Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

My holiday weekend was less than stellar, mostly because I was on-call and got several alerts on several nights during the wee hours. Grrr.

However, it was not without some good. One of the high points was a new game: Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games) which is available for the PS4 (currently on sale for about $40).

HZD is an open world, third-person POV, quest-structured game along the lines of the Far Cry or Elder Scrolls, but in my opinion HZD is far and away superior to those others and primarily for one single reason: the writing.

The setting is a post-apocalyptic future filled with pre-industrial tribes for whom our history has receded into the realm of myth and legend. Some tribes are less advanced than others, but almost all of their technology is sourced from the hostile, autonomous “machines” that roam the world. These machines, holdovers from before civilization’s collapse, are both a mystery and a danger to the humans. Physically, the machines usually conform to established morphological types — “grazers” are modeled after antelope, “broadheads” look like mechanical longhorns — but this is superficial as machine behavior is more complicated and innovative than just functioning as mechanized fauna. They are resource gatherers, using biomass to fuel their needs and to feed the “cauldrons” where new machines are made, and they provide human “machine hunters” with high-tech resources for crafting supplies.

The main storyline follows Aloy (rhymes with “eloi”), an outcast member of a hunter-gatherer tribe, the Nora. First, she strives for acceptance among her own people, but soon is drawn into investigations of the mysteries of her world and of her own heritage. This alone is unusual, in my experience; most open world games I’ve played have a single, unwavering goal for the main quest with many challenges but very little change along the way. In HZD, the main quests function less like chapters in a book and more like books in a series: same characters, but the quests change in tone and purpose as new information is revealed and as the character evolves. Rather than one big mystery to be solved, there are many, each one leading us to the next.

Some gamers will not like the fact that the main character is female, with no option to swap to a male. Tough cookies, Buster. Go play any of the bazillion other games that have male-only choices. For my money, Aloy’s sex is integral to her conflict, her challenges, and her attitude. Plus, I’m a sucker for redheads.

HZD has many things to recommend it: stunning graphics, a very easy-to-use controller layout, excellent sound effects and audio cues, and a wide assortment of main and side quests (including errands, challenges, and ongoing tutorials that appear whenever you acquire a new weapon or tool). While many other games have these traits, HZD has them all and in spades.

Take the visuals, just as one example. The natural world is incredibly varied — snow-capped mountains, high deserts, deep lakes, dense jungles, boreal forests, grassy steppes — and it never looks “generated.” Grasses, for instance, don’t all bend together in the wind; each stem bends on its own, in the same direction as the others, but not in unison, giving it a very natural behavior.

But it is the writing that has kept me rapt for nearly two weeks, now. This is the first open world game where I have actually watched (and learned from) all of the cut scenes (those cinematic style conversations I usually skip through). In HZD, the voice actors do an excellent job in putting emotional subtext into their lines, and each tribe’s culture is teased out in the dialogue, so we learn about the culture, politics, and history in an oblique manner, rather than through big expository blocks. This, along with the variation in goals we see as Aloy (and other characters) grow and change, has kept me engaged long after I usually would have tired of it.

The interface is part Skyrim, part Lara Croft, plus the occasional “choose your path” interaction response. Thankfully, the game doesn’t get too deep into the “recipes” of crafting items, and there’s a lot more to do than merely clamber along ruined walls and solve puzzles. Another thing I like is that nothing in Aloy’s inventory is cosmetic; even the “outfits” have different strengths and purposes, unlike the useless add-on “skins” found in games like Gears of War, all of which have absolutely zero effect on gameplay (but are designed solely to deprive gamers of more cash).

In all things where a design choice is meaningful, HZD opts for a simpler interface rather than the baroque incarnations I find in many games of this type. When it comes to combat, instead of the bewildering array of Borderlands-style weaponry, or the mind-numbing weapon upgrade systems of Fallout or Bioshock, HZD keeps the number of weapon types small, each available in three “grades” of increasing potency. Aside from the specialized bows Aloy uses, there are refreshingly non-standard weapons, like tie-down launchers and slingshots, plus a variety of traps and trip-wire setters. Overall, this enhances my enjoyment of the game, because I’m not always trucking around looking for that one component that will give my Mark VII water-cooled laser repeater what it needs to overcome the Boss.

I have some nits to pick, of course. Sometimes the animation of people goes into “Creepy Valley” where my brain says “Ew, that ain’t right.” As with most games, this has to do with the motion of hair, the stiffness of hands and fingers, the rubbery nature of faces when talking, the waxy appearance of wet skin, and the lighting of teeth and tongue. And there was one voice actor who chewed a little more scenery than I cared for, but all these are minor quibbles.

Horizon Zero Dawn is a very interesting game with a depth of world-building that is strongly represented in the storyline and well thought out cultures (and their interactions). It is streamlined where it needs to be, and detailed where that aspect brings the most to the gamer’s enjoyment. I love this game. and after last year’s disappointments , that’s a welcome change.

k