Breath of the Robotic Wild

It's kind of a shame that Horizon Zero Dawn came out at, like, the same time as Breath of the Wild. It's impossible to avoid comparing the two. (In fairness, Horizon did beat Zelda to store shelves by ... uh, a week.)

So here's the short version: Horizon has a much better main story, but its combat is a bit sloppier, and its open world isn't as strong overall. On its own, though, it's still a fantastic adventure and a fun sandbox to play around in.

The jewel of Horizon is its main story, which -- actually, is somewhat awkward and boring for the first few hours. Its opening scenes consist largely of a character monologuing his situation out loud, to no one in particular. And after the introductory tutorial, the plot stays pretty mundane, limited to the hemmings and hawings of a primitive tribe of hunters; up until a shocking twist several hours in.

After that, though - when the backstory starts to reveal itself - Horizon's main quest line turns into an enthralling sci-fi epic. Aloy's adventure is both an engaging Hero's Journey, and an intriguing mystery, as she gradually uncovers the dramatic secrets of the ancient "metal world." The pacing of these main quests, the personalities of the characters along the way, the emotive voice acting, well-written dialog, expressive animations, fascinating text and voice collectibles... all of these contribute to an overall excellently-crafted story.

One painful hiccup in Horizon's technique is the lip sync animations. The animations themselves are quite realistic and convincing, except, they often don't match the characters' spoken words; either moving too slowly for the audio, or mouthing what are, clearly, very different words than what's being said. (I guess the lip-sync data just got desynchronized from the final recordings.) But it's easy enough to listen, read the subtitles, and avoid being distracted by this.

Unfortunately, the optional side quests don't fare as well; the majority of them feel like more of the same from the intro. That is, throwaway characters and mundane events. Horizon's side quests feel a little like filler material as Aloy travels between major plot beats.

And the mechanics used in most quests are ... well, they work fine, but they don't feel very unique. You've got your "go to this object and press a button" mechanic, your "talk to this character" mechanic, naturally a "kill this group of things" mechanic; and there's a Focus-vision for finding clues and following trails, a'la Detective Mode or Witcher Vision, but its uses are pretty dull and uninspired.

Interestingly, dialog scenes occasionally have choices, but not for anything important. Any moments that would actually change the outcome of an event are fully scripted. A little like Golden Sun, these choices supposedly allow you to inject your personality into the story, but it's fairly transparent that these decisions are totally inconsequential.

Really, Horizon's story didn't need these at all. This is no Witcher or Mass Effect; Horizon has one scripted sequence of events to show off, and that sequence is damn good just as it is.

(Standing in stark contrast to Breath of the Wild's rote and barely-there backstory.)

Meanwhile, there are some dialog events that play out differently depending upon Aloy's actions so far -- that is, if you've done a relevant quest before talking to a character in another quest, that previous experience might come up in the conversation. Like the choices, this doesn't affect any outcomes, but it's a very nice immersive touch that makes Aloy's journey feel meaningful.

So, the main story is pretty great. But Horizon is also a game about high-octane robot-fighting action, open-world traversal, RPG progression, item collection and crafting... and in these areas, it does mostly well.

Combat is a lot of fun! when it works, which is most of the time; and until it becomes tedious, which it sometimes does. At a high level, combat manifests as a third-person shooter with Aloy's bow, and aiming at weak points unique to each enemy type, sometimes twisted by elemental vulnerabilities. There are some cool strategic elements at play here, especially the ability to directly target an enemy's weapons or other components to remove them.

The problem with Horizon's shooting is that, even in slow-motion bullet-time, it's irritatingly easy and common for the enemy to jerk suddenly and evade your arrow. This doesn't happen most of the time, but often enough that especially-small weak points just don't seem worth trying to target.

But what can really make the combat frustrating is a combination of stunted mobility, and unintentional "adds." Aloy has a dodge roll - great! - but all-too-often gets stuck in the terrain as she's trying to evade an attack. Many terrains just aren't well-suited for evasive maneuvers. And yet, trying to run away to more open ground only increases the likelihood of more asshole robots joining the fight.

Generally, even the hugest, most gun-bristling machines are pretty simple to fight one-on-one. But when you throw in a second, Aloy hardly has any time to draw her bow between evading each enemy's attacks. First one attacks, then the other; there's little room to breathe inbetween. So when a second, third, fourth, or fifth enemy joins a fight - especially when they jump at Aloy from behind, with little warning - it can get a lot more "exciting" than you'd counted on.

Zelda could have this problem too, but it feels worse in Horizon. A few too many fights felt physically exhausting to me.

Aside from fighting shit, the other big draw of Horizon's open world is just exploring it. And it does present some interestingly-varied biomes: snowy mountains, dusty deserts, and dense jungles; but aside from the big city of Meridian, there aren't many particularly memorable regions or landmarks, and few geography-specific events. It's immersive and fun to play around in, but doesn't really measure up to the awe-inspiring vistas of Breath of the Wild, or the character-rich set pieces in Skyrim.

Horizon's other supporting features are kinda mediocre. It's got cliff-climbing parkour, but the movement just doesn't work as well as an Uncharted, or even a Tomb Raider. A few too many transitions can miss completely, planting Aloy's feet on a glitchy edge that inevitably falls to her death.

And the inventory system is a train-wreck, with no good way of sorting "useless" and "important" items. My pack is full of resources that I'll probably never need, but they claim to be used in some crafting recipes, so who knows if I'll want them in the future? I could sell them for money (Scraps), but the only use I even have for that is to buy treasure boxes with random loot, usually even more stuff that I don't need or want.

Don't get me started on weapon upgrades, which, due to that randomness, feel less like a progression mechanic and more like gambling.

But! But. Horizon's lows can't compare to its highs, not just the usually-fun combat and generally-enjoyable world, but especially its incredibly interesting story. Uncovering this world's mysterious past is a real treat every step of the way. Just, maybe, skip the side-quests along that way.

I'm really looking forward to a sequel that copies Zelda's versatile climbing, adds some kind of lock-on targeting, and throws out this garbage-fire of an inventory system.

Better than: Middle-earth: Shadow of War
Not as good as: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (... but the story is better), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger: but I'm hoping that The Frozen Wilds helps wrap that up.