I am truly sorry to report that my recording of the first part of this series was completely broken and unsalvageable. I was unable to piece the recording and audio together in a way I was happy with, so I scrapped the entire episode. Thus explains why this one’s opening won’t make sense without the context. For this, I apologize but no point crying over something I couldn’t control.
Horizon Zero Dawn for the PS4 is Awe Inspiring
What I will say is that the opening for Horizon Zero Dawn is just fantastic. It manages to build a harsh world in moments. It allows you to sympathize with Alloy, the main character, and sets a tone of fear and awe. After being a hero for a man who had fallen and was about to be killed by the roaming robots. We come out to get hit in the face with a rock and have a choice to make which is where this episode begins.
The choice wheel is pretty interesting
Growing Up One Montage at a Time
Rather than being a simple good or evil choice, you get some interesting stand-ins. From what I’ve seen in the future this will change based on the situation laid before you. You can use your brains, brawn, or heart in this first choice. Deciding not to make the situation worse I decided to drop the rock and let the kids be on they’re way.
Rost, our fatherly figure walks into the scene as we explain what happened and gather some useful knowledge. We learn that we could be accepted if we accomplish something called “The Proving”. But it will take a lot of training and years to be ready. Thankfully this boils down to a quick montage, that’s honestly fun to watch. The part where they transition from young Alloy to teen Alloy is just fantastic.
They grow up so fast when the story demands it
Horizons Missions Structure
After being placed back into gameplay we learn that it’s just two days before “The Proving” but Rost is nowhere to be found. After checking out the menus and grabbing some of the local plant life we find Rost atop a cliff overlooking the world. We learn that we’re ready to take on “The Proving” but we need to get some fire arrows, help old Grata and prepare for something that goes down at night. We hop off the cliff onto a zip-line and begin our adventure in full.
Getting around the world in Horizon is fun
A quick trip and we arrive at Old Grata who won’t talk to us directly since we’re an outsider. But thanks to her ramblings we piece together that we need to go retrieve her beads. Which I’m still confused as to how they got way across the map in the first place, but I digress.
Hunting Animals and Robots
The general gameplay is fun, you use a bow to hunt animals and takedown robots. You can craft new arrows on the fly thanks to all the consumables you pick up along the way. We start with some rabbits but soon enough take on the robots that roam the world. If you make every arrow count than taking them down isn’t too much of a challenge. Just dodge when needed, take aim with the bow and use stealth in tall grass to your advantage. Using parts collected from downed enemies you can improve your bow with some slight perks.
You can modify weapons in so useful ways.
Getting SideQuest Distracted
Climbing in Horizon Zero is a lot like Uncharted’s
After climbing to where the beads are for Grata, we start our trek back. After a super cool rappel down the cliff. We run into a person who has been hurt by the robots, he gives us our first side quest. We have to save his daughter and the rules of talking to an outsider be damned. Unfortunately, I am only level 3 and this quest recommends I be level 4 so I’m going to have to hold off on helping him. Returning the beads to Grata we get a pretty lazy thanks as she still doesn’t talk to use directly but I suppose it’s the thought that counts.
Stealth and Tripcasters
For the last length of this episode, we try out some stealth on some honestly dumb robots. When you whistle to make robots come check you out in the tall grass, they come one by one. This makes taking down a whole herd painfully easy. As once you got the jump on them it’s already over. But being able to go from stealth to open combat and back to stealth is pretty exhilarating.
The first character who isn’t a total asshole to an outsider
For the ending we meet Karst who isn’t afraid to talk to an outsider, he’s a cool character that we’ll probably see a lot of. Seeing as he’s the shopkeeper who’s willing to help us. We buy a TripCaster which is an electric trap setter and call that an episode.
Hey, if you’re playing Horizon Zero Dawn let me know what you think in the comments below or over on Youtube! Next up we take on some sawtooths and dig into sidequests!