine is unique and has a variety of weak points that can be exploited to make killing them easier--to be successful at the combat in HZD you need to figure out the best way to slow or disable machines and can't just blindly fire away.  I played it on the normal difficulty and found the combat to be just the right amount of challenge--not so much that I was constantly dying, but enough that it was challenging.  Some of the larger machines can be quite frustrating to fight because they are enormous and avoiding their attacks is difficult.  Combat also takes a bit of strategizing (something I feel like I failed at) to fully all the tools--traps, crowd control, etc.  There are numerous weapons to choose from and to use to customize your playstyle

+ The main storyline is very interesting and gets better as it progresses.  I won't spoil it for anyone, but I was pleasantly surprised at the direction that it ended up taking.  I liked the uniqueness of having tribal societies juxtaposed with advanced technology--it's definitely a unique game world.

+ Photo mode with tons of settings and options that allow you to capture the beautiful game world.  Also, the game tells you exactly where your screenshots are located so you don't have to go hunting for them.

+ New game+ mode that offers rewards for upping the difficulty level (you can unlock cosmetic features that aren't available on lower difficulty levels).  It's nice to have an incentive to replay on a higher difficulty.

+ I had zero technical issues (*It's worth mentioning here that I'm not the type of gamer who agonizes over framerates and making sure everything runs on ULTRA) and felt like the game ran very well.  There are reports of long loading times, but I didn't really have any issues.  

Cons:

- Traversal is sometimes needlessly overdramatic and that can make it feel clunky.  For example, you see a place to grab that is definitely within your leaping range--the game intentionally slows your leap to add to the drama (which does result in that heart dropping feeling that you're going to fall).  It's kind of fun at first, but I got a bit tired of it later on in the game.  Sometimes you expect the traversal elements to automatically work and they don't--like walking across a tightrope area and and falling off the side because for some reason your character decided not to hop on.

The snowy peaks of the Frozen Wilds are beautiful.

- Hunting grounds.  Scattered around the map are challenge areas called hunting grounds (they are optional...so yes, you could skip them) that have a series of themed, timed missions.  You receive tiered awards based on how quickly you are able to complete the challenges.  I did not enjoy these missions as I prefer a more stealthy playstyle that involves waiting to strike.  To achieve the highest level of award requires a lot of crazy running around and combat that just didn't jive with the way I wanted to play.  Sure, these areas are optional, but there's an entire set of side missions built around them.

- Side tasks/errands are pretty unmemorable.  A lot of finding, fetching, and not a lot of interesting content.

- Quick inventory menu is obnoxious--you have to use z and x to scroll forward or backward through a list of items.  I found this annoying when I was in the middle of combat and trying to switch up items like resistance potions, traps, and health potions.  I feel like this option could be made better for mouse and keyboard with some key binding options.

Recommendation:

I was initially pretty skeptical of Horizon Zero Dawn due to it being a console crossover, but I ended up really enjoying it.  It's one of the few games that I would recommend paying full price for (the complete edition includes the Frozen Wilds DLC and is priced at $49.99).  The game world is unique, the main storyline is interesting, and the combat hits just the right level of difficulty.