Along the way I saw towering robot dinosaurs fighting each other amidst desert ruins. It took me close to 30 minutes, but was a great way to reacquaint myself with Horizon’s unique setting. This meant getting on a steed outside of the eastern metropolis of Meridian, and then riding through deserts, lakes, and forests to get to the entrance of “The Cut,” located in the far northwest of the world. Horizon includes the option to fast-travel across its map, but since it had been so long since I last played, I decided to take the scenic route. The first thing I did was take a very long ride on robo-horseback. It’s the perfect setup for those who bought the game when it first came out, but might not remember every little detail from the game they played nine months ago. It’s tuned for players who are far along in the game - I started playing at level 35, which felt just right - and it tells its own distinct story that ties into the main mystery of Horizon Zero Dawn but also stands on its own. “The Frozen Wilds” is a mostly separate section of this world that takes place in an area known as “The Cut,” a treacherous and sparsely inhabited mountain region covered in perpetual snowfall. While humans live in small tribes and survive as hunter-gatherers, armed with bows and spears, the animal kingdom is dominated by creatures that are actually advanced machines. Described as a “post post-apocalypse,” Horizon is a game where time periods clash in fascinating ways. What makes the game distinct, though, is its completely unique world.
There’s jumping and climbing like in Assassin’s Creed and a focus on gear that feels straight out of Diablo. Its quest structure feels like The Witcher, while the crafting and survival elements are reminiscent of Far Cry. As a game, it pulls from many influences. Horizon launched at the end of February, and puts players in the role of Aloy, a skilled hunter who is inevitably pulled into a powerful mystery about the very nature of her world. It’s more of the same - and that’s exactly what I want. It gives you a new snowy mountain to explore, with more gear to collect and robotic monsters to destroy. The update doesn’t really change the experience in any significant way. That’s the case with “The Frozen Wilds,” the first major expansion for the excellent open-world role-playing game Horizon Zero Dawn. That’s one of the reasons I love the concept of video game expansions, which offer a chance to jump back into a world weeks or months after I thought I was done. But it’s always prolonging the inevitable. If it’s a book, I’ll read slowly and savor each detail, while in games I stretch out the experience with some optional exploration. Whenever I approach the end of a really great story, I feel an impending sense of dread: I just don’t want it to end.
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