Recent reviews by Jobe Bellyham

For the Emperor!!!

Let the wind guide you through this gorgeous cinematic experience

very fun

fun game

What a game. If you enjoyed the Souls games, this one is for you. You'll be pleasently surprised.

It's extremely unfortunate to hear that so many people are having issues with the game running properly, because if it wasn't crashing I am almost positive they would've enjoyed playing this game.

I myself have not had any issues running the game (after using ASUS GPU Tweak II to limit my laptop from overheating).

Now onto the actual review:

This has been the most fun I've had grinding a video game since I was in a kid. The mechanics are awesome, the machines are so bad ass, the story line is well thought through and explained, the maps are vast and the play through was a ton of fun.

The actual fighting mechanics of this game are easily my favorite out of any game that I have played. Tumbling around, dodging attacks, while popping in and out of slow-mo to pop shoot off components, inflict status conditions, and ultimately f*ck on machines is SO. MUCH. FUN. This is the kind of stuff I'd be imagining as a kid when I first got introduced to sci-fi and video games. The smaller machines are fun to farm, and the bigger machines are extremely satisfying to fight and take down, especially on Ultra Hard. Running straight into a pack of machines is rarely ever the way to approach combat in this game. Scanning machines for weak-points, setting traps and strategically taking them down has been nothing but an amazing gaming experience for me.

Secondly, the machines and scenery look so damn good. Even on performance favoring settings, the game looks better than a lot of other titles that I've played. Growing up on things like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (as I'm sure many of you did), there's always been a huge fascination with old combat, as well as super-futuristic warfare. Horizon: Zero Dawn combines both of these aspects by making you fight these over-the-top bad-ass machines with weapons like slingshots and bows. The tall-necks are so cool roaming the environments, and all the different herds and packs of machines covering the map really creative an immersive world that managed to suck me in.

Another thing that the game did a fantastic job on was creating such an in-depth world that, in my opinion, is very well explained. There definitely is a few tribes that really don't play much of a role and leaves an opportunity to be explained more, but all in all the cut-scenes, data-points, conversations you have with AI, etc. really gives you so much context for the world that you are playing in. If you take the time to engage in the conversations, rather than skipping through them to get back to the missions, you'll be left trying to piece aspects of this world together even when you're not playing the game. Taking example from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, both movies explain the circumstances of the world that you are in and then get right to the action. Horizon does the same thing by introducing the character and the world that you live in, and then continuously give you more pieces to the puzzle as the game goes on.

The map itself is huge (supposed to be much bigger for Horizon 2 which has me nothing but excited). There are a ton of side quests that cover your typical RPG stuff. Finding artifacts, data-points, clearing bandit camps, etc. are nothing new to those who have played an RPG before. For me, it's important that the missions don't feel to repetitive. I will say that clearing the bandit camps didn't feel much different any of the times and that the corruption zones weren't much harder than killing any other machines, but all the other side quests and collection missions were a blast. Exploring the map and really getting to appreciate every part of it as you're collecting the various items, climbing through the mountains and getting to cover every last bit of the map was a lot of fun for me. The side quests in both the main story and DLC were a ton of fun too, and again give much more context to the world you're playing in.

All in all, this has been the most fun game that I have played (and I might be completely biased solely because I love the combat mechanics, as well as the actual machines they've created), but I can completely understand how this game might not be for you. The fights can be very challenging, the mechanics take a bit to get used to, and although they've improved the UI, the inventory section of your menu is rather confusing and can be discouraging from the game. For me, the beautiful map, the bad ass machines, the extremely fun combat mechanics, and the overall feel of the game (the music is amazing as well) has left me very satisfied with my purchase. The second title can't come soon enough.