Horizon Zero Dawn

Rating: 9.8

Happy Price: 59.99

Gameplay

At it's core HZD is a third person open world shooter, but it's also much more than that. The world is inhabited with hostile humans and powerful robot dinosaurs. As you play the robot dinosaurs, which are just referred to as machines, gradually increase in both strength and variety as you progress. The tension stays high all the way until the final game boss. It seems no matter high of a level you are, you can't take anything for granted. Precision and calculated risks your best friend, and sometimes avoiding combat is your best option. 

Combat

It's very odd to take down high tech robots that are outfitted with high grade metal and powerful guns wielding a bow and arrow, but it's a game, and the ends of the arrow are lined with metal as well. This is why the game stresses precision. Just shooting a robot, even the least powerful ones, will do about 3-4 points worth of damage. However, hitting the same robot in the canister which holds it's flamethrower fuel can do 200 points worth of damage. Enough hits to the canister, and it will blow up, dealing 400-500 points of damage. It's difficult to be precise against one enemy, but when dealing with 3-4 it's nearly impossible. That's why the game stresses stealth as well. When the moment comes to take down something powerful, you must be ready, and you need to gain the upper hand right off the get go. That can mean headshot or bust, because missing the headshot can mean multiple enemies are now aware of your location, and you've just pissed off the one you hit in the chest and not head.

There are multiple ways to prepare for battle. You will develop your own system, but mine went something like this. Use stealth attacks (1 hit kills against weak enemies) to take down the "watchers" which are low level scout enemies which alert the more powerful ones to your presence. They also can shoot pulse bombs and jump on you similar to a velociraptor. Once those are taken care of and I have something big to take down, I'll set up traps, a lot of traps to ensure I'm covered once I start running around. They can be lured into these traps. Once the traps are setup, I'm ready to fire my first shot. If the enemy has a mounted cannon, I go for that first so I can shoot it off and pick up due to the high and rapid damage it inflicts. Here is some early game footage to see what It's like to take down a Sawtooth.

Story

The game starts and you're a banished child because you are born "without a mother" but the tribe pairs you with another outcast that trains you as a child to survive in the wilds. This is very confusing in the beginning, and it puts you into the same state of mind as the protagonist, Aloy. Since we are not aware of the customs of the tribe, we don't know of the mother passed during child birth or abandoned you when you were born. It is a constant tension for Aloy, and you, not knowing who your mother was but feeling like everyone else. does. The way it all unfolds near the end of the game is unexpected and extremely fulfilling. The story line regarding Aloy's origin was so imaginative and well executed, it's one of the best stories you'll find in any video game. 

The flaw with the story is your motivation to do everything in between when the game starts and when the game ends. The main (human) villain really only makes one appearance towards the end of the game, so his presence is lost while you're out doing things in the open world. It feels like at times you're doing things to assist in surviving the wilds, instead of gaining ground to your original reason of undertaking the daunting task of finding the guy you're looking for in the first place. There were times when I was helping people and I thought, "why am I doing this", how will this help me in the end?

Cinematics

I'm not sure if Guerilla Games got their hands on some new technology, but the facial animations in this game were superb, some of the best I've ever seen. I think the only competition it has is GTAV and The Witcher. This subconsciously enhanced the story because you're not distracted by funny eye twitches or mouth movements. This is coupled with fantastic voice acting and distinct character differences across the board creating a great clash of vibrant and strong personalities. Not only is this reflective in the main story, but all the side quests. The amount of effort to ensure the quality was consistent in every corner of the game must be appreciated, and it also motivated me to do side quests to see who I was going to meet and what their personality was. I think they covered almost every personality archetype, and also made sure to feature some new ones (like a female blacksmith).  

