Horizon Zero Dawn

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Horizon Zero Dawn: Applause filled the entire audience at E3 2015. That was the audience’s reaction and PlayStation fans to the spectacular and exhilarating performance of the show’s mysterious new game from developer Guerrilla Games.

The battle between the fierce giant robot and the new heroine made people “around their lips,” “open their eyes” with graphics that could not be more beautiful at that time!

Then the last screen showed the name “Horizon Zero Dawn.”

That alone is enough to bring a lot of anticipation for Horizon Zero Dawn when this is the first action role-playing game from Guerrilla Games – a company specializing in FPS (first-person shooter) with Killzone series games.

However, that is not why fans and gamers feel “secure” before the company’s bold move, when their most recent product, Killzone: Shadow Fall, was not as expected – understandable with a product. That was hastily completed to quickly launch in the early days of PlayStation 4’s release at that time!

After a while, Horizon Zero Dawn continues to return at E3 2016 (and other big and small events), with a series of new information to warm up and “reassurance” the spirit of those waiting, and at the same time. Do not forget to “ignite the fire,” creating a hot “hype” for Horizon Zero Dawn; almost all eyes are on this game.

Is the game worth the wait? Or will it continue to “follow” the failure of Killzone: Shadow Fall of its day?

And in order not to make you wait any longer, the writer would like to invite readers to Biareview’s review to see if Horizon Zero Dawn is worthy of all expectations!

“It’s been 7 hours already?!” – Yes, that’s what surprised the writer when he realized he had “accidentally” played for 7 hours non-stop right from the very beginning of the game!

The writer seems to have forgotten all the time when immersed in the world of Horizon Zero Dawn. The total battle time in Horizon Zero Dawn is probably more than 50 hours.

That “teases” to let readers know how “fascinating” the game is!

Horizon Zero Dawn performed “flooded” in the first moments and gradually increased its magnificence to “cross-eyed” the player until the last moments.

Guerrilla Games brings players to a new world that is always full of unique “unprecedented” landscapes.

A distant post-apocalyptic world, following the style of “tribal punk” (tribal) mixed with “cyberpunk” (machinery), where you will encounter typical images of North American Indians, with culture The unique locality through the way of life and activities, through the shape of tents and villages, through the decoration of rustic colors interwoven with the near-future architecture, and full of desolation. All The whole area is covered with a dark green color of trees, luxuriant vines, decaying.

Guerrilla Games is extremely confident in designing a “dreamlike” world for Horizon Zero Dawn!

And thanks to the art direction aspect that is done so well, that any scene presented in front of the eyes is enough to make the player have to spend a “tiny” time just to… take pictures (via Photomode), that’s it!

The outfit that Horizon Zero Dawn wears not only shows beautiful, artistic scenes, but the game also possesses a lot of “expensive” weather effects such as rain – fog – sandstorm – snowstorm. The time effect changes from the morning – noon – afternoon – evening or until the clouds are built to be as close to real-life as possible and provide realistic lighting effects with the ability to cast shadows on all objects in the environment dynamically.

The “civil” effects are indispensable in recent game titles such as Volumetric Lighting, creating sunlight through trees. Ambient Occlusion (false shadows for objects with more depth), Reflection not only in water surfaces but also on metal surfaces, sunlight from the environment also appear and “polished” the look of Horizon Zero Dawn.

What Guerrilla Games brings can be called a “small” turning point on the PS4 (and even more if played on PS4 Pro), making Horizon Zero Dawn one of the few titles with the “suit” is the most beautiful at the moment for Sony’s console.

Not only that, but they also provide up to 26 robots with limbs, muscles, and parts that work differently to every little detail.

That is also the focus of the outstanding graphics of Horizon Zero Dawn’s already beautiful pictures!

From the majestic tall giraffe (Tallneck), the extreme fear of a saber-toothed tiger (Sawtooth) ready to “scratch” the player, to the robots infected with “Corruption” become much more brutal and brutal.

They all have their animations in the environment and completely different ways to attack the player, extremely flexible without any awkwardness.

The artisans do it so well that they make the player feel their “push,” their momentum, or their hits that make Aloy – our heroine, be knocked off naturally and “already” how.

An important point that cannot be ignored is background music, which will continue to make players more attracted to Horizon Zero Dawn than ever.

Right from the opening, the background music gradually plays, gently inviting players to quickly “feel” and “absorb” what is about to happen in the great journey that follows.

