Horizon Zero Dawn is the first game that made me want to go scavenging for supplies

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Okay, let me start by saying that my perfectionist nature often goes head-to-head with my desire to actually finish video games. I mean, I’ve now got over 1,000 games on Steam, 750+ DLC for those games, and who knows how many between subscriptions to EA, Game Pass for PC, and Apple Arcade.

That leaves me in a quandary, between picking short, easy-to-finish, story-lead games such as Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and longer, collect-all-the-things games such as the Far Cry series or the latest hotness, Horizon Zero Dawn for PC.

Seriously though, I hate the “climb a thing, see 50 new icons on the map to do stuff at” mechanic that every new adventure/RPG/FPS/action game has nowadays. Far Cry legit makes me want to uninstall the game and turn my computer off every time I see the icons pop up, but then again, Horizon Zero Dawn is no Far Cry. I’m a sucker for games with a bow and arrow, even completing the recent Tomb Raider games multiple times just because it’s so satisfying to have the hold, hold, thwip, thock of every enemy kill.

Image: KnowTechie

I have to say, after finishing the main storyline, all of the story-based side quests, and the DLC, I’m just as hooked on HZD. It’s good that there is a New Game Plus mode, because I’m starting it tonight after I finish writing this. I’ll grind again for the new weapons, even though they’re the same as the ones I already have, just slightly better. I’ll do so gladly, because even though I unlocked the ability to nock three arrows as early as possible, I forgot totally that I could do that until the DLC…

Yes, I finished the hard main story battles while shooting one arrow when I could have been raining sweet death from the sky in trios. I could have been taking out raiders in one pull of my bow, instead of slightly injuring one, then getting piled on by his friends. I could have, but I didn’t because what I didn’t do is RTFM. Oops.

Image: KnowTechie

I probably should also note that since quarantine set in, and with a toddler in the house, my gaming time has drastically reduced the number of games I’ve actually started, let alone ones I’ve finished. HZD has been finished, and I’m going to probably 100% all the hunting trials in New Game Plus mode. Maybe… I mean, some of them are just diabolically difficult and I’m a wimp.

Oh, one thing I should say about performance I guess, since it’s something PC players will want to know. I played half the game on an AMD Radeon 5700XT, and the other half on an Nvidia 2070 Super. I found I enjoyed it more not worrying about frame rate and putting all the graphical quality sliders to max, which gave me about 60fps on either card with my 3440×1440 ultrawide monitor. The only annoyance is that all of the cut scenes are in 16:9, so I have blurred frames around them. That’s not really that off-putting though, and I’d rather than instead of weird stretching or cropping.

Anyway, if you love story-driven games, anything with a bow, robots, or dinosaurs (or even robotic dinosaurs), pick up Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition. You’ll possibly find yourself on New Game Plus mode sooner than you think.

What do you think? Have you tried Horizon Zero Dawn on PC yet? Liking it? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

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• The terrible Xbox naming scheme means you might have bought last-gen’s console yesterday
• Preorder days where you can’t actually order the item in question are bullshit
• Microsoft just added another publisher to its Xbox family – Bethesda

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.