Horizon: Zero Dawn

ES wrote:Looks like a 5-7 hour game, will play it nonetheless

M99 wrote:Mole saw the words "Witcher 3" in one of the many sentences related to the game and is overhyping it imo.

M99 wrote:What I took from the trailer the visuals are gorgeous but the voice acting and dialogue is shit.

When it comes to this world, we've apparently not seen anything yet, either. Guerrilla has revealed that there will be ancient cities to explore and vast old remains of previous civilisations, complete with long dead human inhabitants. We've only encountered small settlements so far, but in her quest to find the answers of her heritage, Aloy will explore enormous areas that once belonged to her original non-robot hunting ancestors. The studio is remaining tight lipped on details but says some of these will be tied into the narrative, others will just be uncovered through exploration.

Adding further depth to its open world, Horizon doesn't just have a main narrative to explore. Side quests of all sorts fill that enormous map just screaming 'waste hours in me.' And Guerrilla knows it. “You might notice some of the blue diamonds [marking missions]. Each one of those is a side quest," explains the lead quest designer. "You can talk to people and figure out what their problem is, give them some help if they need it. We have a hierarchy of quests."

"We have the main story and then below that we have Tribe quests which are kind of national level. So think of each of these tribes having big picture problems that affect everyone. Then below that there are the more personal stories. Those are some of the things that we’ll see in a place like Mother’s Crown where someone has something that’s very important to them - it’s very urgent but it doesn’t affect the entire world.”

Speaking of affecting the world. There are dialogue options that function as an added narrative layer but won't change the broader narrative. They're merely a way of discovering different things about this unique environment. Engage villagers in conversation and you'll get more information about the tribes, adding ever more answers to your quest for truth.

And all of this layers on top of a crafting system that utilises the resources through the world perfectly. Collect bits from hunting and you'll be rewarded with components. Items like metal shards can be used for buying goods from shops in villages but also for building your own weaponry and we've already seen how exciting that gets with explosive arrows. Looks like there'll be some tough choices ahead. Mmm, bombs or new clothes which are more resistant to specific enemy attacks...?

Horizon will constantly keep you balancing crafting and resources in the hunt for an even more powerful arsenal. Each weapon even has modifiers that you can equip that come from hunting creatures in the world. More powerful enemies store more powerful goods so you'll always be risking life and limb for the next hit of cogs.

During a hands-on session that followed the demo, I got to try out some of Aloy's ranged and melee abilities in a sequence where I was challenged to complete a number of objectives. These included things like taking down a set number of watchers and overriding bigger creatures and then riding them to attack a group of other Machines. It was intense and challenging, in part because the enemies are quite intelligent, never staying in one place for too long and attacking from all sides. It's thrilling to be in a battle with these unique-looking beasts. And the numerous ways in which you can defeat them brings about an element of strategy that I was not expecting.