Mechanics:

I mentioned in another post that I was getting tossed around a lot by enemies in this game; In retrospect, I just wasn't playing very smart. I was tackling challenges I just didn't have the tools for, or I had the tools but didn't know how to use them correctly. Also, it's frequently unwise to run up and start attacking a herd of house-sized dinosaur robots, without having some form of strategy first - who knew?

Probably my most memorable fight was with two semi-truck sized rhino-bots, who were flanked by giant emu-bots with deafness-inducing sonic cries. Also the rhino-bots where telekinetic, which quickly negated the "Ha ha, I'm up where you can't reach me!" defence strategy I had come up with.

Both these enemies had tons of components that add to their arsenal of abilities, but can be knocked off with the right tactics. I had just acquired a type of ammunition that was capable of emitting an AOE shock-wave after landing, specifically designed to remove said components.

I think I spent an hour on that one fight alone (dying and retrying multiple times) but boy was it satisfying to figure out! Also: totally optional, and not related to any missions.

I like the originality of the health system; rather than an infinite pool of regenerating health, it's finite, and you have to trigger the regeneration manually. When you run out, you either have to rely on potions or find and pick more medicinal plants. Considering how much medicine you've acquired is pretty critical when weighing whether or not you want to engage in a fight.

Learning how to properly use elemental damage was a big breakthrough for me, and I wish I'd paid more attention to it's usefulness sooner. It's not just that "Enemy X is weak to Damage Y". Rather, being set on fire or coated in ice is bad for pretty much everything, and it's the secondary effects of those statuses that are really useful.

Level Design:

The open-world feels impossibly dense and really expansive at the same time, which is really commendable given how many other games just have one or the other. The only time I felt tempted to use fast-travel was when an objectve was in an opposite corner of the map.

The game let's you toggle between a GPS-step-by-step style of waypoints, or a "here's where you need to go; figure it out" style; I only used the formet when getting a bit lost in a particuarily maze-like dungeon.

Story/Mood:

Like I said, it's a really neat and original sci-fi story, and the game managed to answer pretty much every question I had about how the world got to it's current state, which was the "big" question in my mind. Sidequests felt a little vanilla by comparison, perhaps because most had to do with issues that were much more mundane then "Why are there hostile animal robots everywhere, and where did they come from?"

There's a ton of characters I really like, and suddenly hearing Commander Zavala's VA was a really cool surprise. There might be a few too many characters overall, as I frequently found myself struggling to remember characters by name when they were mentioned in conversation.

I LOVE the dialog wheel conversation system in games. It's a way to ask the player "Would you like to know more about this piece of obscure lore?" without disrupting the flow of a conversation. I heard some complaints about voice acting and lip-sync before I played the game, but everything I saw/heard seemed at least passable.

Thanks, Cyber. I know you've got high standards.

I've basically stopped buying AAA games on release because I never seem to finish them.

I had no interest in this one, but your opinion and others are persuading me to give this one a chance.

Just riffing off your post a little...

Story

It's funny you mentioned Halo CE, because I've been thinking about that game while I play Horizon, in terms of the storytelling. When you look closely, the story itself in Horizon is nothing special (like Halo CE, I'd argue). It's cool, it's fun, but it isn't anything particularly deep or meaningful or original. The dialogue is serviceable. The performances are mixed. But, I think the story in Horizon is one of the absolute best examples of using storytelling to add focus to a game and drive the player through it. Again, like Halo CE. I always know where I'm going, why I'm going there, who else is involved, and what's at stake. It may not feature Last of Us caliber character development, but it all adds up to creating the feeling of a fully fleshed-out world, with its own dynamics at play.

There is a specific design choice that I believe helps a lot, in this regard; the fact that you must choose a quest from your quest log in order to have it appear on your map. This confused me at first. It seemed like an unnecessary step (most open-world games these days just keep all available missions marked on your map at all times). But after playing the game for a while, I totally see the benefit of it now. Every time I go to a location to do a mission, it is a deliberate choice. I have looked through my quest log and specifically selected a mission that I want to do next. This means I am thinking about this particular plot-line as I am traveling to my next destination. It helps create focus and momentum, where most open-world games devolve into meandering from one random waypoint to another.

On a related note, I can't remember the last time I played an open-world game where I was so reluctant to use the fast travel system. The scenery and locations, the fantastic random encounters that pop up as I travel across the countryside... I don't want to miss any of it. Yet sometimes I feel compelled to fast travel because I'm so absorbed into a specific quest line that I want to do the next mission right now, rather than spend 20 minutes making my way across the map.

