izigame.me

“All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town”
- Apocryphal quote by John Gardner
Pros
- Amazing combat
- Beautiful and diverse world
- Some of the best worldbuilding I’ve ever seen in a game
- Amazing side content for an open world game
- Frozen Wilds is one of the best expansions I’ve ever played
- Aloy is a fantastic character
- Robot animals! And you can convert and ride (some) of them
Cons
- Janky machine riding.
- Scene to scene writing & animation sometimes lacklustre to comically bad.
- Game’s economy is way too easy, you’ll end up with a filled up inventory all the time with barely an effort.

Intro

HZD is an open world Action-Adventure with the lightest tinges of RPG elements. While the scope of artistic creativity is very abstract and hazy, HZD solidly and pointedly puts the demarcation lines of its story around its main character; Aloy of the Nora, and unleashes the player to unfurl her odyssey across spans of the far, far future, long after the apocalypse, where the crude attempts of humans to restart civilization are intertwined and juxtaposed with stark contrast to the ancient ruins of the “old ones” and machines made of metal. In our days one might roam the ruins of the Parthenon, the ancient to the ancients pyramids of Giza, pass under the forgotten Arches of Roman emperors deceased for centuries, imposed and contrasting rudely to our modernity, our own skyscrapers are those landmarks of an ancient, long-lost history in Aloy’s world. This has elicited the most passionate of sensations in me, and has cemented the game as one of the strongest experiences I have had the pleasure of enjoying in this medium.


Gameplay: 8.5/10

Gameplay, particularly combat, is the game’s strongest suit. With this game, the word “Quality” doesn’t lend enough justice to the experience of fighting the metal machines, which probably my favourite part about the entire game – closely followed by jaw-dropping beauty of the game’s world.
The combat part of the gameplay, is mostly ranged, with bows as the staple, and a nice level of variety of other weapons – slings that throw bombs, rattling guns that fire lots of wooden bolts, tripcasters that allow you to set up rope traps and even flamethrowers – among many other weapons. Fighting enemies at melee, with Aloy’s spear, is a secondary stop-gap measure when an enemy approaches too close. Stealth is a major component in engaging with threats, be they human or machine. Aloy can hide in foliage and conduct stealthy attacks with her spear, or even override machines – converting them from foe to ally.
The combat is as much determined by the arsenal in your disposal as it is by the stars of the show; the Metal Machines. Have you ever played Monster Hunter, and found it impressive you can break parts of monsters – such as tails or horns? HZD’s combat is pretty much all about breaking parts off the enemy. Each machine in the world has its own weak points, and each machine has vulnerabilities to certain categories of damage (of which there are many). The impressive breadth put on the table of combat systems does not translate too a lot of depth, but more than ensures that lethal engagements against the machines will never feel like a bore or a nuisance to the player. The impressive presentation put on display by the developers into the combat also aids in this. Particle effects, sounds, parts of the machines being broken on impact, explosions, and many other things have succeeded in this game’s case in completely and utterly blurring the line between artificial and real, making the spectacle one truly deserving of admiration and wonderment. The machines going in various stages from spry and alert to a near-crawl as they are more injured and worn out, breaking their parts, sometimes even breaking their weapon components and using them against them to deadly effect, transforms even simple combat encounters with machines into memorable experiences.
Combat with humans on the other hand, is the white elephant of HZD. It might not be a *complete* afterthought, but it’s a barebones, watered down edition of combat with machines. Human enemies are armed with various different weapons from clubs to huge rattling-guns and primitive explosive projectile launchers. Perhaps the only enjoyable aspect in fighting human enemies is looting their heavy weapons and turning them against them, otherwise it sometimes felt like a chore.
The game features many elements present in RPG games, such as an economy, crafting, upgrades for equipment (both in base level and outfitting gear with modifications that boost specific stats). Recuperation from injury is through herbs found across the open world, which Aloy stores in her pouch. Gaining experience and levelling up Aloy enables the player to unlock a variety of skills.
For an open world game, HZD has succeeded in creating optional and side content that was an enjoyable distraction, be they vast and deep dungeons (cauldrons), tests of skill (hunting ranges) or, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful additions a game could ever had, and HZD has earned my eternal respect for this; reading poetry (there are metal flowers throughout the world containing verse).


Story – Narrative – Worldbuilding – World: 9.5/10


The story of HZD is a marvel of writing in video games. It’s an epic journey wrapped in near airtight worldbuilding, propped by interesting characters, and will keep you guessing on the conclusion to the very end. It has succeeded in firmly gripping my anticipation with a strong sense of mystery, and kept me guessing and asking questions to the very end.
The worldbuilding in this game is truly impeccable, I don’t believe I’ve went through any game world as thoroughly well written as this one. Nearly nothing has been spared. It has lore and information exposition to explain every single thing in the world, including minute details like why do people speak modern American dialects of English, why is the biome so diverse, why are there different types of machine, how do the machines keep reproducing, why are there regular animals who do not fear the machines, and so on. The culture of the world is emergent and informed by its own world, rather than gameplay purposes. Everything feels like it would be a natural progression and real result of humans living in a post apocalyptic future with no knowledge of the past, and tribal culture and religion is intertwined with the phenomenon of the metal machines. The only critique I have for the story is the scene-to-scene transition for some major story events.

The world is also, if I may add, one of the most beautiful ones I’ve seen in a game, period. The art style is immaculate. Architecture of the Nora, the Carja made me stop and stare in awe. Meridian is an impressive city and one of the largest and most beautiful in open world games. The atmosphere in the world is beyond compare. The biomes are many, different and varied. You’ll find yourself in cold valleys embraced by snow-capped mountains, arid deserts, lush jungles punctuated by gigantic Mesas, frozen mountains buried in snow, ruins of ancient cities full of secrets and those new cities that emerged on the ruins of ancient civilization. HZD’s artistic beauty has cemented it as one of the most beautiful games I’ve played.
Performance:
On the following hardware;
* RTX 3080
* Ryzen 5 3600x
* 16Gb of DDR4
I managed mostly 60fps solid on 4K native through most of the game. The game has impeccable frame pacing that I hardly ever noticed it when it remained below 60. I even set it to insane resolutions like 5K and it ran like a champ. There is definitely some voodoo magic with the frame pacing because no game to me has felt this smooth on lower framerate. I encountered little to no glitches in the game.

Verdict: 9/10