Art

The environmental art was spectacular and was simply a joy to just walk and run through. Never have I played a game where I questioned if I wanted to fast travel or walk. Most of the time running through a forest lined with flowers and fauna was fun in its own right. The fluidity of Aloy's running animations and the way the environment responds to her presence is just amazing. I felt like I was in a Jurassic time period with futuristic weapons which was a great contrasting of styles to create a unique immersive environment. The variety of terrains ranging from a barren desert to the snowy caps of a mountain were all executed cleanly and each had their distinct style. There was an underlying consistency that was supported by the uniqueness of each area that really makes you want to explore every corner of the game just to see what you might find. I'm not even referring to items, but just the artistic quality of a mountain or plant is worth the trip and time. 

The animations of the dinosaurs was so good, I can't even compare it to anything. Each enemy had their own animations and were unique. They resembled animals we see today, and dinosaurs of the ancient past. For example there are alligators, vultures, and Tyrannosaurs Rex. They each respond differently to your arrows or spear hits, and have unique animations for when you hit weak points that cause explosions or massive damage. Nothing was re-used (or so it seemed) and it rarely felt like there were enemies that were reskinned with the same animations. The Bellowbacks had multiple types of fire and ice which had the same animations but shot different types of weapons. In no way did this feel like things were being re-used for the sake of it, but it actually enhanced battles so I had no problem with that at all. Here are screenshots below to demonstrate the quality of the artwork.

Progression

HZD does not have a linear progression system other than the skill tree which is upgraded via EXP points earned. Weapons, Armor, Traps, and additional items need to be upgraded via purchase from merchants or crafting. Upgrading weapons and armor is far more impact than EXP points, yet it can be frustrating to upgrade because rare parts are required to do so, for example "Sawtooth Heart" or a "racoon skin". The game does not make it clear how to obtain these items, other than having to kill whatever robot or animal you need to in order to harvest its part. It gets frustrating when you kill ten racoons, which are rare already, and keep on getting the raccoon bone or fatty meat, when you need the skin. Nothing can be done to influence what item you get from a dead animal or robot, so this turns into a time consuming process.

That being said, the skill tree feels balanced when upgrading. They are divided into distinct sections which will define your play style especially early game. You can go stealth, run and gun, or depend on resources as a harvester. Around mid to late game, I wouldn't really notice that I was hoarding my skill points because the next upgrade never really felt "needed" where I was craving to level up. The sense of needing things came much more with upgrading my bow or armor, and that depended on getting unique parts and acquiring "shards" which are in game currency.

Why a 9.8?

There was a part of this game that really bothered me, and that was climbing. There are certain areas that require climbing, and the terrain or holds on the mountainsides are blended very well and look realistic. The problem lies with the rest of the environment where the game does not think you're going to climb. In these areas, you just jump up against the wall and don't hold onto anything. They should have gone the direction of designating climbing parts of the world a distinct color, because it feels like the game is confused when I see something I should be able to climb in an open world, but then I can't do it. This even applied to ladders that were in old ruins, not being able to climb these is unacceptable. 

Summary

Horzion Zero Dawn is an absolute masterpiece. It's one of the best games I've played in about a year. It did so many things well in terms of technical achievement, graphics, and game design. It will be remembered as one of the best games to come out on the PS4, and if you own PS4 this is a must play. 
    

Hyper Light Drifter

Rating: 7.5

Happy Price: 9.99

Gameplay

Hyper Light Drifter 16 bit top down hack and slash that emphasizes on your ability to teleport around as your main offense and defense. It's rare for teleportation to be a core mechanic of a melee combat based game, and it's refreshing since its one of the most fun things to do in any medium. Yes, you can teleport around at will, and backstab enemies without any drain to stamina or mana, it's just apart of your character and it's awesome.

