horizon zero dawn map vs breath of the wild

Aloy’s climbing animations are subtly one of the most impressive parts of an unbelievably impressive game. This system is still a far cry from the unparalleled freedom of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild where players could climb literally anything (provided they had the stamina and weren’t being rained on), but it is absolutely a step in the right direction. Players even have options in their settings how obvious they want these indicators to be, a level of freedom that will hopefully be further smoothed out in the inevitable sequel. There are still clashing yellow outlines to indicate what can be grabbed, and a big, red “X” on everything that cannot, but being able to quickly locate a path to clamber up is invaluable. Through a simple tap of her Focus, Aloy can pulse-scan the surrounding area and instantly determine what surfaces around her are climbable. Forbidden West does its best to correct this, giving players far more freedom to climb than in the first game. However, Aloy could only ascend specific, highlighted areas, or else risk sliding down rocky terrain. In Zero Dawn, the Colorado and Utah-inspired landscape had countless mountains to climb. In the five years since Zero Dawn, Guerilla Games has made an effort to make the open world in Horizon Forbidden West not only more fulfilling to explore but more engaging to traverse. The map was rife with question marks, but the answers were often not worth the effort of a player’s investigation. Despite great art direction and atmosphere, Guerilla Games stuck to the already-tired-in-2017 Ubisoft model of open world design. But Zero Dawn‘s open world left much to be desired in many respects. Horizon Zero Dawn had the misfortune of releasing nearly alongside one of the greatest games of its generation (and possibly of all time) but still managed to carve out an identity for itself among its open world peers with its excellent combat mechanics and surprisingly in-depth and heartfelt story.

Horizon zero dawn map vs breath of the wild