Combat

Some of my favorite moments in Horizon Zero Dawn are my deaths. How many games can pull that off; making "failure" a highlight? The combat in this game seems deceptively simple at first. But as the game progresses, I began to appreciate all the different layers that are working together, and how much unpredictability that can bring to any given battle. Unlike many action games, the combat in Horizon is just grounded enough that you need to approach the tougher enemies with the due amount of respect (they even say as much through some of the early dialogue). If I walk right up to a Thunderjaw and start shooting arrows at its face, I'm going to get crushed in under 10 seconds. As such, the game encourages you to be thoughtful and plan out your attacks. And when you do plan out an attack strategy against a dangerous foe, and it works, it feel deeply satisfying. I came across a Sawtooth last night that was in a narrow field between me and my destination. I stayed hidden in the tall grass, and began setting traps. I had a very specific sequence all worked out in my head, and when I revealed myself to the Sawtooth, the whole thing kicked off and went exactly as I'd hoped. The Sawtooth was down in about 10 seconds. KICK. ASS.

But then, there are the times when things don't go according to plan, and those moments are even better. A couple days ago, I was approaching one of the Corrupted Zones in order to clear it out. I reached the zone, but couldn't find any corrupted machines. Looking at my map, I was almost in the very center of the zone, so I should certainly have found something by this point. Then, looking down towards the river, I saw the shimmer of a cloaked Stalker. It was a ways off, and didn't seem to have noticed me yet. "Perfect!" I though. I began setting up traps, laying down a network of trip wires. Then I got ready to unleash my opening shot. The Stalker moved slightly down river, so I no longer had a good angle on it. I took a few steps to my right, which brought me out of the cover of the tall grass that I'd been hiding in, and lined up my shot. I suddenly heard a low, rumbling growl coming from my right, and another behind me. I spun around to find 2 more cloaked stalkers moving in on my. I saw them just as they both pounced at me. I was toast. It was a perfect "clever girl" moment, and it wasn't the least bit scripted.

I really do think this game is something special. And I think it absolutely is worth buying a PS4 for. It really is that good. It's a game that is so, so much more than the sum of its parts. It's a tight, amazing remix of many open world games with all or at least most of the fat trimmed off.

Boy do I ever agree. The combat really ran the risk of being either too fiddly (similar to the Witcher 1 and 2, because there are a bajillion different things you can use in your arsenal) or too simple (like how in most games all of the weapons do basically the same thing), but instead it really hits the goal of each different weapon providing you with a new tool in your arsenal, and each enemy being particularly susceptible to certain tools. I love that there is no single weapon that is the "best" in all situations, but rather everything is a role-player.

You cannot go in simply guns blazing here. You need to aim for weak spots, know which elemental weapons do bonus damage, set traps for fleeing prey or to catch aggressive enemies as they charge you, have an escape route in case things go south, and you need to know how your downrange enemies react when attacked. The first time you fight a particular enemy type is particularly stressful, as you'll want to study their behavior, which means isolating them whenever possible. Once you know how an enemy behaves, fighting them in groups is easier because you can plan in advance.

There's an element of the witcher between fights as you need to gather healing herbs and build up your ammo stocks. During combat it feels a lot like tomb raider, with movement through the world being more of an assassin's creed variety. Everything borrowed is well executed and smooth; nothing feels like a mistake here.

As I titled this response, the thing this game does which no game I've ever played has done before, is give equal weight of importance to both strategy and tactics. If you ever wondered what the difference between those two things was, let me illustrate:

You see a herd of prey-type enemies up ahead on the path. Time for strategy. You first scan... Ahh, they have a small vanguard of watchers, looking out for dangers such as yourself. You also note their weakness: Fire, and that they have a large cluster of weak spots on their backs that could explode if lit aflame. So you prep your flame arrows. Moving to higher ground, you realise that the herd is in a series of gullies which friendly forces have already lined with log traps. Excellent. You set an explosive tripwire in the gully between two log traps. The explosion should trigger them both. Then you position yourself at a third, closer to the enemies. Just in case they turn aggressive instead of fleeing, you place a shock trap at your feet to stun any beast that may assault you directly. The first step will be to assassinate the three watchers from hiding. One is close enough to be lured to you, the other two will need well placed arrows in their critical weak spots. After that, you'll lob a bomb to one spot, causing the herd to flee away from the explosion, right into your traps. With luck, you'll score 9 kills with only two traps, two arrows, and one bomb. Of course, if things go sideways, you've prepped your fire arrows, which should easily dispatch any survivors of your ambush.

