Revisiting 07 August 2020, 18:43

author: Przemyslaw Zamecki

5 Good Reasons to Play Horizon Zero Dawn on PC

Sony seems to be teasing users of PC, only a few months before the launch of next-gen inviting them to the club and saying "wish you were here." After three years, Horizon: Zero Dawn releases on Windows PC, and we came to tell you why it's worth the time.

The review is based on the PC version.

Reviewing Horizon: Zero Dawn on the PlayStation 4 a few years ago, my biggest criticism regarded the uninspired, not engaging, and, well, boring beginning of the game. After a few hours, Aloy's adventures and her search for her own identity unfold, and we witness a fairly skillful, though not terribly original plot almost to the very end, taking us to the furthest corners of that the huge world set in a post-apocalyptic future.

Overall, I had a great time hunting the powerful robo-dinosaurs, but I tried returning to the game last year, and my enthusiasm was somewhat reduced by the same, mundane opening. It actually stained my entire opinion about the game, though it still looks incredibly pretty.

But since we're in for a little celebration, as the game is releasing on PC, I though it a good idea to prepare a list of things I enjoyed the most about playing Horizon. I hope it will let you decide whether it's worth buying the game three years after original release, on top of that designed for a seven-years-old console. It would be hard enough with a regular game that somehow survived that long. But in the case of an exclusive? Piece of cake, keep reading.

Sony is losing exclusives!

There's a joke about people giving away cars on the Red Square in Moscow during the communism, and it seems some people apply the same logic to the PlayStation. It goes like that:

When news broke that Kojima's newest game, Death Stranding, will also be released on PC, followed by the release of Horizon: Zero Dawn shortly after, people somehow started believing that Sony will abolish any exclusivity, and that buying a PS4, or even PS5 in the future, won't make any sense, because we'll play anything on the PC anyway. Of course, there's no credibility to that theory at all.

Sony, as a relatively small company compared to Microsoft, cannot afford to face such competition outside of the relatively safe niche of the console market. They're the home team, they can offer players exclusive games unavailable anywhere else. Letting go of such a huge asset would be a death sentence for hardware R&D. I don't think the corporate can afford to do that, nor that it even remotely considers such a move.

The common denominator of the two games mentioned above is the Decima graphics engine, developed by Kojima's team to run on the PC. A team that isn't a first-party developer for Sony, so it had a lot of leeway in creating the game, even with all the engagement from the Japanese corporation. And they used that to release the game on PC. Guerilla Games, on the other hand, is a completely different pair of shoes. The Dutch developer is owned by Sony, and the decision to release Horizon on PC is somewhat of a coincidence.

But isn't Decima used in numerous projects? They could be released on the PC too, right? My answer is: Red Square.

The reason why Sony releases one of its biggest exclusives three years after, and a few months before launching next-gen, is to give everyone a taste of what exclusivity means for them.

Horizon is The Witcher in the future!

Sorta. The structure of Horizon: Zero Dawn closely resembles the production of CD Projekt RED.

Both games are powerful takes on the action-role-playing genre. In both, character development is done through developing skills on the skill tree. In both the Witcher and Horizon, we explore a vast world, talk to people, complete quests, acquire and improve equipment. The Witcher is a bit more of an RPG, Horizon veers towards an arcade experience with obligatory sneaking, thus also harking back to Assassin's Creed. However, premises the basic premises of both games are very similar. That's not to say Guerilla Games copied ideas, of course.

The games we mentioned are simply created according to a certain formula. On top of that, there's a bit of an overlap in the development of both. Horizon, unlike the game from Warsaw, was released in nearly flawless condition, as well. I think we all remember that Geralt had quite a rough beginning on consoles.

So if you enjoyed The Witcher 3, you'll surely enjoy Horizon.

Pretty land!

Horizon really gives PlayStation 4 a run for the money. The game looks incredible, and when you consider it runs on a console from 2013, you might just be astonished. The varied landscapes of post-apocalyptic America are truly breathtaking. The textures are razor-sharp and the animation is fluid, though displayed in only thirty frames per second. Is it worth buying on PC?

Of course! Most people play single player games not to enjoy the plot – I convinced that average writers can produce better stories – but rather to satisfy their aesthetic needs with beautiful graphics, sink in the atmosphere, and participate in a living world. For me, to feel really like a wanderer facing extraordinary challenges is a very important part of the experience. And the challenges presented in Horizon are really impressive, propelling the plot forward. Not original, unfortunately, though written with momentum worthy of a cinematic blockbuster.

Play Horizon and enjoy the views! Just look at the city in the distance. Step into the dense jungle and admire the wild nature. .

The STUNNING design of robosaurs

Humans in the future world only feed on rabbits. At least that's the impression, because all the larger animals in the game are mechanical. Literal combat machines of various sizes, resembling their counterparts from eons ago. So, we're first going to face velociraptors, then a t-rex, and so on. But it's a bit of an illusion, because not all robots are dinosaurs – there are also robotic zebras, boars, giraffes (extremely cute and majestic), and various birds. We're even able to mount some of them. Of course, you'll have to tame them first, and then teach them to react to your calls. It's a bit of work.

Hunting robosaurus is the quintessence of Horizon. One of the coolest ways of doing that is to set up thoughtful traps to quickly kill more monsters. But there will be a few encounters with real badass enemies in set-piece locations, and I can assure you those won't be easy.

Dinosaurs are always in fashion, but the ones here are a masterfully designed. Look at those red eyes! It's worth launching Horizon for an hour or two just for the creatures. If you're into the ancient reptiles, you won't find a more expensive and more polished game out there.

Would you like another one? Exactly...

Sony's already announced a follow-up. The game will, of course, be released for the PlayStation 5 and will probably once again impress us with pace and visuals. Perhaps it will happen as early as next year. And perhaps not until 2022 – no one likes crunch. Users of Sony can already start imagining that adventure. But what about the PC?

While I am confident enough that the Red Square joke will remain relevant for a sometime to come, the follow-up to Aloy's adventures, it's uncertain whether it will eventually make it to computers. It certainly won't be a multiplatform game at launch – Sony knows where the money is. There's plenty of people who value the PlayStation precisely for fantastic, exclusive games. It is what it is. Releasing the original on the PC is likely meant to encourage more players to switch from computers to PS5, telling them "Wish you were here." It's certainly going to be interesting to see how the market shapes up in the coming years.

The second Horizon promises to be spectacular, and as an exclusive, it will certainly be an ace up Sony's sleeve.