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

Horizon Zero Dawn is possibly one of the most well-realized first attempts at an open world action RPG the industry has ever seen, specifically from a gameplay perspective. The depth of its combat and the way your toolset and intuition play off of one another to best its encounters at times feels second to none. There is not much more satisfying than the loop of examining large enemies with your focus to determine their weak points, or to see if they have usable weapons you can tear from their frame, then weaving in and out of their attacks in order to deftly realize your Plan A to take them down quicker than should be physically possible. Not to mention this is… MAYBE the prettiest game ever made? At least until the sequel drops in a couple weeks! I came back to this game after it’s been updated to 60fps on PS5, with HDR, on an OLED screen, and I’m hard pressed to think of another game that felt like this much of a visual feast, at least when comparing the sheer DENSITY of detail in the environment here. Maybe the aesthetic of this one from an art design perspective just appeals to me in particular. I just couldn’t get over its color palette, and its use of varying skyboxes and lighting situations to communicate vastly different moods even within the same biome is still extremely impressive. However, despite all that there is to love here (and don’t get me wrong there is a TON), I just can’t shake the feeling that this entry really lacks from a writing and character perspective. To clarify upfront: where I think this game’s story sticks the landing mainly comes from the appeal of Aloy as a protagonist as well as her journey specifically to uncover the mysteries of how this world came to be. The LORE of this world and the history as to how it operates and how this status quo came to pass? Brilliant. And what occasional twists there are in the main quest line regarding the world’s history still excite me to this day. However, alongside the immensely intriguing lore and a charming protagonist in Aloy sits a wider cast and set of stories that really misses the mark for me. The game starts strong, Aloy’s relationship to Rost and an early tragedy in the story’s setup still go a very long way to making me care about Aloy’s quest for answers, but none of the other characters intrigue me much at all past that point, and there are a LOT of them. There are so many detours in the main story as well as companion quests that, though not so drab and dull that doing them is only a chore, at the end of the day never come close to being as interesting or jaw dropping as the world lore and related main story moments are. This doubly expands to the side quest pickups throughout the world, which off the top of my head I could not tell you a single one that I genuinely found narratively gripping. Not to mention there are MANY cases of shockingly flat voice work that don’t necessarily help the quest writing go down easier. All in all, this is a game that I really enjoy. Faults and all. I think the gameplay loop, the protagonist, and the world lore is where this one shines the most and for this genre of game I think that’s perfectly suitable! I just hope that the upcoming Forbidden West can give me not only more of the incredible game that’s here, but also more quality writing and character work to latch onto and make me REALLY care about what I’m doing.