You execute your strategy to a tee, dispatching all three watchers before the herd even notices. The bomb goes a bit off target, however, and only four of the herd are funnelled into your waiting traps. Time for tactics!

The remaining two beasts turn aggressive and charge you. They both ran part way up the gulley before seeing you, so neither hits your shock trap. Damn. You roll out of the way of the first one and loose an arrow at the canisters on his back. The resulting spurts of flame mean he's about to blow! Leaping over your own trap, you sprint down into the gulley with the bomb-backed beast close behind you, he trips the wire and goes down, only to explode a moment later. One enemy to go, and this one was badly damaged by that explosion. From this angle, you can't shoot the tanks on its back, so you draw your spear and prepare to dodge the inevitable charge. Here it comes... you roll left and deliver a brutal swing that sends the beast sprawling. Now that he's down, it's a simple thing to deliver a fatal, killing blow with your melee weapon.

This reads like an action movie, but those playing the game can probably picture it perfectly, because nothing I just described is embellishment at all - this is literally how the game plays.

Should I mention: I just described one of the more simplistic scenarios you can find in the game. As the enemies become more and more technically difficult to defeat, and the herds become more varied, you'll find that you need to be even more clever in your strategy and will find yourself running attack and retreat combos from time to time in order to pick off the more dangerous foes (or, depending on the situation, the weaker foes to leave the strongest without support).

I've also said nothing of the stellar plot, engaging missions, and competent, if not quite as good as Mass Effect, voice acting.

This is a great game.

In the event that you don't own one already, is it worth going out and picking up whatever flavour of PS4 you've been eyeing just for this one game? Yes.

I'd say that it is the reason to get a Pro, if only for the 4k images. The scenery is always gorgeous, and I've been making Wallpapers for myself left and right.

Here's a short video I made of the Photo Mode:

And here are some 4k screens:

The game lets you toggle between a GPS-step-by-step style of waypoints, or a "here's where you need to go; figure it out" style; I only used the former when getting a bit lost in a particularly maze-like dungeon.

I completely removed the HUD and compass. I found that the sense of discovery is greater when I look at the destination on the map, gauge the general direction, and head off on foot. If it's really far, I'll use a mount, with the occasional tap of the touchpad to check on the compass if I get turned around. Lots of fun just to adventure.

CruelLEGACEY:

I can't remember the last time I played an open-world game where I was so reluctant to use the fast travel system. The scenery and locations, the fantastic random encounters that pop up as I travel across the countryside... I don't want to miss any of it. Yet sometimes I feel compelled to fast travel because I'm so absorbed into a specific quest line that I want to do the next mission right now, rather than spend 20 minutes making my way across the map.

Same. I actually really love how they implemented fast travel. The system is there in the form of a limited supply of packs, though you can buy an infinite fast-travel pack from vendors for relatively few resources. I like that they have that option, and like that it's not a thing that you can do by default. If you don't have infinite fast travel on hand, you have less incentive to skip exploration, though the packs that you can pick up give you the freedom to do it once or twice if you really want to. I've avoided it altogether, and it's really helped me feel the weight of my travels. Otherwise I'd be "screw trying to sneak through that pack of Ravagers"; instead, I'm like "I need to get through that pack of Ravagers somehow, and it's gonna suck if I get spotted".
I've gotten murdered so hard trying to sneak through areas, and I've loved every minute of it... Which brings me to your next point...

Combat

Some of my favorite moments in Horizon Zero Dawn are my deaths. How many games can pull that off; making "failure" a highlight? The combat in this game seems deceptively simple at first. But as the game progresses, I began to appreciate all the different layers that are working together, and how much unpredictability that can bring to any given battle. Unlike many action games, the combat in Horizon is just grounded enough that you need to approach the tougher enemies with the due amount of respect (they even say as much through some of the early dialogue).

Most of my deaths have been as a result of failing to respect my enemy, and underestimating just how quickly a simple encounter can escalate. Never drop your guard, even against a lone Watcher (he may not be alone at all).

If I walk right up to a Thunderjaw and start shooting arrows at its face, I'm going to get crushed in under 10 seconds. As such, the game encourages you to be thoughtful and plan out your attacks. And when you do plan out an attack strategy against a dangerous foe, and it works, it feel deeply satisfying.

