In the end, the new beginning

In Horizon Zero Dawn, the player takes control of Aloy, a young girl outcast by her tribe, who embarks on an adventure to uncover her past and find a new purpose in the distant lands she now calls home. As she explores the world around her, Aloy will spot stunning landscapes and traverse massive environments ranging from lush forests to scorching deserts.

Along his journey, he will encounter hostile machines that roam alone or in packs. The machines are dynamic living beings with different levels of intelligence that behave according to their environment and their own survival needs. The game which was released on March 28, 2017, was developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4 and on August 7, 2020, for PC.



Characters from a new world

With a very deep and complex storyline, the game presents a narrative with many nuances and very striking characters, which make Horizon a very complete and enriching experience, because it presents us with themes dear to the society we live in today.

The unbridled evolution of technology, political, environmental, and social crises, family relationships, belonging, and, above all, the personal journey of one of the most well-produced heroines in current games, Aloy. 

Aloy's saga begins at a very early age. As a child under the guidance of Rost, her father figure, she learns the basics of survival, from collecting healing items to making her own arrows. Also at this stage, we find out that the girl and her guardian live in exile from their tribe because the girl is believed to be cursed.

It is interesting to mention that the society is of matriarchal order, but they do not accept a girl who was supposedly born without a mother. From this, we see an internal conflict in the protagonist, who tries to integrate herself into the group even though she receives only contempt. 



In the midst of her learning journey, Aloy falls into a cave and there discovers a kind of destroyed technological laboratory, which for the local tribes refers to a sacred people.

In this laboratory, the girl discovers a technological artifact that helps her in many ways, from opening doors and collecting accounts from those who lived in the "Old World" to following the steps of the metal creatures and understanding them with greater affinity. 

After these events, several years have passed and now we control a more mature version of Aloy, who has been preparing to face the Proving, a challenge proposed by the tribe so that she can get some of her answers since only through it is it possible to interact with the tribe again. The challenge is basically a test to practice everything we learned with Rost at the beginning of the game.

It is very intense and a lot of fun, and presents us with characters with real personal values and a sense of competition that motivates us to win. When we win this contest, we experience an unexpected and bloody moment, which brings to mind the actual conflicts we will face in Aloy's journey. 

After this initial stage of the game, we realize how much Horizon Zero Dawn will expand, narratively speaking. The world, divided into several tribes, has been facing major political issues, with the fall and rise of religious aspect groups such as the Carja of the Sun and the Carja of the Shadows.

In addition to the "current" issues of the post-apocalyptic world, we are introduced to the events, and people, responsible for the world being as it is in Aloy's time. We note how the unrestricted use of technology may not be the answer to all problems.

Horizon Zero Dawn manages, with great mastery, to involve you in its narrative. At every moment we are inserted into events that place us in a world with a lot of intrigues and that arouse curiosity about what, in fact, has been happening there. Personally, as a science fiction enthusiast, I was very engaged with the tragic history of the "Old World". 

Going into the huge machinery, with pipes that look like huge arteries feeding unprecedented technological artifacts, and seeing how that whole system was designed to produce an ideal world, but eventually failed in its mission, makes me reflect on the directions we take today, with our advances and supposed progress. The machines we face place us in front of an artificial nature, built to be better than biology itself, but which traps us and becomes our own executioner. The whole story of Horizon Zero Dawn serves the thought that human beings will always fail when trying to recreate the ideal world when it already exists, but this is not perceived because it does not hold within itself the ambitions of the human mind. 



Added to the narrative is the constant presentation of very interesting characters, whether for their obscure motivations and dubious dialogues, such as Olin, or Erend, a companion with a painful past who goes in search of his missing sister, while dealing with his own personal issues.

We face villains who seem to know what is really going on, or who are completely lost in a new world, brought about by old, mistaken choices. 

The other characters are also well-developed, always giving the player the feeling of belonging in a living world that reflects their reality.

In addition, the story is based on some elements of the pre-Columbian civilization of the Mexicans or Aztecs, highly evolved peoples for their time, either in the technological sense or in their social organization that is the subject of study until the present day.

But in talking about our protagonist, we come across one of the most remarkable characters today. Aloy has an epic story of rejection, growth, and heroism that builds from an early age and follows in a crescendo that connects us to the character and her personal values. Each choice we make presents us with a different but consistent Aloy.

Each new stage in the narrative saga puts us in a privileged position of being, at the same time, the protagonist and the observer of this exile who goes on to become the salvation of a lost people, without losing her simple personality and constant sarcasm. She is determined and very resilient, the result of a troubled life. But this does not put down her humor and optimism, which is very inspiring as well.

She presents herself as one of the great game heroines, such as Lara Croft, Amicia, and Cereza, and has her place secured by her personal story and the narrative decision to give the player the power to choose her dialogues and directions.



