Games, the events of which unfold in the post-apocalyptic world, there are a huge number. Immediately remember the classic series of Wasteland and Fallout, dashing shooters Borderlands and Rage or stunning personal stories like The Last of Us. It is almost impossible to surprise us with even the most unusual setting, we are too spoiled by all those that we had previously played. Perhaps the situation will change after you become familiar with the game Horizon: Zero Dawn, developed exclusively for the Sony PlayStation 4 console by the Netherlands studio Guerrilla Games. I would like to tell you about it today.
Studio Guerrilla Games, whose main office is located in the heart of the Netherlands - the capital of Amsterdam, throughout its 17-year existence has been developing one of its only franchise - Killzone. Immediately after the release of the first game of this series for the PlayStation 2 console, Sony acquired a small studio and made it one of its key internal developers. In those years, Sony urgently needed an answer to the series of Halo from Microsoft, so talented developers with their spectacular shooter came in handy. Over time, the Killzone series migrated to the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and then to the PlayStation 4. But after the release of the last game to date, the series in 2013 from the studio Guerrilla Games almost nothing was audible. True, there were rumors in the air that its employees were actively working on a completely new IP, combining science fiction and post-apocalypse.
Jump from the first person shooter to the completely new Action / RPG genre in the open world - it's not an easy task. Therefore, many fans of Guerrilla Games strongly worried about the quality of the future game. It is understandable. Too different scales for these two genres. It's one thing to make a bright, rattling corridor shooter about the war of earthlings with the inhabitants of a space colony that has escaped from control, and quite another - to create a huge new world, and even to convince the player that he is real, alive. After all, it's just an incredible, titanic work: you need to work out its style, create a landscape from scratch, fill it with flora and fauna, make it all comply with some general rules, tie everything together, and even about populated areas, NPCs and dungeons with a lot of quests should not be forgotten. Tens and hundreds of thousands of man-hours are required in order to make it all come alive on our screen. The game of such a scale is worth it as it is not cheap (the final budget was about 45 million euros), so trust its producers Sony could only proven in battle specialists Guerrilla Games.
Events Horizon: Zero Dawn unfold in the distant future, when the world as we know it, was completely destroyed, and on its remains a completely new life. And this life is divided into two completely different types: biological and artificial. Not only hares, squirrels and wild boars run along green meadows and dense forests, but also eerie metal creatures remotely resembling familiar animals and even dinosaurs. In rivers and lakes live metal robots, like crocodiles, and in the fields graze steel buffaloes and horses. From time to time, mechanical dinosaurs slowly swim above them all. And all this seems to the new generation of people to be completely natural, because they did not see anything different in their lives. Mankind, meanwhile, retreated during the Middle Ages. The local king lives in the huge city of Meridian, and commoners are huddled in tribes and huddled in small settlements. There is a place in the new world for several religions and even dark cults, but so are people - without it anywhere.
I will not intentionally tell you about what happened to our planet, as a result of which the Earth completely rebooted and was populated not only by people, but also by cybernetic creatures. It's a great secret for every player to discover for himself. You can speculate on this subject as much as you want, remembering the well-known stories of "Terminator" or "The Matrix", because in these films, humanity condemned itself to death at the hands of the machines that they themselves created. I will say only that this game will surprise you with an incredibly addictive plot, the development of which hardly anyone will be able to predict by 100%. To me Horizon: Zero Dawn reminded fascinating fantastic novels, which I loved to read as a child, so thoroughly and deeply worked out its plot component. This is not a dummy game, in which you just need to run and shoot at the robots. The developers have made a lot of efforts to get players to believe in the reality of what is happening, to believe the emotions of the main characters. And, worst of all, they managed to make me believe that something like this could actually happen to mankind in the distant future.
