Horizon Zero Dawn

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​HORIZON ZERO DAWN reviewed for the PS4
 
Sometimes you can just tell when a new franchise is born, and Horizon Zero Dawn is one of those times.  Here you take on the role of Aloy as she battles robotic dinosaurs and Human bandits in a lush, beautiful adventure.
 
GAMEPLAY Aloy has all the moves that gamers expect from their heroines in the 21st century.  She can run, jump, climb obstacles and fight. Aloy’s world is huge, and she’s able to explore it to her heart's content.  This is the game’s biggest achievement and also its biggest flaw, because while exploring the land can be fun, it quickly becomes repetitive.
 
While Horizon doesn’t do anything fresh in terms of gameplay, the storyline is definitely novel and should be played just to experience the narrative.
 
GRAPHICS The graphics in Horizon Zero Dawn are some of the best that I’ve ever seen; Aloy’s world is amazingly detailed, filled with beautiful little touches everywhere.  All characters are rendered in amazing detail, and their animations are fluid and lifelike, I really felt that I was in a living, breathing world where I as a human was at the bottom of the food chain.   
 
Despite the beautiful graphics, minor frame rate dips became noticeable especially when there were several enemies on screen at once. 
 
SOUND The sound in Horizon Zero Dawn is great; the sound of a mechanical T-Rex roaring at me for the first time was heart-stopping, and character lip syncing was pretty much spot on.
 
VERDICT Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the best games of the PS4 to date, while it doesn’t do anything new, it does take old ideas and put them in a fresh new world.  Brilliant graphics, sound, and gameplay make this a must-have title.
 
9/10