I was warned going into Horizon: Zero Dawn. How it was poorly written with pretty vapid gameplay. However, I ignored the warnings mainly for the main character's design and idk the fact you can fight robot fucking dinosaurs!
I recall a video essay by Super BunnyHop titled "How Design Trends Ruin Great Games." In it, he discusses games that follow a generic gameplay loop, down to the same control scheme, and how that naturally creates a very mundane and forgettable experience. Compare that to more interesting games with unique gameplay loops and control schemes (i.e. Resident Evil 4, FF7: Remake, and Nier: Replicant), and the derivative stuff becomes more of a thorn at my side.
Horizon: Zero Dawn is the first time this problem has ruined what is overall an interesting game. The combat is pretty good. There is a nice weight to hitting things with your spear and bow. The environment lends itself to multiple approaches to completing a situation. It is pretty good until you realize the climbing is like Uncharted, the crafting and overworld is like Far Cry, and the skill tree is like pretty much every action adventure game that came out in the last decade.
This extends to the story as well. The backstory is basically Nier albeit less convoluted. The main character is a standard fantasy outcast that ends up being the destined hero. In fact, there are so many tropes in this game from fantasy racism to mentor getting killed to motivate the hero.
I struggle to think of anything that is truly its own other than the aforementioned character design and the fact you can fight robot dinosaurs. Was that literally the only reason I forced myself to keep playing despite finding it utterly boring? There has to be more to this game than just that.
I suppose, when digging deeper, this game is quite the spectacle. I loved traveling through the landscape with my robo-Yoshi. The sequence where you traverse a mountain lab is the highlight of this quality.
It seems this game is a series of little moments that are just fun enough to string you along. Fun in both a good and bad way.
Horizon: Zero Dawn turns into a bad movie night with its cutscenes.
There is a little term called exposition that gets thrown around a lot in story writing. It is a term that I feel most story writers wish they can do without since most narrative innovations since the dawn of time have been ways to curtail exposition. We invented "show don't tell." NES games supplied exposition into their manuals. Star Wars and David Lynch's Dune front loads its exposition just to get it over with.
The thing is that humans don't talk in exposition. However, in a narrative, it is a necessary evil so that an oblivious audience understands what is going on. A good story has to placate that while maintaining the balance so that characters speak authentically. Nothing is more immersion breaking than a character speaking in script rather than in dialogue.
What this has to do with Horizon is that it does the complete opposite of everything I just said. The story is mainly exposition. Every scene needs to establish a scene, some stakes, or what the character has to do next. Every scene has to communicate something about the world.
It leads to a story that lacks a lot of character. It is not subtle when you enter a scene and just see the exposition. It feels like a summer camp scavenger hunt run by a very efficient counselor. "Hey we can't waste anymore time. We got to search for the next thing." Horizon: Zero Dawn lacks any sense of play. This stands out when the characters "banter." Often, Aloy will say a quip. It will bounce off the other character with no more than a slight recognition. Then, they will continue babbling about the next mission.
Some might say that the dialogue is merely being economical. It is trying to mesh as much character, world building, and exposition into one scene. And normally, I would applaud that. Harry Potter does it pretty well. However, and this is a big 'however,' the difference is that Horizon lacks any creativity. Every scene is either one of two things. It is either a typical trailing scene where you follow or watch characters play a scene in game. Or, it is a basic shot-reverse shot exchange with no visual flair.
It doesn't help that the dialogue has no cleverness. Beyond the Joss Whedon banter, they don't convey any personality with the characters. Aloy, for instance, has nothing going beyond saving the world. She has no goals and no passion. At least give her a love of crossword puzzles. SOMETHING.
That's the frustrating truth about Horizon. It is the popular high school girl that is too afraid of being different in fear of being marginalized. But in turn, she becomes dull and superficial as a result. I understand there is a draw to this game. It clearly has some creative energy. However, it is afraid to go into that next ambitious step.
The Horizon series has had the displeasure of being released next to really fantastic games. The first and second game were released in the same window as Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring respectively. The thing with both of those games is that those games are more flawed than Horizon. Excluding the story, both games have jank that keep it from being truly wonderful. That said, I found those games far more memorable than Horizon. It shows that polish doesn't always mean quality.
I doubt I will remember this game once I finish this review. The only inkling of a memory will be the following: "Oh yeah, the video game that defined compelling boringness."
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