In keeping with the finest post-apocalyptic tradition, the world ofHorizon Zero Dawnis superbly depressing in all the right ways, and it has a lot to say about humanity. Players take on the role of Aloy, an outcast with an abundance of pressing questions in a gorgeous and surprisingly primal world. Aloy’s quest begins within, and along the journey for answers she unlocks truly haunting secrets about her world.
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The first game in theHorizonseries has its mechanical flaws, and it’s arguably a little too heavy on collectibles.Horizon Zero Dawnstill manages to stand out as a story rife with food for thought. Although the mechanical world the story reveals takes place in a true dark age, the game itself is a renaissance piece to inspire gamers to appreciate life.
10Life On Earth Is Fragile
One of the most oppressing themesZero Dawndeals with is the very real possibility of extinction-level events happening on Earth. Although human civilization isbarely past its tribal infancyin the story, the machines roaming the lands speak of a far more technologically advanced past.
The more of the world is revealed to Aloy, the more obvious it seems that something catastrophic happened long ago that forced humanity to its knees. Worse, it seems civilization wasn’t the only casualty: the world is notably lacking in animals larger than a boar or a fox.
9Life On Earth Is Adaptable
There is a strange beauty to the overgrown ruins of the Old Ones scattered around the world ofHorizon Zero Dawn. The sight of nature reclaiming the hollow apartment buildings and erasing highways and billboards seems to say that life will go on, with or without the human species.
Although the world is evidently indifferent to human existence, the new face of humanity that it explores is all the more wondrous for having lost most of the past civilization’s extreme self-importance. When it’s not trying to control everything, the characteristic industriousness of humanity is a marvelous power. The results are in evidence everywhere Aloy goes, along withhumanity’s captivating creativity.
8Words Fade But Consequences Last Forever
Few messages stand out more inHorizon Zero Dawnthan how the selfish mistakes of just a handful of people canrob everyone of a tomorrow. Aloy does not know exactly what happened to her world, but players searching for familiar things in a game set centuries in America’s future keenly feel their absence.
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Horizon Zero Dawnalso showcases the importance societies place on saying the right things, performing the rituals, and maintaining status. But the point it drives home is how meaningless all those words and gestures are. As an outcast, Aloy stands apart from it all and gains a unique insight into how humans live together and the consequences of blindly accepting such social contracts.
7Compassion Matters
There are as many shades of personalities and moralities inHorizon Zero Dawnas gamers might expect from a world about thepost-apocalyptic future of humanity. There is violence, dishonesty, and greed. But there is remarkably little focus on, and fascination with, these destructive qualities compared to other games.
Horizon Zero Dawnhas a deeper message to impart. Aloy fights who she needs to fight, but she doesn’t seek out bosses to topple or try to influence whole tribes that there’s a better way. Instead, Aloy walks her own path, and otherwise finds the people who seem to share her understanding that cherishing and protecting life is the only way humanity survives.
6Othering Is More Artificial Than Machines
Horizon Zero Dawnexploreshumanity at its most tribal. The behavior of the humans is a stark contrast to what should be the more unnatural sight: herds of machines peacefully grazing. Meanwhile, events of the recent past, like the Red Raids, point to humanity being reduced to its basest instincts.
It makes sense: lacking technical advancement, tribal violence seems in keeping with human nature. At the same time,Horizon Zero Dawnalso goes to great lengths not to show the worst tribalism has to offer. Instead, it reveals fledgling societies on the cusp of facing their culpability and reaching out to one another.
5Humanity Is All About Self-Interest
There are a lot of points inHorizon Zero Dawn’sstory where the player is forced to wonder how things went so wrong. The thoughts of characters like Ted Faro tell a story of the destructiveness of self-interest, but it also highlights how the environment has to enable such a personality to cause harm in the first place.
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The willful ignorance of the innocent masses seems no less dangerous. Distressingly, it doesn’t seem like the new civilization learned from the mistakes of the old one, if characters like Sun-King Jiran, Helis, or even Sylens are any guide.Zero Dawnseems to accept that the capacity for destruction and ignorance may always be a part of human nature.
4Humanity Is Selfless In The End
Self-sacrifice is another major theme ofHorizon Zero Dawn, although it does not glorify or memorialize it. The actions of characters like Elisabet and Aloyare all the more impressivefor not trying to change the people around them. Instead, they exercised power over themselves to save the world.
From the first time Aloy falls into an old world ruin, it’s clear that the world survived something unimaginably terrible. Nothing quite matches Operation: Enduring Victory, or the Zero Dawn Project itself, when it comes to horrifying consequences. Yet, it is that horror which also shines a light on how selfless humanity can be when called together.
3It’s Too Easy To Repeat History
One of the most concerning thoughtsHorizon Zero Dawndeals with is how difficult it is not to repeat past mistakes. Although Aloy does not know exactly what was lost with APOLLO, players are given the chance to momentarily feel the weight of being an ancient one wandering the aisles of the Library of Alexandria, and then having a vision of fire.
The player’s real civilization isHorizon Zero Dawn’sfictional distant past, and it’s difficult to imagine a world where no one knows any of the cultures currently in existence. There is so much that is familiar in the people depicted in the game, and without the context of history and knowledge, it seems inevitable that humanity would be doomed to barbarism.
2Knowledge Means Nothing Without Wisdom
There is a surprising amount of knowledge players encounter from the old world, despite the apparent lack of deliberate attempts to preserve ancient history. There is an expected spiritualization of technology as a result, a naturalization of things no longer made directly by humans.
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These cultures may appear less advanced to players who are, after all, experiencing the story ofHorizon Zero Dawnin the form of a modern-day video game, and who may have more in common with the ancient ones than with Aloy. But knowledge and technology by themselves are not enough to make a people civilized, as the handling of bothHADES and APOLLOproves.
1The World Will Keep Spinning
Aloy’s world is full of machines that behave as though nature made them, and nature that acts as if it was only halfway programmed. No matter how bizarre the ecology ofHorizon Zero Dawnis, it is a viable ecosystem nonetheless. Civilization did not follow any intended pathway of development, yet it’s remarkable how familiar it feels with all that history erased.
The story ofHorizon Zero Dawnis about what comes next in a post-apocalyptic world, but it’s also very much about healing and appreciating the present. For Aloy, that means learning about the past to verify the world continues to have a future. For players, this story is an invitation to understand and participate in this civilization before it, too, is lost to time.
Horizon Zero Dawnis available on PlayStation 4 and PC.