Combat

You will be taken back to the 90's where games did not forgive, did not adjust, and relied on player reactions to succeed. It's a very simple formula, the user can attack with a sword or shoot projectiles. There is a three hit melee combo along with upgrades that allow for new attacks. New guns can be acquired or purchased with a strange currency that takes forever to accrue for upgrades. There are tons of variety among enemies which forces you to learn and adjust to them as the game goes on. While playing, you will notice yourself getting better with reactions and timing which is one of the coolest things a game can do. You don't gain EXP in this game and upgrades are few and far between, so you have to rely on yourself to be better. Teleporting around and having full control of my success is incredibly rewarding and fun, the combat design is the best part of the game.

Level Design

Levels are hand crafted, and they are done very well. Lots of natural barriers for the player to use when in tricky situations, and even choke points that can be created. It's extremely fun to create choke points when flooded by enemies to even the odds. Health and currency are cleverly hidden in areas that force the player to look around and explore the world. It's almost necessary to do so, not being able to upgrade would be quite the death sentence as the game progresses. When in combat it was great, one issue I had was navigating the levels along with the provided map. It was extremely confusing and things weren't laid out very clearly. In a game that punishes for mistakes, things need to be labeled well. There were several times I would have to backtrack in areas because I knew that I had to have missed something along the way. While doing this, the horde of enemies would re appear and I'd have to recreate the magic I did the first time in order to "maybe" do something correctly. I found this incredibly frustrating because the game felt like a complicated labyrinth while having hard combat. Had this been done better, I think I'd rate this game much higher since it had tons going for it. I struggled getting through this game, especially knowing I had other games on deck like Overwatch.

Art

I can't say enough about the artwork. The color palette is consistent and the quality never lets up throughout the whole experience. Bosses, enemies, and the environment look great. Cut scenes are fantastic, and since there isn't any dialogue the story is communicated solely through pictures. This is incredibly ambitions, and at times I don't think I had a full grasp of what was going on. But for the most part I think I had a general idea. It kind of felt like when someone is speaking another language to you, but have really good body language and you can confidently assume what they are talking about. I would argue that the pixel art can be framed and put up in a gallery it's that good.

Summary

Using the GameMaker Studio engine, this is by far the best game I've ever seen created with that tool. The combat is phenomenal with a great balance of difficulty since you as a character are overpowered with the ability to have an unlimited use of teleportation. However the labyrinth of a map is confusing, and since there isn't any real reward of redoing tasks like killing enemies that spawn in an area, it makes things frustrating since in some cases you have to do repetitive difficult tasks. If there was some way to mitigate that, it would be a much better experience.

Ratchet and Clank

Rating: 9.4

Happy Price: 39.99

Gameplay

Ratchet and Clank is a third person platformer that focuses on unique weapons, character development, and puzzles. The protagonist has a strong and defined personality which creates for a great narrative. Supporting characters and villains are equally funny and smart, creating a great game that blends story and gameplay very well.

Combat

Jumping and dodging over a barrage of missiles while firing a pixelating shotgun never gets old, and this game is full of moments like that. Nothing feels cooler in a video game when you're outnumbered by a bunch of enemies and their bullets or whizzing past you while making an effort to dodge and shoot. It doesn't feel scripted, it's something you as the player are doing, and there is an element of skill associated to it. That is the beauty of the 3d platformer, but namely Ratchet and Clank has always been the best at achieving this, hence its remaining existence. There are tons of weapons to choose from, and the cool thing is the more a weapon is used the more it levels up. This way your favorite weapon quickly becomes the "go to" when in tight situations. All the weapons are fun to use, and it's important to level up all weapons in the long term.

The need to upgrade all the weapons forces the player to use all of them, and gameplay style changes with every weapon. The sniper rifle will obviously be played differently than the rocket launcher. But with limited and max ammo for each weapon, you know that the final boss will require your entire arsenal to defeat. This is taught to the player by tough sub-bosses that require an effort that will require every single weapon to be used at least once. That is achieved through both great game design and level design. 