My fight against my first Thunderjaw was like this. I didn't go in blindly. I littered the arena with traps, got all of my potions, buffs, and weapons organized and loaded... And proceeded to get wrecked. And the funny thing is that despite how much I was getting stomped throughout the fight, it didn't feel unfair. I wasn't being stunlocked, I wasn't being dealt more damage than I would expect from the attacks, and I wasn't firing suction-cup arrows. I simply didn't understand his attacks. He channeled them well enough, but I was unfamiliar with the moves, their range, or the damage they did, and I wasn't ready for how fast it moves (VERY).
In the end, I was able to bring him down, and it felt like such a huge relief. It felt like I had truly earned that victory, because there were many moments where a single hit would have killed me, but thinking on my feet saved me. It was easily the tensest and most satisfying fight since... the last Cauldron boss that I fought...

But then, there are the times when things don't go according to plan, and those moments are even better.

Sammy's Trampler video is a great example of it. What started out as an experiment to find out what a Trampler could do quickly became a struggle to survive an all-out battle against enemies that could harness all four elements, and which kicked up so much dust that it was hard to tell what was dying and when, and all with Sammy caught right in the middle. It was crazy, and much better than the "Oh, they do charge in a straight line, EZPZ!" that we expected (again, we failed to respect our enemy).

I suddenly heard a low, rumbling growl coming from my right, and another behind me. I spun around to find 2 more cloaked stalkers moving in on my. I saw them just as they both pounced at me. I was toast. It was a perfect "clever girl" moment, and it wasn't the least bit scripted.

Same thing happened to me elsewhere. Those Stalkers are scary; they see you a mile away, but if you're not watching them, they can come right up to you and maul you faster than you can say "what was that snapping-branch noise behind me?".
what's even scarier is that they seem to be aware of traps sometimes. I saw one, and decided to lure it to some blast wire. I set up the trap, and exposed myself so it could see me. Instead of taking the bait, it ran in the opposite direction. I ran after it, only to get sniped by another one far off on the right. They had lured me out, and I fell for it. I found out it only takes two quick snipes to kill you. Good to know!

The gameplay in this game is just so good. Why would you want to fast travel and miss moments like these?

The slide, apparently?

In a Kotaku article praising the little things about Horizon that we haven't mentioned here, the writer puts Horizon's slide just behind Titanfall 2 and Vanquish's as "the BEST in video game history"...

He must like Vanquish's slide mechanic only because he hasn't played Warframe... *cough*

I'm not sure if anyone will scroll this far down the page, but a few more quick thoughts:

I'm loving this game, but something about it has been bothering me about the way loot and the weapon and armor sets and upgrades work. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I think I finally realized what it was. It's that there are three tiers of weapons (I guess 4, if you count the Lodge Weapons) and three tiers of armor, but all but the highest tier basically go unused. The sets you can buy are somewhat limited at the beginning of the game, with only a few purples available in the Sacred Lands. That doesn't last long, however. Once you get to Meridian, which doesn't take long (unless you willfully make it take long), everything becomes available to you. Why would I buy a green or blue tier anything when the purple tier items are only marginally more expensive (besides the lower tier items having less ugly head ornamentation)?

In the grand scheme of things, it's not a huge issue, and it certainly doesn't ruin the game, but it really makes the weapon and armor investment systems feel almost inconsequential. Instead of a nice progression, I went from low tier gear to high tier gear very quickly and easily. I guess maybe that just allows it to get out of the way and allows the combat to really be the focus. But at that point, why have a progression of gear at all?

On a more positive note, I find that I really like Aloy's little quips. I typically find it pretty annoying when the player character talks to no one in particular while wondering around, but I find that Aloy's lines feel natural and often add a nice little detail to the world. For example, when you pick up a plants, she sometimes has a little line about them. Mostly I don't notice, but I picked up one last night, and she just said, "Ew, sticky." It's subtle, but it tells me more about that world (even if it's obvious--some plants are sticky), but it also adds the sense of feel to the game, something you don't often get. She mentions the healing plants being a bitter, sometimes, too. I think it's a just a nice little detail that adds to the world, if only in a tiny way.

I'm about 45 hours into Horizon Zero Dawn now... I feel like I'm approaching the end of the main quest line (I've already passed the "there's no going back after this so tie up any loose ends before you proceed" point). I've been taking my time to do all of the side missions and challenges too. I'm continuously impressed by the variety of ways they've been able to add new elements to the combat or create unique and challenging encounters.

