Horizon Zero Dawn

Here's a game where I took one look at the cover art and thought, "How are you going to justify Mecha-Godzillas in a post-apocalyptic setting." In retrospect, the answer seem simple. If humanity ever did invent Mecha-Godzillas for whatever reason, it wouldn't take much smarts to determine the cause of why humanity is locked in a battle against rogue Mecha-Godzillas. There is a powerful narrative drive in Horizon Zero Dawn that sees players taking on the role of Aloy, an outcast of her tribe due to the mysterious events surrounding her birth. Why exactly is Aloy an outcast? What happened to the old world? Where did the Mecha-Godzillas come from? What role does Aloy play in all of this? Starting in a small village, the search for answers begins with small steps into a wider world teeming with beauties and dangers alike.

skyline one sunset is a planned sequel

Horizon is traditional fare as far as open-world games go. Players will have access to the definitive open-world gameplay procedure: a big sandbox world, main quests, side quests, a variety of points-of-interests, distractions/diversions, towers to reveal the map with, collectibles, OCD inducing material gathering, crafting supplies, fast-travel, mounts, etc. Combat against machine and human enemies consist of melee and ranged options. The melee combat is solely comprised of a light attack and a heavy attack without anything else to go with it. Ranged combat sees a variety of weapons, however. Aloy can use short bows, longbows, slings that shoot bombs, tripwires, a "ropecaster" that can immobilize foes, and a "rattler" that can shoot multiple bolts in quick succession. These tools are complimented by traps and a rudimentary stealth system that aids Aloy in hunting down her prey.

In the cage fight between Aloy and Mecha-Godzilla, any sensible person would bet on Mecha-Godzilla. Bows and spears don't exactly match up to tons of metal and plasma beams, that is unless you know where to hit Mecha-Godzilla. Aloy has the ability to pin-point weaknesses in enemies that will tell her where to hit and what to hit it with. This divides the combat into two effective phases: stalking/preparing and springing the trap. The machines, especially on harder difficulties, can easily flatten Aloy in several hits. It's a great deal of fun and tension as you study the machine's movements, mark its weaknesses, and prepare your traps, all to gain the maximum advantage as you inevitably come out of stealth and begin running and dodging like a headless chicken. My favorite tactic for taking down machines that could instantly mulch me was to lay a system of tripwires attached to explosive traps, spook the beast, and lure it through all of them.

While hunting the larger machines is the hallmark of Horizon's gameplay, the game falters in its smaller enemies. From the starting portion of the game, Aloy has access to an ability that lures enemies closer. Combining this ability with stealth take-downs trivializes many of the fights in which the enemy group is composed entirely of humans or smaller machines. Here's what I would do against a pack of small machines: find tall grass to hide in, lure-call one of them over, perform a stealth takedown, repeat. The enemies don't actually see Aloy as she's performing the takedown so long as you're in the tall grass so the procedure always works. Enemies will be alerted by corpses, but it does not blow your cover instantly. Rather, the alerted enemy will simply wander around the corpse for awhile, allowing you to lure-call the enemy to the same fate as his friend. Aloy can sit in one spot and take down an entire group of enemies with this method. Horizon's real gameplay prowess becomes apparent during tense moments in which larger enemies are surrounded by a group of smaller enemies that act as lookouts, but engaging against groups composed entirely of small enemies shows off the tedium of a crude and over-simplified stealth mechanic.

pinnacle of stealth technology 

In addition to head-on and stealth combat, Aloy also gains the ability to perform overrides on machine enemies, briefly flipping their allegiance to Aloy's side. Aloy won't be able to override every machine and only learns to do so against specific machines after exploring map points called Cauldrons. Sometimes fights can be decided with a single override against a larger machine. However, overrides have a long cool-down period so you're unlikely to get more than one enemy to your side in one encounter. Moreover, overrides also forfeit the experience rewards you would otherwise gain from defeating the machine once you upgrade the control state to be indefinite. It's a fun little mechanic that can lead to amazing machine vs. machine spectacles, but it's usually faster and more rewarding from a gameplay standpoint to just take on the machines yourself.

