Oh this endless backlog. Sometimes you see a trailer for a game, you wait for it, and when it comes out you either don’t have the opportunity, or for some other reason you are forced to postpone getting to know it for an indefinite period, and over time, a lot of such games accumulate and you wonder if you’ll be able to play them all. One of these projects for me was Horizon Zero Dawn, which turned out to be just right for the New Year holidays in terms of atmosphere and mood. And looking at their first project in the open world, you can’t even say that before that they were producing only linear shooters, undoubtedly cool, although unfortunately I’m only familiar with the third part, it turns out that there are three more games in the backlog. And right from the opening scene, I realized that I would not regret the time spent playing through this game, since from the first seconds I was waiting for the main feature of all games under the Sony brand, this is a production that gives me goosebumps all over my body and great music.
We, like the main character, know nothing about the world around us, but little by little we collect some scraps of information about the modern world order, about what happened before, why the world now looks the way it does, and what happened to the next race of forerunners. It seems to me that no matter what modern game you poke into, you will definitely come across a mention of another race of ancestors. The premise really forces you to become an information junkie, as a result of which a lot of time will be spent just reading notes, which I am usually extremely skeptical about, since in most games they seriously ruin the dynamics. Here it is competently played out from the point of view of history, because you are literally put in the place of the main character and in your head, like Aloy’s, a picture of events begins to form in small grains and fragments of details, and information becomes the main weapon in such a world and those who possess it are literally able to become a god and a mission for people with a tribal way of life. Even though this is a computer game, even though you understand that the main character will most likely survive, especially after watching the trailer for the second part, nevertheless, the information received gives you the feeling that you need to fight for your life, because only you know what really happened to the world and how to cope with the danger that threatens it again. And this very feeling of, so to speak, chosenness is really shown in this, I will even say more, only in this game can the hero feel truly chosen and the savior of the world. In most projects, where the main characters are told that only they are capable, for example, of defeating an ancient evil and so on, this actually raises a bunch of questions, since those around him know about the threat and are theoretically capable of dealing with it. In Horizon Zero Dawn, only Aloy knows and most importantly understands what happened, what threatens them and how to try to overcome it. After all, if she dies, knowledge will be lost, and other people who remain in the dark will refer to God’s punishment and rely on his mercy, explaining what is happening with superstition and not understanding the true essence of things.
At the beginning, it may seem that Aloy is not such a hero, because no matter how many different definitions and interpretations of this term exist, after studying them all, it is possible to identify some general interpretation of this concept. In most cases, heroism is overcoming any difficulties that are extremely dangerous both for the hero himself and for those around him, and the hero himself puts the common goal at the forefront and sacrifices himself and his personal interests to achieve the common good. At first, this does not really apply to Aloy, like most of the game, because she takes part in all events in pursuit of personal goals, or rather, trying to get to the bottom of the truth about her own origin, but gradually all this leads her to the path of heroism. Having learned the truth, she is already trying with all her might to accomplish that very feat and the people perceive her as the chosen one and she, not being vain, cannot accept this attitude towards her and refuses the labels and regalia hung on her, but still does her job and the duty assigned to herself. This is what makes her a hero.
And there are simply a huge number https://gamesnotongamstop.co.uk/lottery/ of threats on its way, because there is a kind of post-post apocalypse in the yard and therefore people behave like the last bastards, although without post-apocament they are no better, but still within the framework of some laws they are limited. And there their hands are completely free and they can do whatever they want, especially if they are fighting for some idea, which, given their lack of education, can be planted in their heads by anyone who sufficiently understands the chaos happening around them, which is actually what is happening. The theme of the immutability of human nature is now widespread, from books, films and to our favorite computer toys, many of which recently, although the previous year was quite lousy in this regard, claim not just as a means of entertainment, but as works of art and try to reflect some problems, speak out on a certain topic and touch on a variety of lofty matters.
In addition to humans, what attracts the most attention is simply the miracle of well-made robotic fauna, which at times can give a good challenge and make you really feel like you are fighting a huge machine that is several times larger than you. And besides, in theory, each needs its own approach, but having acquired armor-piercing arrows, the use of the rest loses its meaning, well, fire ones are completely ineffective without them, but it’s quite normal for the local bestiary to be sorted out with armor-piercing arrows. Moreover, it really understands that every part that we can observe on the bodies of robots can most likely be shot, except of course the main frame. Mostly the skin and functional parts fall off like machine guns and other gadgets that give them an advantage, but despite this everything looks incredibly beautiful and when standing with a machine gun you start hitting them with all your might and watching the flying fragments and falling off parts, you naturally feel like you are in the film “Transformers” by Michael Bay. And besides, Aloy does all these obscenities with the help of a bow, and as you know, it makes any game thirty percent more interesting. As usual with normal witchers, there are two bows and swords, and in my case they were used exactly like that, a reinforced one to one-shot people, and a combat one to shower robotic animals with a hail of arrows, with the exception of some moments. And sometimes you really feel this lack of weapons, because here it’s like in Avatar “with a bow and arrow against warships,” but once you get the hang of it and learn all the habits and weaknesses, you begin to disassemble the robots in two. At this moment, a certain dissonance arises, because Aloy can almost single-handedly deal with several machines using a bow, and the ancestors, who have weapons many times superior to what the main character uses, sometimes could not cope with such, but then it seems to be explained that, having been lost for several thousand years, the machines now do not have the same killing power that they used to have, and you kind of accept it and don’t think about it anymore.
Wandering through the expanses of the deceased Asashai, Aloy encounters various tribes, most of which have the cultural basis of both real tribes that once existed on our native land and fictional ones. The burrows we meet at the very beginning of the game are a mixture of cultures. Looking at the attire and their architecture, Viking motifs are clearly visible, and their war paint refers to the Pictish tribes. The traditions and general state of things are based on the Hopi Indian tribe living in northeastern Arizona. From time immemorial, matriarchy flourished among them and a man who married a woman became part of her clan. On the twentieth day after the birth of the child, he was carried to a rock, and when the first rays of the sun illuminated him, a woman from the father’s clan gave the baby a name. Sometimes it got ridiculous and there was a recorded case when a child received as many as forty names because too many relatives came to the ceremony, but as a rule the parents decided how to address the child in everyday life.
The Carja tribe is entirely based on the veneration of the sun, which we can see in a huge number of cultures, but upon careful examination of the clothing, buildings and the overall biome where they live, we can assume that they are inspired by the Indian, Cambodian peoples, as well as the Aztec tribes, although the names are similar to those worn by the Arabs. When you first meet them, there are clear associations with the Fire Nation from the animated series “Avatar” – this is the predominant red light and respect for the sun, but Japan served as the prototype for this, so go figure out who borrowed what from whom.
Looking at the Lakes, I couldn’t formulate an image of the culture to which they could be attributed in my head. Then I remembered three things that they do best: work, fight and drink, and looking at Erend a clear image of a stereotypical Irishman appears before my eyes, of course there is no confirmation of this, but I can’t get rid of this thought.
The Banuk, in turn, resembles all the northern tribes, both in America and in Chukotka, where to this day the traditional form of worldview is shamanism.Their location is also logically correct in relation to the biome and does not cause any dissonance.
Oh, how good it is that we live in a time when Sony exclusives can come out on PC and give us the opportunity to get acquainted with them without purchasing an expensive console. And I am immensely glad that the project did not disappoint and gave exactly what you expected from it, a large-scale adventure with an interesting plot and the opportunity to feel like a hero.