![]() ![]() There’s little that breaks the immersion faster than being charged by an enemy who is on fire, has four arrows sticking out of his face yet is still yelling insults at you, slowly advancing on your position as though he isn’t engulfed in flames and there isn’t a collection of steel where his brain should be. Once you’re done waging a frustrating war against boring Human enemies, however, you’ll be back fighting robots and all will be right with the world. Encounters essentially see them happy to simply lineup and wait to be slaughtered. This would be bad enough in its own right, but when stacked up against the always impressive robotic enemies, whose AI feels very adaptive, it comes off as a letdown each and every time. Throw in the game’s tougher elite enemies and bosses, who become bullet sponges (or arrow sponges, I suppose), and these sections of the game are simply not fun to interact with. Their AI is busted, making encounters with them feel pretty boring. When they try they tend to leave their heads exposed. While Horizon keeps the cause of its apocalypse shrouded in mystery at the beginning of the game, you’d be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that Humanity had simply turned suicidal en masse after one or two encounters with them. They have no regard for their own survival, frequently jogging towards Aloy at a leisurely pace as she lines up the perfect shot right between their eyes. Fighting robots sees the game at its most enjoyable.įighting Humans, however, sees the game at its dullest. And if Horizon had stuck to its guns and thrown you up against its robots exclusively, it’d be a fantastic time from start to finish. In my 30-odd hours with Horizon I was never bored of tangling with the game’s robots. Whether you’re crouching in the foliage carefully planning your assault or hurling Aloy straight into open warfare, robotic combat is a delight, creating memories of epic encounters. Putting all of these options together makes Horizon’s combat some of the most satisfying of the generation when combined with the outright excellent robotic enemies. There are a huge variety of robot enemies in Horizon, each based on a different type of animal and each with specific weaknesses and attack patterns. Fighting them is a joy, from the smaller Watchers and Striders that you’ll encounter early on to the huge, pseudo-boss robots like the Stormbird you’ll encounter on your travels. Aloy has access to slings designed to inflict elemental damage, blasters designed to blow armour and even weapons off her robotic adversaries, ropecasters for tying down robots and much more. Horizon’s combat mechanics are open enough that there are multiple ways to effectively approach any given situation, letting its players truly take ownership of each and every fight. The variety of weapons stretches out beyond the shortbow. When Aloy is armed with a limited suite of basic weapons, combat can feel a bit weak. But as you progress through the game, expanding your arsenal and coming across some pretty tough opposition, these robot fights become immensely satisfying strategic encounters. When it sticks to this premise it’s a fascinating game. Horizon sells itself on the premise that you wander the Earth centuries after an unknown cataclysm and hunt robots with a bow and arrow. Raised by her adoptive father in the wilderness, Aloy embarks on a journey through a strange and unknown world to discover who her mother was and uncover the secrets of the Old Ones. Players take the role of Aloy, a hunter who was ejected from her tribe and labelled an outcast from birth. Horizon: Zero Dawn is an action RPG set in a post-apocalyptic future overrun by robots. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |