Horizon: Zero Dawn Is Officially A Melting Pot Of All Great Video Game Tropes

There are a lot of video game tropes these days that gamers absolutely hate, which is why titles like Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare are not doing as well as their publishers expected. However, there is a surging presence of excellent video game trends made popular by games such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Based on the reviews so far, it would seem that Horizon: Zero Dawn has all of these traits and more.

In Kotaku’s take on the game, one can get the impression that the post-apocalyptic role-playing game by Guerilla Games has ascended to godhood in terms of its story, graphics, and the sheer amount of content. The publication pays particular attention to how awe-inspiring the title is, delivering on the considerable power that the PlayStation 4 is actually capable of.

Few other developers and games seem to take advantage of Sony’s current generation console in the way that Horizon is doing, and it shows. Reviewers are also quick to notice how the game takes inspiration from CD Projekt Red’s own RPG game where the side quests have depth, which makes the numerous missions aside from the main ones worth looking into.

One of the worst video game tropes that gamers like to complain about are those repetitive fetch quests, which games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, are guilty of, after all. So having a title that makes a point to address those issues was bound to get the right kind of attention.

Then there’s the combat mechanics, which many reviewers are practically gushing about. Using the right tactics on the different robot monstrosities is incredibly important in order for the main character Aloy to stand a chance against them. Using the right weapons for the right occasion also yields rewarding results as opposed to stubbornly shooting everything with arrows.

All in all, The Verge describes Horizon best with its review titled “Horizon Zero Dawn Review: A Greatest Hits Collection Of Open-World Games.” The developers basically took all the lessons from every single critically-acclaimed open-world game, along with other genres, and combined them to produce what is likely to be one of the greatest video game titles of this generation.