About:
Consoles: Playstation5
Released: 2022
Fixes: Open World Play, Post-Apocalyptic Stories, Giant Maps, Sequels Better Than Their Predecessors
Warning! This is a post about a game sequel, so if you don’t want plot points of Horizon Zero Dawn spoiled, turn away now!
The Download
A few months ago, Aloy learned that she was a clone of a thousand-years-dead scientist, Elizabet Sobeck, and the truth about what Zero Dawn was for. While she may have temporarily saved her people from HADES, the world itself is still going to die in a few months unless she can find Sobeck’s world-building creation, GAIA, and bring her components back online.
Aloy has to travel far and wide to the Forbidden West, fighting new enemies, meeting new tribes, and finally learning how to trust others and let them in.
It’s-A Me, [Protagonist]!
The game-world’s favorite red-head, Aloy (voiced by Ashly Burch), is back, and everyone is kissing her feet because she saved their behinds from the Carja. Despite being under some immense pressure, I enjoyed Aloy so much more in this game. Her interactions with other characters felt less stiff, I feel like they gave her more dialogue to explain her thoughts and feelings, and she now had some friends to tell her to relax once in a while.
NPCs: Notable Paramours & Chums
Eventually you’ll unlock a base where Aloy’s allies go and hang out after helping her on missions, and even though there’s not a lot of choice in this dialogue, I think just having her check in with each person and get their thoughts goes a long way to making the world feel lived in. My Oseram boy, Erend (voiced by John Hopkins), is still around, and watching him use a Focus and learn about Old World stuff is endlessly amusing to me.
My favorite new characters are Kotallo (voiced by Noshir Dalal) and Alva (voiced by Alison Jaye), but, honestly, I liked something about every ally. Even smaller side characters like Chief Hekkaro were fun to get to know. Aloy still spends a lot of time traveling alone, but most of the main and side missions include someone for her to bounce ideas off of, and it goes a long way to making the world feel more lived in.
Finish Them!
So many baddies in this game (although still an extra special FU to Ted Faro from HZD). Sylens (voiced by Lance Reddick) is still lurking about causing havoc and taunting Aloy for what she doesn’t know. I can’t talk about some of them without spoiling, but I have to give a shout-out to one we meet early on, Regalla, a Tenakth rebel with a serious chip on her shoulder who is voiced by certifiable Badass Angela Bassett. She’s fun to hate.
Leveled Up
I had a lot of issues with the first game, to the point where I was not planning on playing the sequel, but the beautiful trailers sucked me in. I’m so glad they did! The game devs improved upon everything I couldn’t stand in the first game:
- Game Mechanics. Using the “Focus vision” to highlight things was so much easier to understand. You can fast forward through day or night. The vistas were easier to look at and so crisp. Having played it first on the PS4 and then again on the PS5, I couldn’t believe how quickly fast traveling from campfires could be on the PS5. You can now auto pick-up most plants and things around the world, and if your pack ever filled up it just automatically went to your stash that you could access at any rest area (LIFE changing, I SWEAR.).
- Fighting. SO MUCH BETTER. I do still have some issues with it (in close combat I could never jump out of the way fast enough and was forever getting knocked down) but overall it was like night and day. It was easier to highlight what specific parts you wanted to knock off.
- Better Balance of Cut Scenes. I will grant that the first game had a lot of heavy “historical” world-building to do in a tough way, but in this one it was much easier to learn things organically through the gameplay, and there were way fewer “flashback” scenes to sit through.
- The Map. This open-world is HUGE. There is so much to do and explore, and for the most part, there was just enough of each thing that it didn’t feel overly repetitive. The diversity of the landscapes was so fun to wander around and discover new weather conditions, abandoned buildings, or hidden treasures. And just wait until you can FLY. (Probably the best part about replaying is getting to unlock the Sunwing mount way earlier in the game.)
You Have Died Of Dysentery
Honestly…aside from very minor things here and there (WHY was it so hard to obtain owl feathers?!), I can’t think of anything negative to say! I had so much fun playing, I easily sunk more than 100 hours into each playthrough, which I did not expect on my second time around.
Press “F” To Pay Respects
- The Customization. I love when games allow you to quickly adjust your level of difficulty without restarting the entire mission. I like a challenge, but I also don’t want to do the same boss fight 10+ times because I am just not coordinated enough to get the timing right. There were also a lot of great accessibility options that should be a staple feature in ALL modern games.
- Pour one out again for the ropecaster weapons. I still couldn’t get the hang of them!
- The Las Vegas desert area may have been my favorite visuals, aside from the last area of the map you unlock (spoilers!). That underwater dome area—SO cool.
- The Black Box collectibles. You learn more about the final war by hearing from pilots of downed planes that Aloy finds as she travels about. It’s a bit morbid, lol, but it was also a cool way impart more worldbuilding aside from just reading the old text messages and emails.
- On the other hand, I quickly ran out of patience for the Vista collectibles, where you overlay an image of the old landscape with the new and then get some background on it. It was cool, but I could rarely figure out the right location to stand without help from the internet, and it was too fiddly for my liking.
Why You Should Pick Up The Controller
Newbies to experienced gamers can surely pick this game up and have a good time. There’s so much to do, but also plenty you can choose to “skip” out on if you just want to focus on the main story. It’s truly a beautiful game to play—how often do you willingly stand around to watch an in-game sunset??
After The Credits
While the Burning Shores DLC isn’t overly huge, and some gameplay moments feel a bit repetitive, I do think it was worth purchasing as a go-between to the next game, as the Jurassic Park-like movie franchise from the Old World that peppers the collectibles and story beats was pretty funny. There’s also a romance for Aloy (if you choose to go that route) and the final in-game appearance we’ll see from the late Lance Reddick (sob) (granted, I have no idea how his death will or won’t impact Sylen’s continued role in the games, but even if they get someone else to mimic his voice for the role, it’s just not going to be the same.).
Do you have a preference for the first or second game if you’ve played both? What was your favorite part? Let us know in the comments!
