I bought my ‘fat’ PS4 the month of launch and over the last seven years have developed a great amount of nostalgic attachment to it. Not only has the old timer hosted some of the greatest games in recent times, it has also been a central media hub for my family whether that be film night or my son's grand designs in Minecraft. As much affection as I have for my old PS4, it is a closed system that in 2020 looks lean on power compared to most PCs. Yet this weakness is also a source of strength because developers can tease every last drop of juice out of the hardware to achieve some truly remarkable results, Horizon Zero Dawn was one example of this digital sorcery.

So first up we need a little bit of disclosure: I absolutely adore Horizon and have completed it a sum total of three times on the PS4. When I started Rigged for Epic this was the one game I was considering breaking my ‘PC only’ review rule for. In the last year PC gamers have watched with excitement as games which were once PS4 exclusives are set free. As anyone who reads my content will know, I’m always for breaking down the barriers between different platforms and the more people who can enjoy excellent games the better. When I heard that Horizon Zero Dawn was heading to PC I was over the moon because I had always pondered how this already stunning game would run on a powerful rig with all the trimmings. So let us take a look at Horizon Zero Dawn (the complete edition).

Kansas is going Bye Bye

Horizon Zero Dawn is set in a futuristic version of our earth, the thirty first century to be exact. As soon as you start to play it is clear that something catastrophic has happened to civilisation as the people who now walk the earth have seemingly lost all the technology we take for granted today. Instead of being greeted by flying cars and neon infused cities, the world resembles a time when early man would draw funny pictures on cave walls. Human beings now live a tribalistic existence, hunting off the land and trading with other settlements. Observing this game world without context, you could be forgiven for thinking this was actually somewhere way back in our past, if it wasn’t for the massive mechanical beasts now roaming the wilds. 

There are other signs of the ‘old world’ such as dilapidated  skyscrapers standing defiantly on the horizon, now all but consumed by the onslaught of nature and the decay of time. Trees and vines wrap themselves around structures with the same tenacity as those wired headphones you used to fight with on the daily commute. This melding of worlds has been handled so well it is one of the main reasons why Horizon looks like a real place with each location feeling unique. 

There is a full day and night cycle to enjoy and the shifting sun can make some very special moments indeed. As the light ebbs away you will see the sun catching distant mountains which rise into pink clouds that soon give way to a sea of bright stars. Rivers snake across the land which often turn into cascading waterfalls, before ending the journey in serene lakes. The world also does a wonderful job of showing the natural elements with grass swaying in the wind and early morning mist drifting through the trees. Drifting snow and vision hampering dust storms all ground you in this world which is diverse as it is stunning.

Red means Danger

The opening few chapters to Horizon sets the stage very nicely for the events that will come to pass. Aloy is an outcast from the Nora tribe and as such lives on the fringes of the village with her guardian Rost. Aloy actually starts the game as a young girl which also doubles as an introduction to some of the basic stealth and combat mechanics. Here we also see Aloy happen across a lost underground bunker from the old world where she discovers something that will change her destiny forever. The Focus is a small wearable device that attaches onto Aloys head and gives her advanced augmented reality. Not only does it enable her access to the knowledge of the old world, but acts as a real time heads up display: giving her a wealth of environmental and combat data. This introduction closes with Aloy using her Focus to save a boy from the village which convinces Rost to allow her to keep her new toy.

In an effort to discover information about her origins and parents (or lack thereof) she asks Rost to train her for the proving. This yearly right of passage for young braves is open to anyone (even outcasts) and the winner is granted a wish from the leaders of the Nora tribe. Not surprisingly, Aloy wins the proving but the wheel truly comes off and our plucky heroine is catapulted into an adventure nobody saw coming. While the outcast becomes the chosen one formula isn’t a new concept, Guerrilla weaves a wonderful coming of age story around the Aloy and her journey to save the world.

As a character I really like Aloy as she is both fierce and compassionate. Some have questioned how she became so articulate while being ignored by all but one person for her entire life. I would say this can be easily explained by her focus, which has been an almost unlimited source of information and the reason she understands tech so well. When in conversations you can often choose an emotional reaction to round things off with but rarely are there real consequences. I don’t mind this lack of agency so much as the game is heavy enough without cause and effect weighing in. I often think that the best characters have flaws and this is where Aloy may be a little two dimensional for some. 

Heavy Metal

So what would happen if an advanced computer program tried to replicate some of the most awesome creatures of the natural world, complete with their temperament and behaviour? Well in Horizon (for reasons revealed later in the story) we get a pretty good idea because that is exactly the world that greets us when we start the game. These machines inhabit this world and until recently would leave humans to themselves. The design of these robotic giants has clearly taken inspiration from specific creatures, such as crocodiles or big cats, but with a little something of their own. Obviously being fashioned from technology they also come with many additional methods of attack such as ranged weapons, powerful shields and advanced scanners. Yet despite these ‘creatures’ being powered by a self sustaining energy source they still forage, graze and act in a territorial manner.