The vocals are amazing, blending seamlessly with the excellent mixology, creating an unforgettable soundtrack with a majestic and mysterious sound!

The sound of the surrounding environment is also extremely vivid, from the growl of a robot somewhere far away, the sound of birds singing behind the foliage, people chatting, or even calling for help!

The voice acting has played its role too well, contributing to the story of Horizon Zero Dawn becoming “more beautiful” than ever!

The emotional levels, the jokes or the social conversations between the NPCs in the village area, the kingdom, every sound of howling. Sometimes there is a “fear” part of the robots are all featured meticulous care and serious implementation to bring the best feeling to players in the world of Horizon Zero Dawn.

Especially our main “rose,” which the writer will mention below, creates a fuller part, a full color but perfect for both the image and the sound.

Contributing significantly to creating a catalyst for the world and story in Horizon Zero Dawn, the developer brought the main character full of personality and curiosity, highly curious, but still charming and human.

And that rose is named Aloy – a “pagan” with a mysterious identity since birth. She is cared for and taught by Rost, a pagan. As she grows older, Aloy has more questions about her life and herself, and they take her on a great journey she never thought possible.

Aloy’s journey, the stories, and the troubles of the lands she travels through are multidimensional and profound.

They are shown very well through selected dialogues with NPCs; Aloy will be able to meet many companion characters with distinct, approachable, and interesting personalities thanks to the well-written dialogue script, attracting players to watch non-stop!

Another quite commendable thing is that the world of Horizon Zero Dawn has multi-ethnicity; players can even meet Asian ethnicities.

Strength in conveying emotions and stories has never been a strong point of Guerilla Games, but with Horizon Zero Dawn, it is the opposite.

The world in the game also presents information through ruins placed hidden in a certain area. Sometimes they contain audio recordings, documents about events that once took place at this place.

The plot, cutscenes, emotional sequences, dialogue act as catalysts and blend these elements powerfully, along with a well-balanced gameplay flow between exploration, combat, and gameplay the ability to lead through the main – side quests. Making us feel like we’re playing an action-adventure game rather than a mere action role-playing game.

The story above is deep enough; the bottom is “seasoned” about the “lore” of the new world and the conflicts of the tribes and villages in Horizon Zero Dawn.

The game is very good at “distracting” players thanks to its skillful steering and always urges the desire to learn and explore.

Besides, the natural way of introducing quests and the environment in the game learn quite well from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (understandably, the game’s mission design is done by the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt!).

However, Horizon Zero Dawn is still unique enough to escape the shadow of the seniors thanks to its inherently unique context and the diversity in the player’s expression and approach.

It is possible that although he also went from A to B to save C, the different stories and situations make that mission new and not boring.

They all link specifically to the context of Horizon Zero Dawn, not just making it possible to create enough depth and connection for the main and side quests to the game’s world.

Some of the game’s missions will be “unlocked” if the correct choice is made in some sequences, other decisions will shape Aloy’s personality and affect NPCs. However, these options are not many and are a bit “straight” but not complex enough.

The main tasks are always enough to “paint the delicious breaded flavor” for players to enjoy, stretching and diverse, with many subtle hints.

Horizon Zero Dawn also allows players to create quests in the purchase section when talking to merchants. Since all of the combat support and purchase mechanics revolve around the crafting system, which requires materials, it’s very practical to have the “material hunt quest” feature!

However, that is still not enough to shape the game among the many unique open-world games out there. Horizon Zero Dawn also doesn’t hide its learning from other popular open-world games and has a better, more polished finish.

Players will still encounter familiar elements of the role-playing genre, such as the function of forging weapons and clothes (craft). Apply gems to increase stats, buying items at merchants; stats are imposed when hitting enemies, gain experience from battles or complete quests in Horizon Zero Dawn.

After that, when the amount of experience points is just enough to level up, the player will be rewarded to accumulate and upgrade skills that are extremely necessary for Aloy.

Aloy’s skill branch is divided into three columns: Prowler, Brave, and Forager.

Each branch has 12 different skills to upgrade gradually throughout the game.

Each skill has a certain “necessary” level to support the player as smoothly as possible during the battle with all kinds of robots and the villain’s forces.

That is also the time for Horizon Zero Dawn to shine. The Horizon Zero Dawn battle system is “exactly” in terms of “convenience” and “flexibility” as the usual quality action games like Far Cry: Primal or Rise of the Tomb Raider recently.

Depending on the situation, players will have many ways and approaches to battle.