Horizon's primary forte is in its world development that parallels Aloy's development, both as a character and in terms of player progression. Aloy is unsure of her role in the world at large as strange and devastating events seem to focus around her. Her self-doubt diminishes and she journeys across the world, gradually revealing the secrets of the old world and the machines in a manner that reflects the player's own growth in the ability to take down larger and more powerful foes in increasingly complex scenarios. The narrative is not unlike a rolling boulder that gradually picks up momentum. By the time you've experienced your first piece of the puzzle, it becomes a powerful motivator to seek more of the story to unveil the mystery of Project Zero Dawn and reach the satisfactory conclusion to why Mecha-Godzillas are running around the world.

Guerrilla Games, the developers of Horizon, may not be particularly innovative as far as open-world gameplay goes, but they certainly make up for it by focusing and polishing what it has to be enjoyable and rewarding. This polished gameplay is upheld by an engaging narrative and a beautifully presented world. The machines of the world are characters deserving of respect in the challenges and majesty they present to Aloy and the player. Horizon Zero Dawn successfully distinguishes itself from other open-world games with its unique world brought to life by a powerful presentation of its mechanics and engaging sci-fi plot.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is to the Nintendo Switch what Halo: Combat Evolved was to the XBox 15 years ago: a critically acclaimed, console defining debut of a title. Much like how Halo has left its mark in the first-person shooter canon, Breath of the Wild rightfully belongs in the pantheon of great open-world adventure games. The people at Nintendo set out to reshape the tried-and-true Zelda formula into something that would properly usher the Legend of Zelda franchise into the Switch generation and they have succeeded. The open-world style allows players to experience the world of Zelda like never before. 

If I had to summarize Breath of the Wild's gameplay design philosophy, I'd put it something like this: varied mechanics, simple interactions. Hyrule is full of interactive elements that makes the game world dynamic and seemingly organic. These interactions range from visual spectacles (ex. grass and tree branches swaying in the wind) to useful gameplay mechanics (ex. flammable game objects can be burned to create an updraft for gliding). Monsters and critters will interact with one another in small ways, simulating an ecosystem full of mysteries to discern and behaviors to study. Link also has access to tools never before seen in previous Zelda games. With various abilities to manipulate game objects and influence monsters and animals, the player has a great selection of mechanics to experiment with. This gives the player many options to choose from in approaching the game's challenges. The simplicity of the mechanics make them easy to utilize. As a result, interactions between objects and the player are intuitive and consistent.

With the number of near-perfect to perfect scores the game has received from review sites, Breath of the Wild seems infallible. The game has certainly earned its critical and commercial success, but I want to point out that many of these reviews don't capture the game in a representative manner. Call it hype, nostalgia, whatever—it's important that we take the time in examining the game not solely as a remodeling of a legendary franchise, but by how well it stands on its own. To that end, here are a couple of my own thoughts about the game.

The first third of the game is the golden time for Breath of the Wild. The game really emphasizes using all of the tools available to you when Link is weak and most vulnerable. Weak early weapons and a plethora of world objects subtly pushes the player to experiment with the different interactions. This becomes phased out as Link becomes stronger and finds better weapons. Damage from dropping a metal box on a monster, for example, just doesn't compare to the direct damage of hitting a monster. While the interactions still have a place in puzzles, they become less and less relevant in combat when the simplest solution becomes bashing monsters with stuff. The effort to impact ratio is too large for the world interactions to really hold up in the later portions of the game.

everything the light touches can be yours... if you have enough stamina elixirs

Weapon durability did not give me any problems whatsoever. I've read reviews that have gone both ways regarding the issue, but it was never a deal breaker of any sort. I also think reports of needing to carefully manage weapon usage are exaggerated. On the contrary, I always had weapons on Link and was constantly finding better ones. There isn't really a need to save weapons for anything so you might as well just use them, with the only exception being keeping one or two ancient weapons around in the event you come across a stray guardian. Finding the Master Sword is relatively easy and comes with natural progression and paying attention to hints from NPCs. The unbreakable weapon renders the problem of weapon durability moot for the most part. 

