A review of the game Horizon: Zero Dawn

Games, an event which takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, there are so many. Just remember the classic series and , dashing shooters and Borderland Rage or an amazing personal stories like . Us is almost impossible to surprise even the most unusual setting, too, we are all spoiled by what we've played previously. Perhaps things will change once you get acquainted with the game Horizon: Zero Dawn, developed exclusively for Sony PlayStation 4 console the Dutch Studio Guerrilla Games. Just about it I would like to tell you about today.

Studio Guerrilla Games, whose main office is located in the heart of the Netherlands — the capital Amsterdam, throughout its 17-year existence, engaged in the development of one of its franchise – Killzone. Immediately after the release of the first game in the series for the PlayStation 2, Sony has purchased a small Studio and made it as one of its key developers. In those years, Sony needed the answer to the Halo series from Microsoft, so talented developers with its spectacular shooter came in very handy. Over time, the Killzone series migrated to the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and then on the PlayStation 4. But after the latest release to date games of the series in 2013 from the Studio Guerrilla Games, virtually nothing was heard. The truth was hovering in the air rumors that its employees are actively working on a completely new IP that combines science fiction and post-Apocalypse.

To Jump from first person shooters to a whole new genre of Action/RPG in an open world – not an easy task. So many fans of Guerrilla Games was very worried for the quality of future games. And it is clear. Too different the scale of these two genres. It's one thing to make a bright daring corridor shooter about the war earthlings with the inhabitants released from the control of the space colony, and quite another – to create a huge new world, and even to convince the player that he is real. It's just incredible, Titanic work: need to work out its style, from scratch to create a landscape, to fill it with flora and fauna, to make it obey some General rules to link everything with each other, and even about the settlements, NPCs and dungeons with lots of quests should not be forgotten. Tens and hundreds of thousands of man-hours required to make it all come to life on our screen. A game of this magnitude is not cheap Oh, how (the final budget amounted to approximately EUR 45 million), so trust her producers Sony could only of the combat proven professionals Guerrilla Games.

Event Horizon: Zero Dawn takes place in the distant future when the world as we know it, was completely destroyed, and its remains emerged a whole new life. And this life is divided into two different types: biological and artificial. The green meadows and dense forests run not only hares, squirrels and wild boar, but creepy metal creatures, vaguely reminiscent of familiar animals and even dinosaurs. In rivers and lakes live metallic robots, similar to crocodiles, and in the fields grazing buffaloes, and steel horse. From time to time over them all slowly float giant sized mechanical dinosaurs. And all this new generation of people seems completely natural, because they have not seen anything else. Humanity, meanwhile, fell back in the middle ages. The local king lives in a huge city of Meridian and commoners gather in a huddle in tribes and small settlements. There is a new world in multiple religions, and even dark cults, but that's human nature – without it anywhere.

I'm deliberately not going to tell you about what happened with our planet, causing the Land is fully rebooted, and was inhabited by not just humans, but cybernetic beings. The great secret, each player must discover for himself. You can speculate on this topic as you like, Recalling the familiar scenes of "Terminator" or "Matrix", because in these films, humanity has doomed itself to destruction at the hands of the machines they themselves created. Let me just say that this game will surprise you with an incredibly addictive storyline, which hardly anyone will be able to predict 100%. I Horizon: Zero Dawn reminded exciting fantasy novels that I so loved to read in childhood, so thoroughly and deeply developed story component. It's not a game dummy, in which you just need to run and shoot robots. The developers put a lot of effort to get players to believe in the reality of the situation, to believe the emotions of the main characters. And worst of all, they managed to get me to believe that something similar might actually happen to humanity in the distant future.

The Main character Horizon: Zero Dawn is a red-haired girl named Eloy. Even in infancy, cause unknown abandoned his tribe and Nora, so the upbringing of a child engaged in hunter-outcast named Rast. He teaches the girl how to hunt down animals and robots, how to hunt them how to survive in the harsh conditions of the new world and wildlife. But most importantly, he teaches her not to lose heart when you turn away from the whole world, because both of them — rogue. When Eloy celebrates 19 years, she decides to take part in the rite of initiation, the victory in which may restore her right to be a part of a native tribe. It was at this point she began her long journey in search of answers to a lot of tormenting the girl questions. What happened to the people who inhabited the world in the past? Who were her parents? Why it was abandoned native tribe? Who created all these amazing machines, flooded the planet? The answers will be. Just need a little patience.

Even as a baby, Eloy found in the old ruins, the tiny device "the Shield" (in the English original — Focus), which is being hooked over the ear, allowing the person to see and hear amazing things. So she learned to read the archives remaining from the extinct humanity, all learn more of the sad history of the so-called "forerunner". Also the Visor helps her to track down people showing their traces and left behind the evidence (just like in the game The Witcher 3). And most importantly, the Visor indicates weaknesses in the bodies of machines, allowing you to inflict a critical strike and incapacitate. The device also allows you to scan the surrounding area and discover hidden mechanisms, sources and all sorts of secrets. The shield will repeatedly save the main character's life, so learning to use it is necessary in the first place. The Visor is activated by pressing the right analog stick of the DualShock 4 controller.

The Combat system the game is based on the use of several weapons, chief among which, of course, is onions. If you are a fan of video games about archery, Horizon: Zero Dawn – what the doctor ordered. The bows in the game a lot, they all vary the main parameters, and the type of arrows used. You can shoot normal arrows, fire arrows, arrows, ripping off armor from the surface of machinery, precision shafts and so on. If the bow seems to you insufficient, you can resort to using a sling shot and throw enemies with explosive shells, and can be put along the route of the enemy stretching from a special gun, which he will blow to pieces. There is in the game even weapons, firing a hail of arrows, a kind of a sort of primitive shotgun. However, with some cars you can shoot down one of the heavy guns to take him in hand and turned against her. Strategies associated with the use of different types of weapons and ammunition in a great variety of game. And each player will find the perfect combination that allows him to dominate opponents.

If you are not a fan of archery, you can battle enemies with spears. It is somewhat more difficult than the fight at long range, but is also very effective with the right approach. Alternating strong and weak attacks, you can knock the opponent off his feet, and then inflict a fatal blow. A large machine can be tilted, using a special weapon, tangling your society their legs with ropes. Remember the scene from "Star wars", where rebel fighters were tying the legs of the walkers at-at cables? Here and here you can do something similar. In addition, you can put on the battlefield various traps that are in contact with the enemy explode, or smite them with electricity.

As you progress through the game Eloy will gain experience and skill points that can be spent in the special menu. The skill tree is divided into three branches. Category "Hunter" focuses on the silent attacks, evasion and stealth. For example, you will be able to teach the Eloi to attack enemies from behind soundlessly, creeping toward them in the tall grass. The category of "Warrior" focuses on archery and attack with spears. Time will slow down when you aim at enemies, and melee attacks become much more powerful. The third category is called "Collector". It will teach the Eloi to make the most valuable loot from dead enemies and vehicles, as well as more efficient to produce ammunition and disarm traps.

A Very important place in the game is crafting. From the bodies of dead animals you will get bones, meat and skins, and from the fallen machines – valuable items required for the manufacture of munitions or for sale to local merchants for a handful of metal fragments – of the local currency. In a separate menu you will craft the arrows yourself, create healing herbal teas, as well as increase the capacity for carrying bags of loot and other valuables. Somehow it all reminded me of a similar system of gaming the Far Cry series. However, such borrowing in no way makes the game worse or vtorichnoe. On the contrary, the excellent dawn of the...