Photo Mode
Photo modes in games have become more of a feature in recent years. It’s a small little feature in reality, but if there’s one thing that we all know, it’s that people love to take pictures of things. With games becoming more and more social over the years, it makes complete sense for that to be taken one step further with letting you snap pics and post it to Twitter, Facebook, or your preferred social media platform. Thankfully, Guerrilla has realized this, which is why Horizon Zero Dawn comes with one, as well.
Given the gorgeous and expansive world and the ways you can customize Aloy, there’s no doubt going to be plenty of selfies of the archer redhead on the way in different outfits. Aloy seems like the type of woman to get some epic landscape shots and dress them up under a fancy filter for her 20 followers on Instagram. She’s probably not someone who uses hashtags, though. She thinks she’s above all that.
The Rope Launcher
In every action game, there’s a certain thing that just looks incredibly fun to use. It’s that one thing that you absolutely know you’re going to abuse the absolute crap out of when you can, either because it’s super useful or leads to some funny results. With Horizon Zero Dawn, it looks like that distinct honor will go to the Ropecaster.
Created by the Nora tribe from which Aloy hails, the Ropecaster is primarily used by hunters to pin down corrupted machines. You’re definitely going to be doing plenty of that in the game (either to kill the machines or Override them and bring them to your side), but the real selling point is how it attributes to traversal. With the ‘Caster, you can pretty much climb anything in the game with relative ease. So many open world games not set in the present day just have you hoof it when it comes to traversal, so it’s nice to get away from that with a gun that basically turns you into post-apocalyptic Batman with better hair.
A New World
Guerrilla Games has been hard at work on the Killzone series for a decade and a half. While their efforts on the franchise are appreciated, it’s always nice to see a studio branch out and do something different. Horizon Zero Dawn is a huge departure from the studio, from the vast open world to the action-RPG mechanics.
To say that Horizon looks gorgeous would be an understatement to the quality of the graphics. Each new slice of gameplay footage looks amazing and conveys a world of mystery and wonder. Open world games are incredibly common, but most of them are set in the modern day and not a world where vegetation has overtaken everything. Combined with the photo mode and the mounts that you can take control of after you Override them, it’s going to be a beautiful world to explore and get around in.
Uncovering the Mystery
Horizon Zero Dawn takes place 1,000 years in the future after some unknown thing happened to humanity. As a result, machines have become sentient and taken over the Earth, with the rest of human life separated into tribes all over the world. Part of the story will be learning just what happened to put the world in this state, and it’s an event that Guerrilla Games is keeping very close to the chest. They’ve even said that for all the theories floating around in regards to the story, no one’s actually been right in their guessing yet.
In slices of gameplay, it’s been shown that Aloy will come across parts of our modern day technology. It’s sure to be a recurring thing over the course of the game, which will make it all the more fascinating to play and go through. Most post apocalyptic games are either vaguely defined as to what remnants of humanity are left (as in Last of Us) or in an alternate universe where the world ended long before modern times (Fallout). It’ll certainly be interesting seeing what remnants of modern technology Aloy comes across in her journey.
Fighting Robot Animals
The big selling point for many in regards to Horizon Zero Dawn is going to be that you’re fighting robot animals. That’s not exactly something you see every day, and the machines have the right blend of being mechanical and animalistic. From the gameplay clips we’ve seen, there’s robots influenced by deer, birds, and giraffes.
Aloy’s certainly bound to come across more beasts that have yet to be revealed. We already know that there’s larger beasts such as the Stormbringer and Thunderjaw, but that simply can’t be it. Some of them may just be saved for boss fights that’ll truly test her mettle, like a sci-fi Shadow of the Colossus. There’s going to be plenty of ways to dispose of these things, including Overriding them to fight alongside you or riding them as mounts. It’d suck if you couldn’t hijack a Stormbringer for a quick ride somewhere, even if it’s just for the one moment.
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