I recently completed a series of Hunter challenges that involved several Ravagers and a Thunderjaw. One challenge required overriding both Ravagers, then helping them destroy the Thunderjaw, all under 2.5 minutes (which was not easy). Pulling this off successfully required a tricky mix of stealth and aggression; sneaking up on the first Ravager without getting spotted, then pulling the Thunderjaw's aggro so the Ravager can start whittling down its health as soon as possible, then sneaking past the Thunderjaw to reach the 2nd Ravager on the other side of the pit and overriding it quickly so it can join the fight before the Thunderjaw destroys the first Ravager, then helping the Ravagers out by dealing as much damage to the Thunderjaw as quickly as possible without getting crushed in all the chaos. Very cool sequence.

But my favorite Hunter challenge was the very next one, which involved overriding the Thunderjaw and helping it destroy both Ravagers with its Disc Cannon within the time limit. First of all, you have to sneak up on the Thunderjaw and override it which is awesome enough. But then you need to pull the aggro of both Ravagers to get them fighting the Thunderjaw as quickly as possible, because the time limit is very short. To do this, I needed to openly engage both Ravagers in combat, while standing right next to the Thunderjaw... even thought the Thunderjaw had been overridden, this is a very dangerous place to be. The Thunderjaw wouldn't actively attack me, but it didn't care one bit if it stepped on me or not. So I'm dodging and rolling between it's legs while its stomping around and charging at these two Ravagers that are leaping all over the place, trying to land as many hits as I can without getting crushed at the same time. It was like an amazing sequence out of an action movie :)

This is the first game I've played in which I wish there were more towers to climb. Besides the obvious spin of climbing a giant giraffe robot that's walking around, I really like the entire set up surrounding them. Each Tallneck is surrounded by a unique assortment of machines prowling around. You must get to a high point of the landscape to be able to make the jump onto the Tallneck. I really like that you can find a path to sneak through the machines, or you can just cause havoc and have a huge battle, or take out a few machines stealthily, or override a few and cause a distraction, etc. Each Tallneck ends up being a unique encounter, and it's another example of this game really really just nailing every aspect of its design.

Everything you guys have said really sold me on the game. I don't need a new game but I guess I have one now.

I knew finding two Power Cells so quickly into the main story was too good to be true. Tearblast arrows can reduce a Thunderjaw to a mere shadow of its former self, but they can't destroy a few dinky little robotic arms holding some armor in place? The hunt for Power Cells continues I guess.

Wow. WOW. What an ending! I think they did an excellent job of drawing all the plot lines together in a climactic and satisfying way. Surprisingly poigniant, too. They slowly, patiently build on the emotional weight of the situation over the course of the entire game, and by the end I found myself caught off guard by how invested I was.

All told, I finished the game at about the 48 hour mark. I'd hit max level (50) somewhere around 40 hours. I've got all but 2 of the trophies, which I'm looking forward to finishing up.

What a game.

I haven't finished the Hunters Lodge, yet, but it's obviously going to end with hunting down Redmaw, the legendary Thunderjaw. They set that up pretty much immediately.

It got me thinking, though, about how awesome it would be for more "legendary" machines. Maybe a bigger and much stronger version of every machine type that randomly appears throughout the world.

This game has so much potential to go farther than it actually did with things like this. I saw a post on /r/Horizon about perhaps taking the idea of Cauldrons even deeper, with Grazers gathering resources in the world, the supply machines transporting those resources to Cauldrons, which produce new machines. Attack too many machines in the territory of a Cauldron, and it'll start churning out bigger and stronger machines, with the player able to interrupt this by taking out the supply chains (either destroying the convoys or the Grazers and Scrappers that are gather resources), or even starving the Cauldron so it shuts down completely. This could serve as a way to open up supply lines and trade routes between settlements or something--I'm not exactly sure what the gameplay purpose for it would be, it's just a neat idea.

This game really sparks my imagination in that way, but on the flipside, I wonder if things like that might be a mistake. I think a huge strength of Horizon is the ways it holds back. It's a really tight game with no bloat, and I wonder if a sequel might screw that up by trying to add too much, too many new ideas.

That when Aloy walks through tall grass, she spreads her arms out a little further and lets her hands brush along the tips of the grass, just like those slow-motion shots of Russel Crow in Gladiator?

This freaking game! :D

I've got Horizon Zero Dawn just about 100% complete now, including the platinum trophy, so I've been spending my time lately just running around the open world, stirring up trouble. The hilariously OP Power Armor lets me tank my way through situations I shouldn't be able to survive, which can be loads of fun.

My favorite past time over the past couple hours has been overriding the biggest machine I can find and getting it to fight other machines.

This Thunderjaw vs Thunderjaw battle was pretty epic.

I recorded a clip of a fight against a Storm Bird, mostly because it looks so freaking awesome.

My next goal is to override a Rock Breaker. If I pull it off, I'll save a video :)