Horizon: zer0 dawn
With the upcoming expansion of the positively acclaimed action, role-playing game, it’s about time Kinda Geeky sheds some insight on, as the title suggests, Horizon: Zero Dawn. It was released in 2017 by Sony Interactive Entertainment and has received the award for “Best Original Game” for three years in a row during its development. Gamer Geek has never played this game up until now (blasphemy!)…It’s true. From what can be told simply from the introduction of the game, it’s going to be epic and beautiful. The graphics are stunning to the eye, the open environment almost too real to the touch – it’s like walking into Skyrim but instead of dragons, the world is run by robot dinosaurs and mechanic Bambis (yes, the small deer). It undoubtedly takes place many centuries after the modern world of today, and it seems that there was some sort of collapse in the Advanced Technological-Industrial Age which led the world to its current state of said visual futuristic and paradisal Stone Age. The result of this collapse allowed both genres of mysticism and sci-fi to blend together to create a new universe that is simply waiting to be explored!
The game offers a strong, female protagonist by the name of Aloy whom is raised on the outskirts of a region her tribe the Noras call Mother's Embrace, a sort of wild Arcadia where man and machine thrive in peace and harmony. Unlucky for Ms. Aloy, her people labelled her an outcast from birth due to the fact that she was discovered without any presence of a biological mother to claim her as her own. Following the game’s lore, since Noras go crazy over the whole mother theme as decreed by a couple of preaching old lady-priests with impractical hats and robes, called Matriarchs to give a nod to the mother theme, that is where the fantastic racism* kicks in. It appears that those without tattoos, those who commit any sort of “crime” (term used loosely as the people are highly sensitive of what goes on within their jurisdiction), those who wander outside the borders, or in Aloy's case, those who are brought up without a mother are immediately and harshly met with neglectful, stern, and harsh treatment.
Because she got fed up of the said harsh treatment that she had been dealt with all her life (rightly so) and developed a powerful desire to learn of her true origins (also rightly so), Aloy began to train to hunt both animal and machine for most of her adolescent years to become the able-bodied warrior she is in the game's present time. Much of the credit goes to the tutelage of her adoptive father-figure, Rost. Like all heroes who get thrusted into the call of adventure, she (spoiler alert ahead!) loses her guardian daddy Rost in the midst of even more clashing discrimination between her tribe and a rival tribe who share a complex history of war and slavery. Desperate to avenge her guardian, Aloy leaves the comfort of her home as the newly appointed and respected Seeker, which is basically a government mercenary, allowing her to freely roam the open machine-ravaged world with her trusty spear and bows (she can carry three at once for some reason). It seemed like her people were as equally desperate to get rid of her as to have her despite her singlehandedly saving them against invaders. All jokes aside, the more deeds she carries out, the more respect she deserves, and the more friends she makes.
Back to the feel of the game, it splendidly includes all of the elements that create great RPGs – dialogue choices, crafting, customization, and overall free control over the player character. Its unique combat system allows Aloy to fend off enemies toggling between her bows (remember, there are three) that fire arrows, traps, AND bombs (dang, girl!) However, the most important tool in her arsenal is her spear that can hack into machines and override them to her will (she can make robot slaves). Using these two tools it should be added that Aloy is adept at stealth, crouching silently across the plains in the tall grass that for some reason matches her red hair for effective camouflage as she stalks her prey(s), making her a force to be reckoned with. Like all adventure games, interactive is a must to not only add substance to a good story, but drives it as well. One of the key items in the game that fits the bill is an earpiece that Aloy stumbles upon as a kid known as a Focus which is a piece of technology from the ruined advanced world before her time that allows her to better understand the unknown parts of her current world as well as the machines that roam it (in lame man’s terms, the thing is a tiny x-ray that apparently knows all and sees through all. Everything). This makes the player see the world in more than one perspective that adds more than twice as many possibilities to uncover. With that much to uncover and learn, it would be a very difficult feat to put the controller down.
Since its release, Sony has decided to give fans more to the already massive new Earth for Aloy to explore calling the new expansions “The Frozen Wilds”. It goes without saying on what kind of the place the protagonist will venture into next, but just in case, it’s a tad chilly. For the red-headed hunter, it means more monsters and enemies to shoot down and pummel, more ruins to stumble upon, and friends to make (after she has completed some sort of mundane and/or complex task for them which she never refuses due to chronic hero syndrome). Sony is looking to release this new adventure on the dawn of November 7, 2017 which in hindsight from the date of post for this article is just over the horizon (applause). For more info on the second best-selling PS4 game, look no further than below. Thanks again for reading and remember to stay KindaGeeky.
Notes:
· *Fantastic Racism – “a subset of the old trick of dealing with thorny issues through metaphor” as defined by TvTropes where “fantastic” is referred to “fantasy”.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FantasticRacism
Sources:
· Sony announcement for The Frozen Wilds expansion
https://blog.us.playstation.com/2017/08/07/horizon-zero-dawn-the-frozen-wilds-launches-november-7/
· The Frozen Wilds E3 Trailer
· For those who play the game or have previously played and have given up 'cause the game was hard as hell…
https://www.polygon.com/2017/8/21/16180320/horizon-zero-dawn-easy-story-mode-difficulty-patch-ps4
· IGN videos, tutorials, articles, etc.