It is interesting that despite the regression of technology many of the humans of today will hunt these metallic beasts and even worship them. As you wander around the many settlements you can see how spare parts have become trinkets or trophies. Some of the more interesting side stories do explore the relationship that has developed between man and machine.

You Break it you Buy It

As the machines are starting to become more aggressive most you meet will attack you on sight. Some of the deer like machines will flee at the first sign of danger but even these can turn on you if pushed. Fortunately Aloy has spent her entire life being taught to fight and she would give Legolas a run for his money with a bow. You will come across many weapons on your travels and each will fire different kinds of ammunition. The Sharpshooter bow, for example, is your long range sniper bow but can also fire specialist arrows which break pieces off the machines. Ammo for your weapons can be expensive to buy so your best course is to make your own from the parts you gather and this loop is pretty balanced.

As you discover each ‘species’ of robot with your focus you will get information including behaviour and weaknesses. These can be elemental vulnerabilities such as fire or even specific parts you can target. For example, if you hit the fuel canisters on a Grazers back with a fire arrow, they will rupture and explode devastating the surrounding enemies. For a short time after scanning them you can then see the most vulnerable components highlighted in yellow. There are many more ways this can come in handy, even as far as smashing heavy weapons off the bigger foes and turning them on their previous owner. One of my favourite weapons has to be the rope caster, will actually tether enemies down leaving them at your mercy. This weapon is particularly fun on winged robots which can be a real problem.

Like Monster Hunter World, these enemies have a tangible weight to them as they crash around smashing trees and rocks like balsa wood. The first time you see a Saw Tooth come bounding at you full tilt you will be glad Aloy can leap so far. As you hit home with explosives or lead them into traps you will get a huge feeling of satisfaction as chunks of metal tumble off. Not only will machines look visibly damaged but they will also limp and change tactics as the fight progresses. Another twist to combat is the ability to take over some robots which will then fight on your side for a limited time. The further you progress through the game the larger machines will also be available for a domination which can lead to some truly epic rumbles. There are even a few robots that resemble bulls and horses, which can be used as temporary mounts once converted to your cause. I absolutely love how many times I have been just about to bite the dust and my mount has come charging in and back kicked my enemy into spare parts.

Hop Skip and Faceplant

If the traversal in Horizon was a person, it would be that grumpy in-law that once you get to know is pretty alright. Aloy can run, jump, swim and climb to her heart's content. She is a nimble lass and can make short work of most obstacles . The terrain in Aloy’s world is varied as I have covered and there are many things to climb, such as sheer rock surfaces and man made structures. Here we see a Mirror's Edge approach where the game lets you know exactly what can be grabbed by colouring it in with yellow or white. This works fine and while a little bit on rails it can lead to some very dramatic leaps that would put Spiderman to shame. There is a decent amount of verticality to your exploits which will see you scaling old buildings to access secrets or the always impressive Tall Necks. These are the biggest robots in the game and while they don’t attack will roam in a set path waiting to be hoped onto. Once you override them they will reveal items of interest in that area, effectively becoming Horizon's version of ‘Ubi-towers.’

The issues in traversal come when you stray off the beaten track and start trying to navigate larger rock formations. Here we see our red headed warrior handle like a shopping trolly and it isn’t pretty. Ironically if you don’t try and jump Aloy will sometimes remember she is a nimble sort and vault up or over the object. However this doesn’t work often enough that it can’t be relied on and will often see you rubbing your face across hard granite. These issues are minor and like I have already said, once you get used to the way she handles certain obstacles you will get the hang of it. The game world is quite substantial and so I was thankful to see a fast travel system in place which allows you to whisk Aloy to any of the campfires you have previously unlocked.

The Fluff

So aside from relieving machines of their essential parts what else is there to do in the world of Horizon? On top of the main quest there are also a wealth of side quests to pick up from the various settlements. These usually boil down to the same basic tasks, ie find an NPC and fight a bunch of machines but on the plus side the stories attached can be entertaining and hearty. There is also a substantial hunting quest which will see you testing various abilities and weapons. Aloy will also need to delve deep into the cauldrons, which are the birthplace of the machines and these will allow you to dominate even more machine types. 

I do really like the vantage points which give you a glimpse of how a view looked before everything got buggered up. Other secrets include hunting for power cells to unlock a powerful set of armour which is from the old world and offers Aloy a unique advantage in combat. The collectible cups, figurines and metal flowers don’t really add anything other than a reason to visit a certain place in the game world but can offer rewards once handed into the right NPC. I have rarely played an open world game which doesn’t have some of this padding, at least in Horizon it does give you more backstory about the world that came before.

There is a leveing system in Horizon and pretty much everything you do feeds into it. As you gain levels and complete certain tasks you will unlock skill points which can in turn give you access to new abilities. Some of these can be small effects such as picking up more resources or knocking more aromur off with attacks. However, some are also game changers such as being able to nock three arrows at once or being able to repair friendly machines.

