Why I Keep Getting Distracted in Horizon Zero Dawn

I played a lot of games this year, some for their gameplay while others for their graphics and beauty. Horizon Zero Dawn falls in both of these categories. Every time I start it, thinking of progressing the story further and finishing it soon, I end up opening the Photo mode and adjusting camera angles and time of day.

There are a lot of things to like about this game. I love the vibrant colours and photorealistic landscapes full of things to keep you interested for hours. The world is full of rogue machines that will attack you from the moment they set their mechanical eyes on you.

The progression in the game is fairly linear, and you get powerful relatively quickly. The same machines that were once a big challenge will become easier to tackle later in the game.

You will find a variety of natural views, from dense forests to barren deserts and snow-capped mountains. How the light interacts with everything and fills the landscape with bright colours, which change depending on the time of day, is pretty interesting. That makes the same place look and feel completely different.

The dynamic weather conditions make it feel more alive, too. The world is also full of ruins and abandoned machines, some of which have been reclaimed by nature.

Coming to the vibrant colours, there are a lot of flowers and crimson wild grass that complement the greens and enhance the beautiful meadows even more.

People are living in mostly primitive tribes and small settlements. They are in the rebuilding phase from the catastrophic events when humanity almost died from those rogue machines.

These structures look beautiful. The details on them are great to see. We have a lot of bridges in the game on even smaller streams that can be crossed in a couple of seconds on foot. But these structures do help build the story. You can easily see the tribal influence on those designs. I like how the bridge made by the smaller tribe looks much more primitive than the one closer to the big settlement.

Aloy, the protagonist in the game, is a fine warrior. Her animations are very smooth, and you can see that they did a lot of work on this character to make it feel good.

Visuals like these are why it is taking me forever to complete this game. At the same time, I don't want to rush it. When you have a game as beautiful as this, I believe you should admire its beauty and soak in all that it offers.

Let me know if you like those shots as well, and which one is your favourite?