For example, Aloy hides in the bushes, turns on Focus mode, and tracks the opponent’s path, steps, and weaknesses to trap and lure them, or sneak attacks on smaller weaklings, create a small advantage before the battle.

In addition, the combat mechanism can be flexibly rotated from long-range to close-quarter combat quickly when needed.

For example, set up a crippled electric trap, shoot a weak point with a “tearblast” arrow, add an ice arrow to reduce the “durability” of the stubborn robot, and then finish it off with a powerful bomb arrow!

In Horizon Zero Dawn, although the weapons are not as diverse as many other role-playing games, they also have different changes, creating a balance and necessary depending on the player’s situation.

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Most players will still use bows, guns with different attributes (ice, electric fire), sometimes even use the gun emplacements of some large robots or some oligarchs from the barracks.

And more interestingly, if the player discovers the Cauldron dungeons hidden throughout the map and “clears” them, Aloy will learn the ability “Overdrive” to turn robots (from small to large) into allies for a short period.

Talking about robot types, Horizon Zero Dawn has 26 robots with 26 different dangerous attack characteristics. They all have weaknesses for players to easily defeat and force players to fight carefully because they often follow the herd.

Horizon Zero Dawn also offers two types of mounts that both serve to move and allow players to “ride a horse and shoot a bow” or “roll” over a few small or equal-sized animals to deal damage.

Not to mention, the mounts can defend themselves and support the player in combat – although not very strong.

Another good thing is that despite knowing their weaknesses, it is difficult for players to easily catch cards because they constantly move, “load” densely, and then launch to respond to the player.

Even more surprising, all creatures have systems and interactions with the environment in Horizon Zero Dawn.

Sometimes, a few Watchers stood guard over the Grazers as “guards,” or sometimes Glinthawks were waiting to “rip apart” a nearby robot corpse, like hungry crows just waiting for their prey to die to eat meat.

A few other rare and petty cases, such as when the writer was “describing conflict” with the giant Thunderjaw, a few soldiers nearby also rushed in to “fight the council,” not long after, a merchant said that he witnessed Aloy kill the Thunderjaw. He exclaimed, “It’s cool, isn’t it!”.

Those small details more or less bring an interesting experience when “roaming” in the world of Horizon Zero Dawn.

The game has made the writer “addicted” to the feeling every time he sees a certain robot, and then the word “hunt” appears in his brain on its own!

Players can climb on top of Tallnecks to unlock hidden locations in the area. To avoid being thought of as “following” the tower climbing feature in Far Cry, Tallneck is surrounded by violent robots, or sometimes a nearby sentry camp that continues to create challenges and increase diversity form.

Even finding the Tallnecks and successfully climbing on them is a side quest!

Besides performing side quests, hunting monsters to collect items along the way, players can also test their abilities through two things “Hunting Ground” and “Corruption Zone.”

At Hunting Ground, players fulfill the required objectives to “promote” through badges that are considered rewards for the player’s efforts – with experience points, of course. !

I feel Hunting Ground is like a collection of high-level tutorials to show players the diversity of Horizon Zero Dawn’s combat style.

The Corruption Zone is a collection of robots infected with “red skin” poison.

They are strong and attack very fiercely when compared to when they were not poisoned. Don’t hesitate to hurl everything at you and rush forward in a frenzy.

Therefore, the best way is to take down the “shrimp” around first and then set traps to lure them in to draw blood and avoid too many casualties. When this area is cleared, the amount of experience points for players is also very good!

Horizon Zero Dawn’s side quest system is interesting but a bit less and somewhat simple.

The permissiveness of the artificial intelligence of robots and human opponents is also quite noticeable! The robots are extremely easy to be “tricked” when just whistling, and they will go to the exact location that the player wants and only really prove difficult to control when the player starts fighting.

Human opponents are not much better; most are quite passive, easily caught, and silly! When detected, they do not aggressively pursue players and need to hide carefully; the situation will “get back in there.”

And perhaps due to lack of time or because Guerrilla Games is too busy, Aloy’s interaction with villages and environments is also quite limited, especially the absence of mini-games small.

Of course, this is not necessarily a drawback, but they will be an interesting “side dish” for players to relax in between intense “heroic” battles.

Horizon Zero Dawn sometimes has minor bugs like the robot, after being defeated can dance on its own… “breakdance”! Or sometimes, Aloy is swimming and coming ashore. Instead of her going up slowly, she continues to move, swimming on the shore.

These minor errors do not affect the gameplay, but on the contrary, the writer had laughs to share with friends who are playing and talking!