Three years after its release on PS4, Horizon Zero Dawn is the first Sony studio exclusive to be adapted for PC. In addition to being always so incredible and bringing its stone to the world of RPG by delivering a unique universe, the portage is sumptuous!
For those unfamiliar with Horizon Zero Dawn, this is an action RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have returned to the technological middle ages, while nature is teeming with robots that have replaced animals. In the skin of Aloye, an outcast with mysterious origins, you will have to elucidate the mystery that hovers behind these machines, the corruption that allows you to take control of them, your birth, not to mention the plots to foil affecting the important characters that you meet.
So much to point out right away, it sells for $ 60, which is $ 20 less than a classic game!
Full of details
Horizon Zero Dawn offers a vast world of which we will explore the recesses as we advance in the quests. Aloy’s progression and learning curve are also exemplary at this point. Weapons become more complex and more powerful, as do enemies, which really leaves time to master each type of weapon and its techniques before learning another.
We often recognize a great game in the care taken in detail, and Horizon Zero Dawwn is teeming with it. The topography is studied so that you do not miss anything during the mission for the crafting of potions and ammunition, as long as you do not abuse it. The care given to the side missions in their scripting and unfolding is also to be rented, just like the various sound recordings left here and there which punctuate the exploration of the ruins, while teaching us more about the past. We are never blocked by a bad level design or by the gameplay, everything is perfect, and we feel the hours of design or playtest in order to achieve this result.
There are of course many elements of RPGs such as crafting, haggling, but simplified. You don’t juggle between 50 types of weapons and armor. The elemental side is managed very easily, although the basic arrows will suffice and will often prove to be preferable to destroy the destructible and especially explosive parts of the machines.
Master battles
Beyond the rich and incredibly solid history, the fights will occupy a preponderant place! That’s good because they turn out to be simply grandiose! You will start with your melee lance and bow, which will be enriched with various types of bows and arrows, as well as traps. To this, original weapons will be added such as the cable launcher allowing to trap a wide band, the elemental slingshots, or the very practical rope launcher to immobilize enemies, although it makes hunting giant birds a little too simple. . You just have to shoot three continuously to hold them, then pound the destructible parts. Well done you just killed a powerful to hard boss in less than three minutes!
The behavior of 23 enemy species is extremely aggressive, and their way of fighting differs greatly depending on their morphology. They never hesitate to charge and pick you up in melee. You have to constantly run, jump, dodge and shoot at the right time in the weak point or the destructible part, the only possibility of inflicting substantial damage on them. Some fights will also require a minimum of preparation and the setting of traps, although this is doable during a confrontation. Rather hardcore if you push the difficulty (and very easy to easy) you have a real sense of satisfaction after a difficult fight. We are in a real struggle, while landing arrows and using elemental traps. There is a similarity to the Monster Hunter spirit, but Guerilla took inspiration to create their own take on combat and it’s incredibly successful!
Regarding the difficulty, the game is far too easy in story mode and easy. It becomes surprisingly more interesting to medium, offering a well balanced difficulty. At hard and up, it gets incredibly intense, especially since the damage isn’t forgiving much.
A PC port that doesn’t make fun of gamers!
For its passage on PC, Horizon Zero Dawn was the subject of a rather sumptuous porting! And we are talking about a game played before its launch patch and in the absence of dedicated drivers, and whose performance should be further increased according to an email sent by Sony. The PC brings its power in terms of ambient occlusion, display, reflections or even rendering of shadows, not to mention the animation which goes to 60 FPS and the management of wide screens. The artistic direction is such that one might think it more demanding. I didn’t have the time to try it with less powerful cards, but for 1440p 60 FPS at ultra, motion blur and V-sync disabled, the RX 5700Xt and therefore the RTX 2070 are well armed and the game is magnificent. Note that the upsacle on a 4K TV surprisingly loses almost nothing unlike other games where this is immediately visible.
I relaunched the game on PS4 Pro, it is superb and pushes the console to its limits, but on PC it is magnified. The textures are better defined, the game is rid of this slight blur that affublished the PS4 version. We are a step above, while the animation at 60 FPs gives it a much more natural and fluid side than on console.
Testers noted drops in FPS before launch, and numerous crashes. I was probably lucky because I had a few crashes, especially related to playing the game on a screen or TV that is not designated as the primary screen. I have not experienced a drop in FPS except once this night and it is a bug that seems easily identifiable in a specific mountainous area with the same type of enemy. Otherwise, the game ran well before patch, and the driver update has just given it a little boost.
The only regret I have for this PC version comes when the game first loads which takes several minutes, presumably a story of pilots, but of course it launches immediately every time thereafter, and it goes really fast on an SSD.
Defects without affecting the general quality
Faults ? There are of course, such as your mount which cannot run at full speed off the trails, the inability to block the camera on the opponent, or the management of mines and potions far too slow at the cross in the middle of a fight that would have deserved a wheel system like weapon selection. Finally, the interface for weapon mods during modifications could be a little more explanatory. So yes it has many flaws, but their impact is sometimes more annoying than really annoying for the progression.
Conclusion
Allow about fifty hours to complete the game, without the hunting missions, and add about ten – for the Frozen Wilds DLC included in the game. If you decide to participate in the hunts and face the most dangerous, you can add a few dozen more hours, not to mention that you can have fun by going to find several enemies to face at the same time on the map.
If you are the type to triumph in the action RPG, the great stories, the worlds that are out of the ordinary and immediately plunge you into their universe, Monster Hunter, the hardcore combat, or are looking for something resolutely original, horizon Zero Dawn will satisfy all these amateurs by offering them something more solid and which gives you a hundredfold bang for your buck from start to finish.
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