Cooking was needlessly elaborate. The crafting system involved is simple: throw in up to five ingredients and see what you get. The number of unique recipes that produced specific foods kind of surprised me. Cooking is divided into two categories: food and elixirs, both of which pretty much perform the same functions. Foods come from foodstuffs and elixirs are derived from monster parts; the two ingredients categories should never mix else Link cooks up something useless. You can experiment with different ingredients but ultimately boils down to this: You need a fire resistance elixir; find anything in your inventory that lists fire resistance as a property; throw five of those things into the pot. The simplest method of throwing five of the same thing usually provides the best results. The different food recipes for cakes and soups are elaborate, but ultimately just pointless flavor.

five mushrooms for dinner again

Enemy variety was sorely lacking. The developers might have stuck to the Zelda formula a little too much here. For an open-world as large as the one we get in Breath of the Wild, I was expecting more region unique enemies. The enemies are for the most part recolored, power-upped versions of weaker templates. Variability comes in the form of size and elemental attribute, but that doesn't really count in my opinion. The same attack patterns persist through similar enemy types, so the only additional challenge afforded is the increase in health and damage that the enemies have. I would've liked to see enemies that required the use of Sheikah Slate abilities to defeat, for example, or enemies that had access to their own versions of Sheikah Slate abilities that they could use on Link.

you're really the bad guy- they were just enjoying themselves

On-demand healing was a questionable mechanics design choice. It allows the player to open their inventory at any point, freeze the game world, to eat food and heal. Whether you just pick up things that come across your way or exhibit symptoms of kleptomania, you will end up with enough food and healing items to cook with. With a cornucopia in Link's pockets and on-demand healing, the only thing that will really give you a Game Over screen is being defeated in one hit from a monster far above your weight class. Players and reviewers have pointed out that Breath of the Wild is a more difficult game, but I cannot agree with their statement when on-demand healing is present without any counterbalance. There is no penalty to scarfing down foods whenever you want and the world is packed with meats, fruits, mushrooms, and vegetables. I would've liked to see a system that limited the amount of food/elixirs Link could consume in a set period of time, or at least during a state of combat. The availability of food combined with Being able to tank everything removes the agency of a difficult fight.

speaking of on-demand healing

A lackluster ending kind of hangs in the air for me. The purpose of Link's journey is to gain strength and gather allies for the upcoming fight against Calamity Ganon, so I really shouldn't be complaining when I say the final battle is really nothing special. Breaching Hyrule Castle, however, was a great deal of fun. Previously, the shrines and the four Divine Beast dungeons made extensive use of Sheikah Slate abilities which factored into my surprise that there are very few moments in Hyrule Castle that made use of the Sheikah Slate in any great capacity. For the most part, Hyrule Castle is a straight A to B with hidden side rooms. The most direct path to Calamity Ganon can miss many of the secrets and unique items along the way, so it's still worth exploring the various rooms of the castle. Aside from finding hidden rooms, though, the Sheikah Slate is largely forgotten.

breath of the wild II will feature a sheikah fit-bit and sheikah vr goggles

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Despite a few missteps here and there, Breath of the Wild successfully captures the spirit of the Legend of Zelda franchise in its open-world presentation. For me, the story and characters weren't as memorable as some of the past Zelda games, but the world itself may as well be its own character. With its painterly landscapes. mysterious ruins, and hidden treasures, the world itself provides an interesting sandbox for the player to create their own journey.

As far as open-world games go, Breath of the Wild isn't really that unique. I didn't feel an air of open-world innovation, but that's probably because it's still a Zelda game at heart and the open-world formula has hit a stagnant point as far as game mechanics go. On that, you still have narrative design and world presentation. Again, narrative design isn't quite there with Breath of the Wild, but world presentation carries Breath of the Wild into the new generation of gaming consoles.

they're not that bad

A more cynical part of me thinks Breath of the Wild  is still just banking on 80s gaming nostalgia for its praise. Besides, the game's mechanics begin to taper off after about a third of the way through while some of them simply become obsolete once you figure things out. However, I had to ask myself, "Did I have fun with the game" and the answer to that is a resounding yes. The reviews exaggerate the success of the game's design decisions, but that doesn't get in the way of a fun gaming experience. Breath of the Wild speaks to both older and newer generations of gamers in its journey to recreate the world of Zelda like never before.