A Remaster or a Rehash?
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is the Ronseal of gaming titles, it does exactly what it says on the tin…or box art, (showing my age) digital store front image? Guerrilla Games 2017 action role-playing game is back and of course once again published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
I missed Horizon Zero Dawn back in 2017 and to be honest knew very little of the franchise going in, vaguely norse inspired post-apocalyptic adventure with robot animals and some drama about cry babies being upset they made Aloy ‘Less attractive’ in the sequel Forbidden West. That pretty much sums up my knowledge going into Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.
Remasters and remakes have almost defined this console generation and it’s been a divisive issue with arbitrary ideas about what “needs’ or “deserves” a remaster. Out of curiosity I looked up the original Horizon Zero Dawn and being only 7 years old I feel like it still holds its own, but Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered unarguably looks and performs better than the original, not to mention bringing a uniformity to the overall art style making it more in keeping with it’s sequel.
The moment I booted up the game I was immediately taken by the rich world Aloy and company inhabit, set in the US of the 31st century humanity are essentially back to a primitive hunter gatherer existence in the “ruins” of our world. I saw “ruins” because this world is lush, colourful and stunningly presented, even the decaying buildings and street lamps have majesty that hint at the deeper mysteries of this world.
Aloy is an outcast, she was raised by Rost a fellow outcast, outcasts from the Nora tribe, essentially they are forced to live in the wilds outside the protection of the walls and are shunned by the entire tribe. The Nora worship the “All-Mother” and for the first few hours of the game I was very much buying into the culture even if the whole outcast thing seems needlessly cruel, although with the game borrowing so much from norse history I was sort of annoyed Guerrilla Games went with outcast instead of Skogarmaor. Eventually Aloy will have the opportunity to rejoin the tribe by winning the proving and earning her place in society, things don’t run smoothly and the tribe are attacked. This is where we get our first glimpse of “All-Mother”…she’s a voice in a mechanical door that clearly leads into an ancient facility. That was a step to far for my suspension of disbelief, while it makes perfect sense ‘in game’ I could help but laugh at the matriarchs worshipping what is essentially and a smart door.
Moving on, Aloy is granted the title of seeker, essential Aloy now has a free pass to go where she pleases and not face banishment for leaving the sacred lands…this is where the game really begins and you’re let loose in the world of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is a open world game, long time readers may be away that I often refer to open world games as empty world games. Running around a vast space is pointless if theres very little to do in it and I’m yet to play one which doesn’t commit the sin of what I’m calling “Map Scale Deception”. What is Map Scale Deception or MSD, simply, it’s when you open a world map and it appears huge, immediately you’re daunted at the sheer scope of the game, ho will you ever explore such a vast environment…only to take about 5 steps and see your player icon has moved a relatively large distance on said map, and then it hits you, MSD, gone is the awe you felt, the world is nowhere near as large as the map suggests.
While Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered does commit MSD this world is far from empty, it’s packed with things to do and even when using Aloy’s focus (An AR device that has a myriad of uses throughout the game) to track yet another NPC the world is so vibrant that it always felt like exploration and never retreading old ground.
As well as her Focus Aloy has a assortment of tools to get her though this world, from many variants of bows, trip casters, slings and her trusty spear which can also be used to ‘Override’ the robot wildlife. You can override beasts for all sorts of reasons, to trick them into not seeing you as a threat allowing you to sneak on past, using them as mounts or even hacking a big beastie so that causes all sorts of mayhem. You can’t override all beasts right away though, there a ruins witting the game, that act as challenging dungeons, completing theses will give you override codes to hack bigger and badder beasts.
Naturally, at times you’ll come into to conflict both with humans and robotic wildlife and this is where Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered really came alive for me. I’ll be honest, battling humans, kinda dull, arrow to the face, down they go, but the beasts, each one provides a difference challenge and requires it’s own tactics to bring down effectively. From selecting the right ammo for your sling, to positioning traps, or using bombs to flush foes into environmental hazards. Every battle feels like a hunt and I loved it, I’ll never forget the first time I tried to takedown a Fire Bellowback, talk about biting off more than I could chew.
As always I’ll avoid plot spoilers but Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered delivers it’s narrative and a perfect pace, now with open world games that pace is somewhat dictated by you, the player, but the beats of the story develop and escalate perfectly so that as you uncover move of the world to explore, the more they story unveils just how big Aloy’s part in this world is.