Upgrading

I touched on it a bit, but there are tons of things to upgrade which create a very addicting experience. You have to collect bolts to purchase new weapons, which increase in price as the game goes on as the new weapons are more powerful than the last. Ratchet himself will earn XP that will increase his health. Using weapons repeatedly will level up the weapon which give it passive upgrades. Then there is another rare currency that can be found that adds unique attributes to each weapon. For example increasing the max ammo or fire rate. However upgrading things in a certain cluster will unlock "bonus" augments that do things like lifesteal. Yet you won't know what these bonus augments do, creating a fun surprise when you unlock them. There are cards to collect that do things like "5% more bolts upon killing an enemy" that make the player go out of their way and explore this beautiful environment. Once a weapon has maxed out, you can unlock the "Omega" version which can only be bought when the game is replayed on hard mode. All these things together create an upgrade fest where your virtual character is getting better, but you as a player are also getting better. This is one of the first games in a while I found challenging and equally rewarding. I died a few times, which doesn't happen a lot in modern games. 

Pacing and Narrative

One of the things I'm not fond of when playing games is inspecting every crevice and corner just to say I've checked every spot. However for some reason I wanted to do this when playing this game. It created a great balance of intense action and times of peace where I was just exploring the gorgeous landscape foraging for bolts, cards, or "Raritanium" to upgrade my stuff. It helps that levels aren't overwhelmingly huge which makes it an achievable option to explore the entirety of an area without wasting tons of time doing so. It seemed like every time I did something off the beaten path I was rewarded for it, so I kept doing it. 

In terms of leveling up, it just so happened that a few moments before reaching the final boss, I had finally fully upgraded Ratchet and all my weapons to their max. The augments were not fully completed, since raritanium is rare and requires a second playthrough obtain it all. This means that the game was designed that way which takes incredible math, testing, and design to pull off. It was one of the things I was most impressed with since many games today are open world and don't really emphasize on these design elements in focused way.

The story is relatively cliche, a main villain with a bunch of powerful henchman you have to defeat, then finally reaching the final boss. However the execution of it was again, one of the best experiences I've had on a current console. I have not seen the movie, however the cut scenes that drove the story were animated and rendered so well the rivaled a feature film production. The voice acting was on point for each character, blending elements of humor and intelligence in something you'd expect from Pixar. It invested me as a player into a predictable story, but I was invested in impressing the Rangers and defeating Dr. Nefarious.

Art

 The franchise builds off of the art style it's had for years. It's cartoony and focuses on roundness instead of hard edges like many "realistic" games do today. The fantastic lighting, dense population of objects in levels, textures, and animation create a colorful yet professional style. The way light bounces off the colorful environment is a huge upgrade over the flat colors we've seen in the past versions of Ratchet and Clank on previous consoles. The way shadows appear under foliage but also large objects creates a dynamic environment you have experienced in GTA V but combines the colorful and cartoony art style to accommodate it. I can't help but think this is the proper evolution of video games, the art is suppose to reflect fun over simulation.  

The character models and animations are not something to gawk over, but they are creative, consistent, and have no flaws which take away from gameplay. The character animations themselves enhance gameplay since they are so cleanly done and have a high degree of quality. Anything of relevance was done with a very high quality. I believe the spaceships used probably took more time to model than Ratchet, but spaceships may only be played with for an hour of game time while Ratchet is on screen for at least 15 of those hours. The level of attention paid to even the most insignificant things the player might focus on really drives home the level of excellence and quality this game provides the player. Many shortcuts could have been taken for a game that is a reboot and sold for 39.99, but that didn't happen. 

Summary

When choosing between XboxOne and PS4 I chose the PS4 for the Ratchet and Clank series and Uncharted since I did not have a PS3 (I now have both). I had very high expectations and it was delivered. A must buy for any PS4 owner and a game I will probably replay though which I never do. I need to upgrade my Omega weapons and replay on hard mode. The game was so much fun on a regular difficulty, but on hard mode with better weapons and more bolts, it's going to be even more exciting.