Horizon Zero Dawn

When you think about it, Aloy came to the end of his Horizon Zero Dawn adventure too easily, and The Frozen Wilds is proof of that. This important extension is a splendid challenge of fifteen hours, enriched with clever side quests, a solid story, and with the best fights that we have experienced so far in the company of the heroine. .

Its storyline integrates with that of the main game, and can be played after completing the original adventure, so it's suitable for both those who want to complete everything, as well as those who have never completed the quests of the history. You can then travel to a new and gigantic area - which is added to the main map, as soon as you install this DLC (even if the objective does not immediately appear in your quest log) - and therefore risk yourself with courage or stupidity in dangerous places if you are not at least level 30. In these places you will explore the mysteries surrounding a nomadic tribe, the Banuk - which are already at the heart of one of the most memorable side quests by Zero Dawn. The Frozen Wilds will nevertheless dig even deeper into the fascinating complexity of their structure and spirituality.

Specifically, this DLC takes a look at the fascinating idea of gods and demons, and how the apocalypse has befallen this world, now populated by dinosaur-like robots. Although its story sometimes turns strange with evolutionary jargon that's hard to understand - speak French, damn it! - when it comes to its conclusion, I was able to ask myself interesting (and no less provocative) questions about the place of faith in such a brutal world.

For his part, Aloy remains the endearing and warm character that we have already met previously. At this point in the story, she's strong and competent enough to find her place when the situation calls for it, and her personality fits that role well. She's also the voice of reason, and whenever The Frozen Wilds falls for the sill, Aloy is there to point it out with his scathing jokes, worn by actress Ashly Burch in their original version.

She fits quite well with the other characters, the most interesting of which, like the most eccentric, appear in the many side quests that run through this expansion. These adventures are among the best that I have been given to do, with a special emphasis on platform phases like an Uncharted or a Tomb Raider, with its sinister cliffs, its breathtaking battles , and his particularly funny jokes.

Survival instinct

These quests are worth it on a practical level, as you're going to want to keep upgrading your character (if you're not already level 50) in order to get more powerful weapons and gear. Although they are all from Zero Dawn, the monsters wandering in The Frozen Wilds are not here for fun. If you're not careful, expect to face a formidable opponent. Guerrilla justifies the boost in the difficulty by the arrival of a "demonic" force having infiltrated the internal systems of the robots. Fighting a demonic Thunderjaw is thus much more frightening than fighting its usual counterpart. It is nevertheless just as tall and imposing, while also proving to be more deadly, reinstating the fear that you may have abandoned until then.

These fights are the funniest I have had in Horizon. Between levels 40 and 50 in Zero Dawn, I could see that fighting, especially being equipped with the shield allowing Aloy to regenerate his protection, was a little too easy, but The Forzen Wilds gave me back the taste for risk. Even with the best gear, I was able to find myself overwhelmed by a group of demonic machines (the only reason I didn't die indefinitely was possession of an absurd number of healing potions and pieces of metal that I I was able to collect during my 40 hours of play on Zero Dawn), and a certain number of new machines in the bestiary allowed me to test my reflexes to avoid their attacks at the last second. I liked feeling like I was genuinely fighting for my own life, even with a skill tree at the max.

To make the fights more frantic, The Frozen Wilds introduces in its new zone a machine called Control Towers (in original version). It's a sprawling machine projecting energy in the form of purple pulses, which reduces your shield resistance, while healing nearby enemy machines. Getting around or destroying them takes concentration and time, creating extreme tension as you try to kill them before they tear you apart.

All of this gives a real sense of danger as soon as you start to explore the world. If Zero Dawn was akin to a stroll through Jurassic Park, The Frozen Wild is a bit like discovering The Lost World: indomitable and unregulated. Because even a Demonic Watcher proves that he can be a significant threat from the first few minutes of the campaign, I found myself jerked by certain noises in the thickets, or by nearby roars, especially during disturbing times. nocturnal.

It's winter

It's also a good thing that The Frozen Wilds looks amazingly beautiful. Its snow-covered mountains, ravines and fields are dotted with frozen lakes, flown over by sublime blue-red sunsets. It might sound like anecdotal, but considering how much time you'll spend on it if you play to the end, it's important that the snow in Frozen Wilds is realistic and crisp under your feet. When Aloy comments on the cold, I feel like I can feel it too.

The other big point of divergence of Frozen Wilds, compared to Zero Dawn, is the addition of a new branch in Aloy's skill tree, called “The Traveler” which emphasizes facilitated movements. when you're riding an overloaded machine, while getting the most out of your inventory. This tree, however, is not essential for the expansion, but rather for the long term of Horizon. Being able to scavenge resources off the back of a machine or grab 50% of the value of a resource or mod that you shell out is something that makes sense, and I'm happy to see Guerrilla has it. finally understood.

How many times have we been through this? Machines rebelling against their creators take over the world, leading to the extermination of mankind. Only our contemporary or even future generations will be able to create a truly destructive real power controlled by artificial intelligence. What begins today as innocent fun may end tomorrow with a complete catastrophe - the reset of civilization. Almost like James Cameron's Terminator . The work of the Guerrilla Games studio takes up this topic, taking us into a distant future in which technologically advanced society is a long-forgotten past . People in Horizon: Zero Dawn are primitive creatures who live in constant fear of machines ... and of people from other tribes - nothing has changed here.

