TASKED with creating a Halo-killer for the PS2, Amsterdam-based code jugglers Guerilla Games were smoking the wrong strain with Killzone, which, despite being all kinds of decent, never did quite manage to topple Microsoft’s behemoth in the console arms race. Two generations later, the Dutch studio turns its attention to the de rigueur open-world adventure with much greater success.
A kitchen sink epic of RPG conventions and post-apocalyptic survival, Horizon boasts more caveman types furrowing their brows at technology than Stig of the Dump in a technical barnstormer that blends immersive environments and characterisation in a way not seen since Red Dead Redemption.
On paper it’s the usual post-apocalyptic fantasy with chosen one chin-stroking, but this time humanity has forged new cultures alongside wandering robot dinosaurs. As tribal outcast Aloy, a feminist torch-bearer with none of the titillating design of Lara Croft, players set out to discover the fate of the old world in a grand slice of philosophical ideas that’ll seduce the brain as much as its robot dinosaurs will scratch your trigger finger.
Like lumbering 80s cock-pitted playthings Zoids, your mechanical foes are an abomination unto the lord – a fusion of beast and robotics that finally gives the humble buffalo headlights. And it’s Horizon’s face-offs with these warring biomechanoids that earn Sony’s latest its well-deserved stripes.
Horizon offers a mix of combat, crafting and errands across a vast world pockmarked with sub-quests and challenges. With a user-friendly approach to resource management that owes more to Lara Croft’s recent adventures than the nerdgasms of Skyrim or Witcher, players must loot enemies, search the landscape and shoot wildlife for resources, used to upgrade and craft equipment, ammo and health.
With her noggin-mounted computer, Aloy can scan objects, calculate enemy routes and detect their weak points during Horizon’s fierce battles. Beefing up her mainstay bow and arrow with a variety of Jurassic perks, success comes from studying Aloy’s sweet arsenal and swapping loadouts during every acrobatic dinobot encounter. Taking out humans is comparatively boring, with the usual coconut shy gameplay as you wait for heads to pop out from behind cover.
From its frozen tundra to sun-bleached deserts, Horizon’s travelogue visuals deliver the most gorgeously realised videogame to date as players gallivant across a fluid open world that easily unseats last year’s Uncharted 4 as a console milestone. There’s added sheen on Pro but even the pauper’s PS4 will drop jaws.
Horizon doesn't do much you haven't seen before, it just nails everything with astounding style. And while the single-minded will polish off its main quest in around 20 hours, there’s much, much more on offer for the nosy. Groundbreaking only in its technical chops, Zero Dawn may be a patchwork of tropes we’ve seen in other games, but you can’t deny the quality of the stitching.