The main heroine of Horizon: Zero Dawn is a red-haired girl named Eloy. Even in infancy, for some strange reason, the native tribe of Nora refused it, so the raising of the child was done by a rogue hunter named Rast. He teaches the girl how to track animals and robots, how to hunt them, how to survive in the difficult conditions of a new world and wildlife. But, most importantly, he teaches her not to lose heart when the whole world turns away from you, because they are both outcasts. When Eloy turns 19, she decides to take part in the initiation ceremony, a victory in which can restore her the right to become part of her native tribe. It is at this point that her long journey begins in search of answers to a myriad of questions that torment her. What happened to the people who inhabited the world in the past? Who were her parents? Why did the native tribe abandon it? Who created all these amazing machines that flooded the planet? The answers will be. It takes only a little patience.
While still a child, Eloy found in the old ruins a tiny device called "Visor" (in English-speaking original - Focus), which, being fixed above the ear, allows a person to see and hear amazing things. So she learned to read the archives left by extinct humanity, more and more learning about the sad history of the so-called "forerunner". Also, Visor helps her track down people, showing their tracks and left behind evidence (just like in The Witcher 3). And most importantly, Visor points to the weak spots in the bodies of machines, allowing them to strike a critical blow and disable them. The device also allows you to scan the surrounding space and discover hidden from the eyes mechanisms, signal sources and all sorts of secrets. The visor will repeatedly save the main character life, so learn to use it you need in the first place. The Vizor is activated by pressing the right analog handle of the DualShock 4 controller.
The combat system of the game is based on the use of several types of weapons, the main one of which, of course, is the onion. If you are a fan of video games about archery, then Horizon: Zero Dawn is what the doctor prescribed. There are a lot of bows in the game, they all differ in basic parameters, as well as the type of arrows used. You can shoot ordinary arrows, fire arrows, arrows, tearing armor from the surface of cars, high-precision arrows and so on. If the bow does not seem to be enough, you can resort to the use of sling and throw explosives into your opponents, or you can put stretches from a special cannon along the enemy's route, on which it will inevitably blow up. There is even a weapon in the game, shooting a whole hail of arrows, such a kind of primitive shotgun. However, from some machine you can shoot down one of the heavy guns, take it in your hands and turn against it yourself. Strategies related to the use of different types of weapons and ammunition for him - in the game a great many. And each player will find for himself the perfect combination, allowing him to dominate the opponents.
If you are not a fan of archery, you can fight enemies with a spear. This is somewhat more complicated than fighting at a great distance, but also very effective with the right approach. Alternating strong and weak attacks, you can knock your opponent off your feet, and then deal a fatal blow to him. Large machines can be overturned using a special implement, tangling their legs with ropes. Remember the scene from the "Star Wars", where the rebel fighters knitted the legs of AT-AT walkers? So here you can crank something similar. Among other things, you can place on the battlefield various traps that, when in contact with an enemy, explode or hit it with electricity.
As you progress through the game, Eloy will gain experience and skill points that can be spent in a special menu. The skill tree is divided into three branches. The category "Hunter" focuses on silent attacks, evasion and stealth. For example, you can teach Eloy to attack the enemies from the back completely silently, creeping up to them in the tall grass. The category "Warrior" focuses on archery and attack using a spear. Time will slow down when you aim at enemies, and near attacks will become much more powerful. The third category is called "Collector". She will teach Eloy to extract the maximum value of the loot from the dead enemies and machines, and also more efficiently to make ammunition and neutralize the traps.
Crafting is very important in the game. From the bodies of dead animals, you will receive bones, meat and skins, and from the dead machines - valuable parts needed to make ammunition or for sale to local traders for a handful of metal fragments - the local currency. In a separate menu you will craft yourself arrows, create healing decoctions, and also increase the capacity of bags for carrying loot and other valuables. Something all this reminded me of a similar system from the games of the Far Cry series. But such a borrowing does not in any way make the game worse or secondary. On the contrary, the system has proven itself and works just perfectly. Any of your weapons (except for the spear) can be improved by so-called modifiers: make it more accurate, more powerful, more convenient. Clothing can also be pumped through special fabrics that make it resistant to arrows, fire, electricity and so on.
