- Publisher: SCEA , Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Release Date: Feb 28, 2017
Buy Now
| Buy on |
|
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
-
Feb 20, 2017The creative team needs to find writers willing to back up the narrative context with a story that has meat, and the gameplay designers need to dare do things differently to what has come before. Horizon is a remarkably refined and technically brilliant game, but Guerrilla has yet to prove that it can take that next step and produce a genuine classic.
-
Feb 20, 2017For all the hype that’s been extended to Horizon: Zero Dawn, it hasn’t managed to fully deliver. That’s a bit fitting — while we didn’t have access to its day one patch, confirmed by Eschler to enhance the PS4 Pro experience, I really didn’t notice an increased framerate or up-then-downrezzed textures on my 1080p television. Truly, there’s a lot of promise and potential in Guerrilla’s latest work, but ideas and intentions haven’t come together in a way that’s jaw-dropping.
-
Feb 28, 2017The sad fact for Horizon, and every other open-world game like it, is that we now live in a post-Witcher 3 world. CD Projekt Red has raised the bar for this genre in nearly every conceivable way, and it is absolutely not enough to simply be another open-world game. The sidequests have to be interesting, the writing has to be engaging, the characters have to be memorable – just putting a good premise and great graphics on top of boilerplate content isn’t enough. At least, it’s not enough for this reviewer.
-
May 22, 2017The unfortunate fact of Horizon is that most of what it does well, other games have done better, and they did it with a compelling who and where. This is the game you play after you’ve finished The Witcher 3, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, and Far Cry: Primal. It is the greatest hits compilation of open-world games. Yeah, sure, you might want to own it, but the real connoisseur has the original albums.
-
Feb 20, 2017Horizon Zero Dawn is disappointing. It has a story that I struggled to care about (complete with massive expository dumps—yay), a bland protagonist, and overtly repetitive and constraining missions that worked against its open world sensibilities. When Horizon Zero Dawn hit its rare strides—from its gloomy Cauldrons to traveling across its sprawling vistas—it only made me wish the rest of the game were as worthwhile.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
-
Feb 20, 2017Horizon is huge in every way that counts, and it should be celebrated for doing what too many games don't these days: telling an enthralling, time-consuming journey that's already complete on the disc—and one we'll remember for years to come.
-
Feb 20, 2017Horizon's highlight reel is unlike anything you've experienced before, but the time between these tentpole events could have been more engaging.
-
Mar 7, 2017Horizon Zero Dawn is a work of considerable finesse and technical bravado, but it falls into the trap of past Guerrilla games in being all too forgettable. For all its skin-deep dynamism it lacks spark; somewhat like the robotic dinosaurs that stalk its arrestingly beautiful open world, this is a mimic that's all dazzle, steel and neon yet can feel like it's operating without a heart of its own.
-
Feb 20, 2017It’s a world stunningly and meticulously designed – with the most care and imagination lavished on the machines themselves.
-
Feb 20, 2017With Horizon, the studio is finally let loose to show us how much more they’re capable of, and what they’re capable of is jaw-dropping.
-
Feb 20, 2017This is a game where, a full 32 hours after starting, with all the key mysteries uncovered... I still felt like I'd only scratched the surface. That's a rare thing in video games. But that's Horizon: Zero Dawn.
-
Feb 20, 2017The other reason Horizon: Zero Dawn still holds some allure to me after so many blandly satisfactory hours is that it is unquestionably the most woke game released by a major studio in years, a “core gamer” game in which women and mothers are revered as righteous warrior goddesses and in which almost every single dude is either a maundering sad boy or an emasculated angry boy or simply a concerned bystander boy, waiting for your help. [Review in Progress]
-
Mar 7, 2017At times it tries to do too much, but its ambition is refreshing, as is the fact that it somehow manages to pull almost all of its grand ideas off.
-
Mar 2, 2017If you're picking up Horizon Zero Dawn today, you're in for a treat. Some of the reviews might have skewed a little high, score wise, for my liking, but Guerrilla's open-worlder is one of 2017's finest games so far. There's been stiff competition, with more to come—but I feel this is one we'll see nudge into the upper parts of several publications' year-end best lists.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 10,195 out of 12419
-
Mixed: 1,140 out of 12419
-
Negative: 1,084 out of 12419
-
Feb 28, 2017
-
Mar 3, 2017
-
Feb 28, 2017