In search of Aloy's identity

Aloy of the Nora tribe is an outcast. Someone who is not talked to, does not trade, and even chases him away by throwing stones. The girl does not know her background, and Rost who is bringing her up - also an outcast - has no intention of sharing secrets with her. Nevertheless, as a mentor and trainer, he prepares Aloy for an attempt to bring the girl back into society when she is entering adulthood. The limited space of the neighborhood of the young woman's home village will soon turn into a great world, existing only so that we, as players, do not get bored during its exploration, during which the heroine will learn about her heritage.

The plot of Horizon: Zero Dawn sounds clichéd and does not differ much from dozens of similar stories. Here is a character thrown into the whirlwind of events, discovering the secret of his origin, gaining more and more information about not only his past, but also the world around him. Like Odysseus, he experiences successive adventures to finally reach the desired destination. There is nothing to blame - the plot of the game is not particularly ambitious. It can also be predictable. However, despite numerous shallows, it is definitely not boring .

Moreover, the more it develops, the more interesting it becomes. This is an important observation, because the first two or even three hours of fun in the open world of the post-apocalyptic future turned out to be extremely painful for me. Boring, over-the-counter and - frankly speaking - not even very pleasant to look at.

Poor start

I had the impression that all the shortcomings and disadvantages of the game, which the creators were undoubtedly aware of, were fully premeditated at the very beginning of the game. The location where we start the adventure is not very pretty, and it looks empty . The linear nature of the first missions does not help either - the feeling of relative freedom fades when we are constantly interrupted by a numb conversation of mannequins, and the Polish voices of the characters sound so hopelessly dispassionate, as if you were at a meeting of a circle of not very talented writers.

Added to all this is the poor translation of the dialogues, apparently made by a few people without knowing the context of the whole conversation, which results in such flowers (I quote from memory and certainly not very accurately):

After several dozen minutes, I gave up dubbing and set the game to English with Polish subtitles. It's a pity that the foreign-language actors didn't really show off - with a few exceptions - but I didn't risk changing again until the end of the game.

Yes, dialogues. As I mentioned, there are extremely uninteresting chats at the beginning of the game, but the character models are even more offensive . They are beautifully crafted with razor sharp textures, but unfortunately behave like mannequins . Stiff movements and bizarre facial expressions (for a long time I had the impression that the characters were speaking through their eyebrows - they moved them so funny during the conversation), eyes with a blank stare. It doesn't look good. The presentation of the conversations itself is not stunning either. The camera just takes turns showing the interlocutors - just as if the developers didn't have enough time to better direct this element of the game. Strange, because all cutscenes are great against this background.

The further the better

And when, after those first three hours, I finally set off to explore the rest of the game universe, something I didn't expect happened. With each passing minute, this ruined world was getting more and more interesting, more and more addictive . I didn't look back, and I was already intrigued, getting to know, even absorbing what the Dutch from Guerrilla Games had prepared. The graphics, music, mechanics of character development and fighting with oversized machines - all this adds up to a great adventure that drew me completely for the next thirty hours.

There is no need to cheat. This better and better impression is mainly due to the beautiful graphics . The terrains we move around are very diverse. From snowy wastelands, through green valleys, to the desert scorched by the sun - in each of these places the game generates unforgettable views. The marketing campaign focused mainly on forested areas, but do not be surprised if at some point the area you visit begins to resemble Monument Valley - after all, the action takes place in the area of the destroyed United States.

It is enough to look around a little to see villages and trade-border factories, ruins of skyscrapers destroyed by time and climate, still working robot factories or even a large city to which we are heading in the early stages of the game . The reviving civilization was shown in more and less advanced forms. In a camp full of bandits equipped with primitive melee weapons, a leader suddenly appears holding a huge "knocker", coiled from some dangerous machine. Surprisingly, such a mishmash of ideas does not spoil the immersion at all.

Artificial intelligence is artificial

It's a pity that this almost perfect mechanics of clashes is spoiled by stupid artificial intelligence controlling enemies. By infiltrating an enemy camp and killing enemies silently, we often find that the machines do not pay attention to the human allies lying around the corpse. When a man sees a fallen comrade, he rushes towards the body most often, stopping in front of him and exposing himself to a shot . Half a platoon of thugs can be mowed this way. Or robots, because they too react similarly to their own losses.

Even if something exceptionally goes wrong and we alert a dozen or so opponents, but we do not let ourselves be detected and we hide in a hole for some time, the others - as if nothing had happened - would eventually stop noticing the danger and return to their previous activities. To be clear: the animations, the presentation of the fight and the satisfaction with neutralizing enemies are amazing, but the performance of the AI should definitely improve.

Science and gathering

I mentioned skills. They have been grouped into three trees, thanks to which we develop the skills of a hunter, warrior and / or feeder. The latter make it easier to collect raw materials, recover mines or dominate machines, which provide us with often invaluable services, including allowing you to travel faster. If I had to fault something, it was the fact that while running back and forth I was able to lock the figure twice in a completely open area. Without the possibility of moving in any direction, I had to save myself by loading the last save.