Is it PC? 

After playing Death Stranding for over two weeks it now feels somewhat significant that I’m rolling up my sleeves and diving right into Horizon on PC. After losing access to the Fox Engine, Hideo Kojima was on the hunt for a platform on which to build his new game. After visiting many developers he was particularly impressed with the engine over at Guerrilla Games and in a surprisingly generous move, Guerrilla presented Kojima Productions with a wooden box containing the source code for the Decima Engine. Ironically, Death Stranding does run like a dream on PC which was a good sign for Horizon. Given it was Guerrilla who made the Decima engine it was almost a given that Horizon would run like butter: unfortunately it does not.

If you make a game for a specific hardware configuration things can go awry if you make a PC port and do it poorly. Animations glitch out, physics can run too fast and the tricks that worked on PS4 are laid bare. That is not to say the port of Horizon is a total disaster, but it is certainly not without issue. In the days after launch a serious crashing issue raised its ugly head which is making the game unplayable for some. There have also been wildly different reports on performance, ranging from people with moderately powered systems getting away with high settings to 2080ti powered beasts floundering. On closer inspection, it seems the port itself is not in the best of shape, in one case the game was trying to access a file that isn't even there. 

When first developing Horizon the team at Guerrilla spent a lot of time converting the engine (which would later be named the Decima Engine) that had originally been used on the FPS Killzone. This process was revealed in the excellent Noclip documentary which I will link below. Many of the original features had to be vastly overhauled and techniques like Frustum Culling were employed for perforce gains. My theory on why this game doesn’t run as well as Death Stranding is because the latter was built with other platforms in mind. However, Horizon was being refined and tinkered with specifically for the PS4. I think once you start pushing a lot more power through that kind of game code, problems will start bursting from the seams. 

On an RTX 2070 Super I assumed I’d be able to play at 1440p with everything on high if not ultra but a few hours in it was clear this wasn’t going to fly. On these settings I would be constantly getting frame rate dips down to the mid teens with highs of around fifty. After watching the always excellent video from Digital Foundry I was surprised by what they had to say. It turns out that Horizon on PC is a little like Aloy, a natural beauty that doesn’t care for the frills of excess. Once I (begrudgingly) lowered most of my settings to medium the game ran well enough and I could barely notice the difference in visuals from high settings. With that I decided to persist with my review and see how the later areas of the game performed.

One aspect of the PC version that has delivered in spades is the ability to play with a mouse and keyboard. It is now so much more fun fighting the machines with pinpoint accuracy and being able to spin my view around in a split second. When I was looking at the PS4 version for comparison I also noticed that we are more pulled back from Aloy on the PC version which is great as on PS4 she would take up a good deal of the screen. The interface has not been changed at all for PC gamers which is a shame considering how cumbersome the whole thing is. That said, the menus and weapon wheel are snappy and can be easily navigated using a mouse.

The sounds design in Horizon was exceptionally well done on console and this has been transferred over to PC perfectly. In the thick of the action you can hear the bigger machines spooling up ready to pounce which allows you that all important cue to dodge. Other great sound effects include the rope casters steel tethers snapping when the captured machine breaks free and the roar of a Thunder Jaw blaster. While there is certainly a disparity in the visuals of main characters and smaller quest givers, the voice acting does remain consistently good throughout. Ashley Burch leads the charge and does a fantastic job of bringing Aloy to life whether with sass or sarcasm. The music of Horizon is another huge success with both haunting pieces as you explore the ruins of the old world to foreboding tracks that kick in when danger is near. 

Conclusion

I will admit, Horizon Zero Dawn caught me off guard this week and reminded me that you can never take anything for granted in the games industry. You can’t blame PC gamers for being disappointed, when they saw how good this game looked on PS4 it was a natural assumption it would look stellar on PC. When the framerate stays higher than sixty this is a vastly more enjoyable game both in terms of combat and just the overall splendour of the world they created. Alas for reasons I’m sure we will discover over time, it has arrived with a plethora of issues. Guerrilla are developers who clearly take pride in their work and as I expected they have already started to roll out patches for the PC version. Firstly dealing with the crashing issue (which makes sense) and I assume better optimisation is around the corner.

Even with the issues that the game arrived with, this is the best version of Horizon you can play and if you have a substantial rig I can still recommend you pick it up. This is still the game I fell in love with three years ago and I am very happy to now be and able to boot it up on PC. I have no illusions of the next game arriving on PC any time soon, Sony will still want to promote their new console this coming year and I am very much looking forward to playing Forbidden West on PS5. As for now, PC gamers can finally enjoy this epic chapter in the story of Aloy.

Thank you for reading my review of Horizon Zero Dawn on PC. If you enjoy my content please follow me on Twitter @riggedforepic where I post updates and new reviews.