Surviving Amidst the Chaos

The gameplay in Horizon Zero Dawn offers a variety of systems that are interconnected and work together to give players a rich experience. The game has various interesting weapons, such as bows, spears, slingshots, rattles, and more. We also have a talent tree system that enhances our combat, stealth, or overall quality of life.

The combat is very nice and fluid but can be really intense, especially when facing creatures like the Burners and the Manbibbers. To face them, you will always be encouraged to try out different weaponry, attack their weak points, and develop your skills. Besides the combat against the Machines, we face human enemies that can be interesting, but not as interesting as a robotic crocodile, right? 

For more stealthy players, the game features a system that is vital and very important, as it allows the player to take advantage of the terrain to avoid combat and make their way through undetected areas since on higher difficulty levels, well-executed stealth means survival. However, at lower difficulty levels, Horizon becomes a much less threatening and, in my opinion, impoverished experience, as the use of resources is not fully necessary.

The world in Horizon is a spectacle! As we progress through the story, we come across increasingly rich territories with creatures completely adapted to their biomes. It's like going on a technological safari in a post-apocalyptic jungle. It's great to face robots that resemble saber-toothed tigers in ruined buildings or to ride Striders and run across vast plains full of wires and screens and metallic structures scattered everywhere.

Also, climbing the Pescotions, technological giraffes that extend your exploration capabilities feels like Shadow of the Colossus meets Jurassic Park.

The game also offers some interesting systems, such as a more polished inventory, an equipment customization system, and a wheel for creating weapons and resources reminiscent of the new Tomb Raider series and The Witcher 3. In addition, we have a system that keeps a record of events that have occurred or clues that the player has encountered during his journey that add a lot to the lore of the game. 



In my gameplay, I did not overlook any of the records I encountered because I was legitimately engaged in the story and interested in knowing the whys of the "Old World" civilization. It is worth noting that the exploration system is vast and open, allowing players to explore a world that only expands and gives us several objectives, collectibles, and very interesting side quests that introduce us to outstanding characters such as Nil and his drive to hunt down bandits. 

The game features a wide variety of different types of monsters with particular behaviors. They have different levels of intelligence that make them look like living creatures and have unique designs that, as I said before, blend well with their environments, which gives them a very realistic appearance that matches the locations. 



It is worth mentioning that some monsters are so large that fighting them is practically suicidal. Remembering that the player can use the stealth system of the game to discreetly pass by them and avoid detection, or can use different combat tactics to defeat them, such as elements in the scenarios or with variations in your arsenal. 

The creatures in the game also feature excellent AI that is adaptable and dynamic, making them behave like real-life creatures. For example, the larger monsters in the game have keener senses and can detect the player from a distance. Seriously: beware of the Thunderjaws!

In the Complete Edition, Horizon Zero Dawn includes the base game, The Frozen Wilds expansion, and the Carja, Banuk, and Nora costume and equipment packs. 

During my gameplay, playing on a pc whose settings are: GTX 1650 4GB, i3 9100-f, and 16GB of memory, I faced some crashes that made me restart the game. I also noticed some performance problems that hindered my gaming sessions a bit. Compared to the Playstation version, Horizon still needs to be better optimized for PC. 

Although my settings are not the most up-to-date, they are still recommended for playing Horizon, so the performance issues should not appear. 

There is beauty in Horizon

The game features a stunning visual design that makes it incredibly immersive. All of the game's visuals are created with a lush style that utilizes vibrant colors that capture the vastness of the environments presented. The game features realistic and dynamic lighting that adds greatly to the immersion, as well as an impressive day and night cycle that brings the world of Horizon Zero Dawn to life.

You will stop to look at the cities, the settings, and the creatures that simply inhabit the place. The game has a cool photography system, which shows that Guerrilla Games knows they have made a beautiful game. If you like to look at the landscapes in the game, Horizon will make for good wallpapers! 

In addition, the visuals as a whole are highly detailed, featuring realistic and beautiful landscapes that are full of life. The cutscenes are also of high quality and employ the use of advanced techniques such as motion capture to bring the characters to life in a very realistic way, despite problems found in the faces of the characters, especially Aloy, which sometimes make her look silly and with hard, poorly realized expressions that don't communicate with the player. 

Being the protagonist, I think she would deserve more care on this point, especially since it dialogues with the narrative options that are presented to us and this can break the immersion a bit, or at least yield good laughs.



The soundtrack is a show by itself. It is an epic orchestral score that blends well with the gameplay, narrative, and settings of the game. The music is mostly slow and dramatic but also changes tone to become more action-packed and fast-paced during battles and key moments. Throughout the game, the soundtrack includes a variety of tribal songs that fit well with the setting and characters. 

The soundtrack also includes unique sound effects that blend in with the overall soundtrack, adding to the immersive nature of the game. The dialogs feature excellent voice-overs, which add greatly to the narrative as a whole, as each character's personality is developed very well in their dialogs.

For this review, Horizon Zero Dawn complete edition was played on PC, through the Steam platform.