Horizon Zero Dawn is the PS4's Killer App (Gaming)

by CyberKN , Oh no, Destiny 2 is bad, Monday, March 06, 2017, 17:42 (2828 days ago)

There's been a lot of times over the past few years where I've been burned by my own expectations regarding highly anticipated games.

Even when it's the same team working on sequel project that has no excuse not to be better then the previous instalment, I frequently found myself frustrated by perceived shortcomings or a nagging feeling that the game was rushed out the door without the polish or features one expects of a finished product.

That's not to say it's all doom and gloom - I've also been pleasantly surprised by masterfully-crafted games that totally flew under my radar until they were already out.

Horizon doesn't fit the latter- I've been excited about it since it's reveal trailer in 2014, but that excitement was tempered by the aforementioned disappointments and the tepid reception of the Killzone franchise, the previous works of Guerrilla Games.

Horizon did not meet my expectations. It surpassed them.

Is Horizon worth playing? Yes.

Is Horizon worth buying right away before a sale or price drop? Yes.

In the event that you don't own one already, is it worth going out and picking up whatever flavour of PS4 you've been eyeing just for this one game? Yes.

To me, Horizon is to open-world action-adventure games what Halo was to first-person shooters.

It's smart, it's fun, it know where to exercise restraint, where to shower the player in options, and does all this while spinning an original and satisfying sci-fi story (I've oft complained that so many game stories these days try to pass off obscurity as quality; not so here. If you pay even a moderate amount of attention, you'll gain a pretty solid understanding of the game's world and why things are happening the way they are, by the end)

And the game just goes! Multiple times I was thinking to myself "This has got to be the final battle/fight/quest objective", but the game kept going, and I was happy to oblige.

I want to keep talking about the combat and scope and art and visual fidelity and quality of writing, but I'm afraid I'll just start rambling, so suffice it to say all those things are stellar.

So... yeah. How's that Zelda? My Switch is stuck in transit somewhere.