3.5/5 ★ – MechaniChris's review of Horizon: Zero Dawn Complete Edition.

The coolest aspect of this game by far is the idea of it. I saw the initial trailers and was completely enamored by the premise of these mechanical dinosaurs from an ancient past. In fact, it was one of the main reasons I wanted a PS5 (after Spider-man). Finally getting to play it, I realize that this is unfortunately a style over substance experience. Don’t get me wrong, it still a good game. I enjoyed exploring the world, the combat, and even the story for the most part. It’s just all a little less exciting than I’d hoped. The world is gorgeous and filled with these incredible machines, but after a couple hours of free roaming, it all felt very samey to me. I was excited any time I encountered a new biome or type of enemy, but each one quickly became stale. Once you realize how to fight one big monster, suddenly none of them are a challenge. The world too offers little beyond eye candy. All the items are the same, traversing is kind of tedious, and the climb function is weirdly limited. Like, if I could climb a rock face, Aloy should be able to. Breath of the Wild had this figured out years ago. It held my interest for long enough to beat it, but I sort of speedran through the end. As much as the story is clearly well thought out, it’s paced horribly slowly. The cutscenes are interminable and not nearly as interesting as the game thinks they are. Once I realized you could skip most conversations without impeding the plot, that became my go to move. I’ll give the second one a shot, but I was pretty let down by this. I guess my expectations were too high, but it is a triple A PS5 (or 4? Whatever) title. These games SHOULD be stellar.