They exist only to fulfill roles needed for the plot to develop, spouting information on political and cultural institutions, the back stories of cast members Aloy hasn’t met and other miscellanea better suited to an appendix than labored dialogue sequences. None of the characters feel like much more than chess pieces. The resulting story mixes a young adult novel’s shallow characterization-Aloy’s personality is nothing but bland heroism, occasional sarcasm and knowledge that she is the world’s “chosen one”-with the dull, self-obsessed historical cataloguing of bad science fiction novels eager to justify their conceits in exhaustive length. Zero Dawn isn’t content to allow this welcome sense of mystery to linger. On her journey to uncover her own history, she’s drawn across the entirety of the in-game map, taking in astonishing vistas littered with puzzling industrial wreckage, high tech machines and an array of robot creatures. Aloy is motivated to learn about why she had to be raised outside of the Nora tribe-why others say there’s something inherently wrong with her and is shunned as a result. The setting’s mix of familiar and strange sights draws curiosity. Unlike our own ancient past, the game’s humans live in an ecosystem where autonomous robot animals wander outside cities that range in sophistication from ramshackle collections of huts to a sprawling town surrounding an ornate, Gothic-spired palace. This incredibly realized setting, not allowed to exist for its own sake, is ultimately subsumed by a nearly endless array of activities and busywork, its beauty sacrificed to the god of Content.Īloy, Zero Dawn’s protagonist, belongs to the Nora tribe, hunter-gatherers who live in a far-flung future where humanity has forgotten centuries of accumulated knowledge and forged new cultures and civilizations. Icons-a sea of mission markers, collectable locations and travel-skipping campfire spots-cover the world map like vicious acne. Zoom the map out to find where to go and the priorities of the game become even clearer. Sweep the in-game camera around a landscape and it’s almost possible to smell the air or feel the warmth of the sun.īut, Zero Dawn is an action game, after all, and the screen is covered in reminders of this: A health bar at the top left an icon displaying potions and another showing weapons and ammunition on the bottom a line of text summing up the current mission the player is trying to complete. It’s the globe shrunk down and captured in a videogame console. (And, because Zero Dawn is science fiction, herds of robotic bulls, flocks of giant metal birds or a lone, lumbering cybernetic tyrannosaur.) The world is genuinely stunning, a place that wants simply to be soaked in-observed and inhabited. In each, birds and foxes, boar and rabbits frolic. The next, it’s an orange sanded desert with towering red clay mesas jutting up into a perfectly clear blue sky. One minute, it’s a frozen tundra, with sun gleaming off enormous white, snow-covered cliffs, and ground covered in scraggly little bushes and errant branches. As the player runs or rides from one settlement to another, the landscape constantly shifts between distinct, gorgeously realized biomes. Guerilla Games’ Horizon Zero Dawn looks like a living nature painting.
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