Guerrilla Games' Horizon Zero Dawn Brings Beauty in Post Apocalypse

We’d dare say Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the biggest reveals Sony just did during E3 2015. It was easily a breath of fresh air coming from the company’s Killzone franchise, and it’s one surprising considering the huge leap from a post-apocalypse-by-nuke Earth into post-apocalypse-by-mother-nature world. And now that its release date is looming, we’re pretty sure you’ve got a lot of questions to ponder. Well, don’t fret. We got the chance to play Horizon Zero Dawn ourselves, and oooh boy was it nothing short of amazing.

We’d dare say Guerrilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the biggest reveals Sony just did during E3 2015. It was easily a breath of fresh air coming from the company’s Killzone franchise, and it’s one surprising considering the huge leap from a post-apocalypse-by-nuke Earth into post-apocalypse-by-mother-nature world. And now that its release date is looming, we’re pretty sure you’ve got a lot of questions to ponder. Well, don’t fret. We got the chance to play Horizon Zero Dawn ourselves, and oooh boy was it nothing short of amazing.

 

Let’s get this out of the way first – our journey in Horizon Zero Dawn was cut short, so we can’t exactly answer as much questions as we thought we could. But never let it be said that it wasn’t enough to give us a grasp of how it plays and what’s basically happening in the plot. And that's basically enough time to take in and enjoy the luscious scenery it offers.

Guerrilla Games’ Take on Open World

Horizon Zero Dawn is an open-world action RPG that tells the story of Aloy. It’s sort of a coming of age story, and that’s actually all that we can give. To say the least, you’ll get to see her character develop over the course of the game, and based on what we’ve seen, it’s going to be a long road ahead. It’s a good thing, mind you. The game is rich in storytelling and pacing is actually quite good. Word of note – decisions will play a great factor in your gameplay, or so we think.

Now, is currently the ongoing trend, and only a few have managed to pull off properly. I had the opportunity to talk with Roland Ijzermans, Lead Concept Artist at Guerrilla Games about Horizon Zero Dawn and asked him about what they did to not detract from the experience of the main game and not make the content mundane. 

“We have the luxury to work from a new narrative. Horizon Zero Dawn is new for everyone. So we invite players to explore more horizon by doing the side quests, or doing the other stuff that is around them. And I think that approach has helped to put the content in and not feel "mundane" as you say. A lot of content feels relevant. There is a player interaction with a certain tribe and by doing that extra content you're not just gaining levels, you're not just getting weapons or new armor, you are learning more on the background story,” Ijzermans said. 

Gorgeous Decima Eye Candy

Visually, Horizon Zero Dawn looks just damn impressive. Its post-apocalyptic setting, instead of dark, is vivid and beautiful. It’s as if Mother Nature took it upon herself to bring the world to what it is now, but she also took robot beasts in the equation. The amount of details in this game is quite rich, and the drawing distance is great that you aren’t exactly surprised with objects popping out frequently. 

Its lush post-apocalyptic setting is rich in details of vegetation, with animal life also present in some areas. Our test environment was the Phat PlayStation 4, and there should be more detail options with the Pro.  But basically, that already says a lot to how optimized the game is, and kudos to the developers for doing so.

That’s the basic environment of the game, and gosh darn the character models look beautiful. Just take a look at Aloy here. She’s our redhead heroine.

That’s also not limited to Aloy, mind you. Other characters including mechanical beasts are crafted beautifully, and fighting them with their visual effects look gorgeous eye candy. Stop over and enjoy the view, we say.

Aloy IRL. Equally beautiful.

Take them Head on/Use Your Wits

As far as the gameplay goes, Horizon Zero Dawn isn’t a straightforward affair. Its core gameplay mechanics bring you archery and melee, and you’ll get to use crafting a lot to make certain arrows or other materials for your weaponry. Stealth is actually well rewarded in the game, which will also be a part of certain game mechanics through the use of a special tool that lets you see the very details of your enemies. It’s up to you how to take on them. I might want to add, there were no QTEs during our playthroughs.

Go Gold; Stay Gold 

Day 1 Patch seems to also be a standard for this generation of gaming. We’ve seen AAA titles push tens of gigabytes of updates the moment you start them off, and it honestly detracts from the experience. Guerrilla Games announced had announced that Horizon Zero Dawn has gone gold last January 31st, that’s more than enough reason to celebrate, but fears of big day 1 patches are still looming.

“Our goal has been to put the entire game and all of its contents on to the gold master disc,” said Ijzermans. “And we have never [said] okay we’ll finish that later we’ll put it on day one patch. I know day one patches tend to grow in size.”

Do take note, the preview we played was the gold master version with no patches attached to it. Now, there may be patches that are technical like bug fixes and collision that may stop player progression. But it’s nothing major that would amount to expensive data overages. Whew.

Horizon Zero Dawn is slated for a February 28^th release. It looks to be one of the grandest ideas we’ve seen as of late for the PlayStation 4, and even more so with my undying love for post-apocalyptic material.