During the wanderings Eloy learns to subordinate machines to his will, hacking their internal systems. From now on they will become a serious help in your travels. For example, you can hack a mechanical horse and jump on it, wherever you wish. Hacking of more complex machines requires Eloy to have certain security protocols, which can only be obtained in the ancient ruins left from the former civilization. Fans of collect items will be delighted to learn that throughout the world of Horizon: Zero Dawn are scattered mysterious wooden figures, ancient vessels (in fact - ordinary mugs with the names of their owners), and metal flowers, which can then be exchanged for merchants for valuable items . However, merchants will be happy to buy from you any finds related to forerunners, for example, ancient bells (army tags) or ancient bracelets (wristwatches). Do not forget about the numerous audio recordings and holograms that make it possible to understand what actually happened to the planet in the distant past.
Quests in the game are divided into basic, developing storyline, as well as side, which are also very interesting, and the plot has some influence. In addition to the quests in the game there are so-called "Cases" - tasks are simpler, like: go there, kill that, bring it to me. On the quality of the quests in the game, I can say that the developers, most likely, were guided by the same "Witcher", since some tasks are so interesting that it is almost impossible to break away from them. By the way, John Gonzalez - lead screenwriter Fallout: New Vegas was specially invited to write the script of the quests. Yes, the world of Horizon: Zero Dawn is not as huge as the brainchild of CD Projekt Red, and the number of quests is not so impressive, but the desire of developers to make the game process as elaborate and exciting as possible is respectful. There are investigative tasks when you need to find a thief or a murderer for the evidence left by him. There are tasks that are more or less related to the performance of simple puzzles. There are quests that permeate the soulfulness of the stories told in them. In this regard, the game is just wonderful and worry about it is not worth it.
If you worry about the fact that you have to constantly run on your own two from one point to another, I hasten to reassure you: the game has an excellent system of rapid movement on the map. Throughout the world, you will come across bonfires, approaching which, activate the point of rapid movement on the map. Initially, you will need special kits for this, which can be obtained from killed enemies, and then you can buy an item that allows you to wander around the map without restrictions. Especially it helps when completing quests, when after they are completed you need to go back to a certain NPC. I also want to note that during dialogues with other characters, Eloy can choose the variants of his answers, which are divided into three types. The first, denoted by the symbol "fist", is a straightforward and aggressive approach. The second, accompanied by the symbol "brain", is a tricky way, using the sharpness of the main character. Well, the third option - the use of the symbol "heart", when Eloy chooses the most gentle and sparing approach to the interlocutor. In general, the ending of the game will in some way depend on how you treated during the passage to other people, so - be especially careful in the dialogues.
With what the Dutch developers have never had problems, so it's with the technical side of their projects. Their new game engine Decima was so much in the heart of Sony's management that it began to develop games, including in other studios. For example, he created the horror of Until Dawn, and not so long ago the game designer Hideo Kojima chose Decima as the engine for his future game Death Stranding, which will become the console exclusive of the PlayStation 4. The engine perfectly copes with the calculation of artificial intelligence, realistic physics, while it produces a wonderful picture in 4K resolution with support for the HDR color range. The code of the engine is constantly rewritten and finalized by the best programmers from various internal studios of Sony, including the employees of Kojima Productions, so it can be said that this is not just a product of Guerrilla Games, but a joint creation that satisfies a wide range of game design needs.
Visually the game looks just amazing! Beautiful landscapes, greenery of the ruins of cities, winding tree trunks, lapping fish in the lakes, magnificent sunsets and sunrises - nature in Horizon: Zero Dawn is perhaps the most beautiful that has ever been depicted in video games. I was very impressed with the costumes. It would seem, well, what kind of costumes can be in a video game? It's not a costume drama, in the end. And here I would argue with you. When you see all these incredible patterns, fur, bone and metal insets on the clothes of the elders of the tribes - imagine how many artists worked on all this beauty. Each attire of Eloy is a small work of art, and for the whole game you will have many of these costumes. However, the same can be said about the quality of working out the scenery of the game. The love of developers for everyone, even the tiniest detail of the environment is felt all the time.
