Beautiful Moments and Epic Encounters in Horizon Zero Dawn

It’s time to share more beautiful shots from one of my favourite open-world games, Horizon Zero Dawn. At first, I wasn’t sure if the game would satisfy my craving for both great graphics and engaging gameplay. But now I can confidently say that it has done exactly that—and even more. I can spend hours just wandering off the main paths, exploring the world, hunting down machines, and occasionally raiding camps with human enemies, without a care in the world.  --- So many times, I’ve completely lost track of time while playing. To me, that’s the sign of a truly amazing game, one that makes you forget the real world exists for a while.  --- The dangers lurking at every step make this game a much livelier experience, even though the threats are machines that seem to draw inspiration from biological creatures.  --- Many encounters with these machines are challenging. You’ll often see the remains of fallen machines scattered around the world. How long have they been roaming these lands? I have no idea. Meanwhile, people live in primitive tribes surrounded by clues of a lost advanced civilisation. Each tribe has its own politics, culture, religion, and identity, and they can be easily recognised by their unique outfits.  --- Raiding enemy outposts is fun, though there aren’t too many of them in the world. It feels like the developers put more effort into refining the gameplay and AI of machines than that of human enemies, which isn’t a bad thing, considering the game is heavily focused on wild machine encounters.  --- Once you liberate a settlement and take out all the enemies, people move in, and it becomes a new colony. You’ll find traders and villagers living there again—a safe haven for them. The human animations in this game are also well done. Some NPCs still look a bit robotic when repeating certain movements, but I’ve noticed a lot of improvement. These are probably the best human animations I’ve seen in any game so far. In a certain way, too many times, but I can see a lot of improvements. Probably the best human animations in the game I have seen so far.  --- There are many different animations in the game, and most of them work perfectly. Even small details, like Aloy sliding down a hill or regaining her balance, feel natural and not out of place.  --- What can I say about the beautiful world of Horizon Zero Dawn? It’s stunning. The draw distance is impressive, and the landscapes look great even on low or medium settings.  --- The game features multiple biomes, but my favourite is the snowy one. Maybe I’m biased because I love snow, but the way fresh snow settles on shrubs and grass is beautiful. When you walk through it, the snow falls off in a realistic way—a detail I haven’t seen done this well in any other game.  --- Of course, it’s not always peaceful. Sometimes you’re suddenly attacked or wander into dangerous territory. In most areas, you’d better be prepared to face a group of machines—they’re rarely alone. One of my favourite shots I’ve taken is this one:  --- I was about to take down a Watcher, but little did I know, another hostile machine was about to leap at me with a jump attack that looked incredible. I quickly switched to photo mode just in time to capture this dynamic shot, right before all three of us clashed. One fun trick is to hijack a machine in a group. Once hacked, it becomes aggressive toward anything that attacks it. If there are hostile machines nearby, they somehow sense something is wrong and immediately start attacking the hacked one.  --- I love to watch these machines attack each other. It is so fun to just sit and watch them attacking each other with all the different attacks they have. And then finish them off when they are weaker after the fight. Such a cool mechanic in the game. Let me know if you liked those shots and which one is your favourite among them.