izigame.me

In Short
Great choice for every RPG fan. Memorable game. Worth the original price. If you find it on sale, don't delay and enjoy the ride!
Positives
+ EXCELLENT post-apocalyptic world. Mix of prehistoric age and sci-fi. Diverse beautiful biomes ranging from deserts to snowy mountains with many breathtaking views. There are several human tribes which are well established and have a fair share of history with each other. These tribes struggle to survive in a world filled with machines. The thing that impressed me the most is the connection to the old world (before the apocalypse). It's not there just as a filler. It plays an important role in the story and gives many good reasons for how the world developed. I struggle to remember any other game, or even movie/TV show, where I would appreciate flashbacks as much as here. The world-building is definitely strong with this one and it even manages to carry other parts of the game.
+ Good story. It starts slow with more focus on prehistoric aspect, Aloy (main character) and her tribe. Later it shifts to sci-fi and focus is on the past, present and future of the world and Aloy's place/part in it. Aloy is an outcast fighting against all odds and trying to find out about her family past. It's cheesy sometimes. It feels like a generic story you have seen a few times before. However, later you discover how she fits the overall story of the world and it gets very interesting. The second half of the game where many secrets, twists and connections are revealed/explained is AMAZING.
+ The map size is just about right. No vast empty spaces or spaces filled with meaningless sh*t. Imagine AC game level of icons and halve the amount. IMO developers hit the sweet spot with amount of collectibles and side content. Good middle ground between story driven and open world design.
+ I loved the combat and TBH it raises my expectations of combat systems going forward. There is some stealth and melee combat, with fast/strong attack, stealth executions, hiding spots and whistle - but it has a minor role. This is mainly ranged game done right. Most of the time, you fight machines aka 'robotic dinos'. There are about 30 well-designed types of machines (get hyped for likes of Onyx, Zapdos, T-rex, etc.) with various strengths, weaknesses, weak spots, attacks and abilities. Your knowledge about them is key (yes, read the damn 'bestiary'). Combat is always fresh because you fight something ACTUALLY different all the time. In order to fight these various enemies, Aloy acquires about 12 or so different weapon types throughout the game (with different ammo types). Emphasize on different. You NEED to analyze the situation and use correct combination of tools for different enemies. You will feel the pushback if you play sloppy.
Machines can ACTUALLY be dealt with in different ways because of its components and your weapons/tools. And I mean it, you won't cruise through the game with just one bow type. I used regularly all three types of bow and 4 other weapons (two types of slings, tripcaster for traps and ropecaster). And these have different ammo types (usually 3) and yes, you switch between them all the time too. Moreover, there is other fancy and more weird stuff like flamethrower, lightning gun, ice gun etc. if that is your thing. This is very different from Witcher or AC games where you can spec one (best) way and beat it all, repeating the same sh*t over and over without any motivation to ever change anything.
Overall, you need to exploit weaknesses and minimize strengths of the enemy. Preparation is important. No headless running in and smashing keyboard. No infinite health bars of generic enemies. You will get destroyed. The game is hard to learn, but also rewarding. It makes you think and use different tools in your arsenal. You will feel good when you see your progress and efficiency fighting each type of enemy improve over time. Enemies also become improved after some kill count, which is nice detail.
Min-maxing in the game is limited. You can't really 'outgear' the game difficulty. There are stat limits. You can optimize, but in the end, it will be about your decisions and actions. I would suggest to start on very hard (UH wasn't even in the game at release) and switch to ultra hard later (there are some functional changes in addition to number increases).
After 130h in HZD I decided to go back to AC:Odyssey where I had 240h already. A game which I had mathematically beaten because my gear is so min-maxed beyond the difficulty curve it's not even funny. I can spam left click and use 2 abilities over and over to beat ANYTHING in the game. Close to no pushback. Just mindless gameplay. Same 3 to 8 not so different enemy types. No motivation to change playstyle or even weapons I use. It was a stark contrast to HZD. I just laughed in despair.
+ Great DLC (Frozen Wilds). Definitely worth it. Beautiful snowy region (even better than the base game), great new weapons, decent story for a DLC, great side quests and interesting characters. Good (read as challenging) new enemy types.
Negatives
- On PC you will see issues with AA and grass. Game has lots of flora and it makes TAA choke. If you have DLSS, just enable it and enjoy. Otherwise, accept that you will see shimmering. Don't use FSR 1.0 (even more shimmering) - the performance increase is big, but your eyes will bleed out.
- Some areas feel out-dated: facial animations (the usual), water surfaces and climbing system.
- The inventory management is kinda ass. You can upgrade up to 120 capacity, but it's not a safe amount by any means and there is no stash (which would fix the issue). In my experience, even after going through reddit and guides, I was constantly at 100 to 110 load leaving only small space left for new items. The game has a crafting system with materials and lots of "trophies" from enemies you collect, basically you should keep a lot of stuff. Then there is stuff you can sell, no problem. Being a responsible and organized person myself, I still had issues with clearing the inventory and being comfortable.
- No transmog. It's not such a loss, but still.
- There are two main villains (generally speaking). One is very interesting, the other is... let's say under-developed.
Nitpicking
- Aloy is not a Mary Sue character. She is not perfect and makes mistakes. No worries there. She is however, presented as 'the chosen one' archetype (there is even story explanation for it). Just a warning if that's not your thing.
- As mentioned, melee combat and stealth plays only small part. It's not an issue as the ranged combat is excellent, but be aware.
- There are 3 options in dialogues (heart, brain, fist) which is basically good/neutral/evil Aloy response. I don't really like this approach because of AC:Odyssey. Luckily, these choices are occasional in HZD and you don't have to choose every 5 seconds. In case you think these choices have impact on story - they don't. This game doesn't have multiple endings.
- Controversy alert. The final battle at the end is nothing to write home about. Everything leading up to the end is AMAZING, and then you get the final battle in the one place of the whole game where the age of the game is showing and you get two mediocre/straightforward boss fights. OTOH you can have companions you helped throughout the game assist you in the battle (similar to Witcher 3) and Aloy has hilarious sassy callback line in the first boss fight. And of course, nice emotional ending cinematic to save it. I'm torn on this.
- There is override and mount feature (riding machines, yay!) and it's useless because you get everywhere by foot, no problem (vast network of travel points too). But hey, more options for the player, thumbs up.
- Combat with human enemies is basically reduced to stealth executions or headshots. But who cares. The game is about fighting machines.