Personally, I was very worried about the facial animation of the characters, as in the last game of the studio - Killzone Shadow Fall, it was realized very badly. But my fears were not confirmed. Guerrilla Games did an excellent job and animated faces of the characters for a solid five, they even managed to surprise me, because in some moments I saw on the faces of the heroes the movement of individual facial muscles, which, as a rule, do not realize video games at all. True, there are secondary characters, whose animation is not as expressive as the heroes of the first plan. Fortunately, such a game is infrequent. Do you know what struck me the most? For those 35 hours that I spent in this incredible game, I did not come across a single bug. Really. In general, not a single glitch, a dip in the texture, a ruined quest, a departure in the console menu. The quality of the work done by QA-department Guerrilla Games, just amazing. I applaud standing!
But for that I want to scold the developers a bit, it's because they borrowed some game mechanics from different popular series. About the "Witcher" and Far Cry, I already told you. The wheel of dialogue is painfully similar to what we saw in Mass Effect and other RPGs, and Eloy's jumps on the mountain ledges immediately suggest the series of Uncharted and Assassin's Creed. It's not that the borrowing of successful ideas is illegal today, but in this case, this very borrowing looks very frank. Right here under a carbon paper, without any veiling. В этом плане разработчики меня несколько разочаровали, но совсем чуть-чуть, так как в свете проделанной ими титанической работы над игрой этот недостаток кажется крайне малозначимым, да и вообще высосанным мною из пальца. Более того, несмотря на вторичность множества элементов, в совокупности игра, как ни странно, всё равно ощущается невероятно свежей.
Обязательно нужно отметить прекрасную работу со звуком и надолго западающий в душу саундтрек. Музыку для игры написали композиторы Йорис де Ман и Нильс ван дер Лист, а также британский дуэт The Flight. К озвучке персонажей были привлечены знаменитые актёры. Элой озвучила Эшли Бёрч, известная ролью Хлои в игре Life is Strange, а также десятками других героев, которым она подарила свой голос в различных видеоиграх и анимационных фильмах. Ещё одного персонажа в игре озвучил Лэнс Рэддик, которого многие помнят по сериалу «Грань» и недавней игре Quantum Break. В общем целом, озвучка мне очень понравилась. При желании вы можете выбрать российскую озвучку и не отвлекаться на субтитры, но я предпочёл пройти игру в оригинальном звуке и не пожалел.
Pros:
- В игре просто превосходный, захватывающий и очень глубокий сюжет.
- Наконец-то Guerrilla Games позволили создать что-то новое, помимо Killzone.
- Удивительно проработанный живой мир и невероятно красивая природа.
- Визуально – это одна из самых красивых и технически совершенных игр.
- Роботов никогда не бывает слишком много. И здесь они просто великолепны.
- Гибкая и проработанная боевая система, открывающая просторы для тактики.
- Замечательная озвучка персонажей, звукорежиссура и приятная музыка.
- Тщательно прописанные игровые квесты, которые хочется пройти до конца.
- Отличные костюмы персонажей, достойные отдельного обзора.
- Отсутствие багов. Игра ни разу не позволила усомниться в её качестве.
Minuses:
- Многие механики были позаимствованы из других успешных игровых серий.
- Встроенная система навигации не всегда прокладывает идеальный маршрут.
- Анимация некоторых второстепенных персонажей могла бы быть лучше.
Horizon: Zero Dawn – ещё одна мощнейшая эксклюзивная игра в и без того впечатляющую игровую библиотеку консоли PlayStation 4, оставляющая прекрасное послевкусие. И сейчас мне очень хотелось бы назвать эту игру началом новой серии. Просто потому, что такие замечательные проекты обязательно должны обзавестись одним, а то и несколькими продолжениями. Мне кажется, что история Элой далека от завершения, и всё самое интересное ждёт нас впереди. Команда из 350 человек трудилась над игрой на протяжении шести долгих лет. Что же у них получилось в итоге? Удалось ли им совершить революцию в жанре? Hardly. Зато у них получилось создать удивительно захватывающую историю, великолепную боевую систему и огромный живой мир, полный тайн и загадок, так и манящий исследовать каждый его уголок. Расстраивает в этой ситуации только одно: сиквела придётся ждать ещё по меньшей мере несколько лет. Ставлю игре 9 баллов из 10 .
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