I was curious to see what Guerrilla Games would develop next especially since past games they've developed was the Killzone franchise, which have been a success, for their next game they took things in a different direction stepping away from the first-person genre. Horizon Zero Dawn is one of those games that's best to have very little knowledge about when it comes to story telling; The story revolves around a hunter and archer named Aloy living in a world overrun by machines.
Sounds like something out of sci-fi movie mixed with a fantasy, did Guerrilla Games offer a good story and setting? It sure did I was really surprised how well done the story was told based around Aloy including the past history on the world she is living in at the moment before it was in ruins. As you start up the game you in a mini tutorial getting to point A to point B which is straight forward and getting to know the gameplay controls from using your bow to using stealth.
By the time you've finished the short tutorial you are easily thrown into a massive world similar to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild giant map encouraging you to explore every corner of that world. Going back to the gameplay controls you can use your bow, but you've got the choice of using different arrows including flame arrows, ice arrows and lightning arrows in order to get these type of arrows you'll need to gather certain materials where it's simple materials like branches to certain parts of machined animals you'll need to make these type of arrows. Speaking of weapons you can also buy different of bows, slingshots and armour as well just like the arrows you'll need certain materials and items to buy these items from traders.
You can also craft items instead of buying them from traders, all you need is to gather items as you journey across to your next location you can craft items like potions, traps, and attaching ability skills to your armour and weapons which can be very handy especially when it comes to certain bosses and enemies you come across. There is some puzzle solving which you'll need to solve when coming across certain Cauldrons which are underground dungeons, including some locations across the map in relation to the main story.
There are some side-quests and main quests you'll need to do some tracking by following track marks on where the tracks could lead, there are some quests you'll need to gather items, another could be taking out a number of enemies and machines. There are tons of things to do outside of both the main quests and side-quests including collecting ancient vessels which can be exchanged with certain traders at a high price, another is taking over enemy camps, climbing mountains or heading to certain parts of the map for a vantage point which can give you a quick flashback on what that building was before it was in ruins including a bit of description behind it.
The voice acting is very well done, including the relaxing sounds of nature in the background of the animal sounds from the machines you encounter across your way. As I've already mentioned you are easily drawn by the graphics and visuals after the first completing the first tutorial, I was really surprised how well detailed everything looked from the landscape environments to the character animation everything looked well done.
For a PS4 game, Guerrilla Games really did do a great job making it feel like an actual action-adventure game, giving you the freedom to do what you want for your adventure outside of the main story you can easily more than 20 - 50 hours in total including New Game+ and it's DLC on The Frozen Wilds. I think that Horizon Zero Dawn is trying to be the next Uncharted 4 it's not as perfect as Uncharted 4 is when it comes to gameplay or challenge, there are plenty of things to see and do in Horizon Zero Dawn and I think it won't be the last time we'll be hearing about what will happen to Aloy next that's if Sony has an idea up their sleeves or Guerrilla Games comes up with future DLC. If you still haven't played Horizon Zero Dawn I would highly recommend this game to anyone who has a PS4 especially find the Complete Edition which has all the DLC content including The Frozen Wilds.