Horizon Zero Dawn, and the follow-up game Horizon Forbidden West, has a post-apocalyptic feel familiar from movies like Planet of the Apes. It plunges you into an overgrown landscape with now-crumbling remnants of modern life where animalistic machines have taken over. The exploration and combat don’t dwell on the downfall of the world, but there is an interesting undercurrent of self-annihilation that lingers as you play. It’s an impressive and enjoyable world to explore that says as much about humanity’s ability to survive as any direct narrative.

This combination of overblown disaster and sometimes simplistic solutions – such as the discovery of a small group of scientists with a plan to remake the planet – manages not to jar. It’s a game that invites you to find the resilience of life even in the catastrophe. Life goes on, maybe differently And haphazardly, but still finds a way to continue.



The second game in the series, Horizon Forbidden West takes the action to a vast and foreboding wilderness to the far west as a pestilence has driven the planets inhabitants to search for a cure. You play Alloy, again, in a world bristling with even more robot dinosaurs.