Been a while since my last review, so let's get right to it.
Background story
I heard about this game long before I ever clicked the install button, but I had some doubts, as Cyberpunk and Bf 2042 have taught me to keep expectations as low as possible. I am truly glad that this game took my expectation and send them to the moon, because this is one of the best games I ever played.
Story - no spoilers
In an era that robots are part of the environment, the world doesn't remember the past and has returned to live in primitive tribes, praying at the sun or anything that they can't explain.
You play as Aloy, a girl was cast out by the Nora tribe at birth, without any known reason until, of course, at the end of the game when an NPC tells the whole story, or at least the story of your childhood.
Gameplay
Easy to learn, hard to master. I totally recommend playing with a controller, as the game was designed to use one. But, this shouldn't be a problem if you only want to play on a low difficulty just for the story.
The whole gameplay is build around the bow and a lance, but on a higher difficulty you barely use the lance. There are also traps, slings, and tripwires, which may seem like meh, but all of them are really fun to use, you can have your own style of playing and the game will support you.
The difficulty scale is something else, if you go on story mode, you can one shot even some medium robots, but the same attack on ultimate, will barely tickle them. Oh yeah, you have to complete the game on Ultra on New Game Plus if you want the 100% achievement.
Graphics
If you look at this game, and then tell me it's bad, I will surely recommend an eye control, because this game is straight up gorgeous. The attention to details is something remarkable.
Let's take for example Aloy outfits. The clothes become frozen upon walking through the snow and will dry out when you're in a hot place like a geothermal water source.
The same principle is applied in a desert area. Your clothes become dusty after a while, and are cleaned out if you go for a swim.
But this is only one detail, another for example is when you have equipped an outfit that have something specific to a tribe, like the Oseram leather with metal pieces will sound correspondingly when you move. A small detail, but one that's making you feel more like you're part of that world. Walking around through the Nora tribe in another tribe clothes will determine locals to make comments about you 'not dressing like a proper Nora'.
Skills
The skill tree is pretty nice sectioned, letting you chose whatever you need more, for me the extra inventory space was always welcomed, but when you know you don't need certain items anymore, the disassemble skill will generate a lot of shards, otherwise you have to drop them.
The Frozen Wilds
A tribe that actually tries to live in peace with the machines instead of hunting them for parts, the Banuk tribe is dealing with their own enemy, a force that it's building more and more dangerous machines as the time passes, the same one that it's attacking the "spirit" that communicates with one of their shamans.
The DLC timeline if after the main game, but you can do it whenever you want, actually, the DLC weapons are better than everything in the main game, but it's a little grindy to get them all, because you don't buy them with shards(the game currency), you can buy them with blue beam, a crystal received as mission's rewards and as a collectible around the world.
Achievements
My hunger for achievements was satisfied again. Even through it took a while, it's not that hard to get to this, especially that the Ultra hard on new game plus requires only the main story, without secondary quests or challenges.
Final impression
It took me 110 hours to complete 100% achievement, this including an entire New Game+ playthrough, but honestly I would do it again. From the story, to the gameplay, to the entire atmosphere of the game, I can't do anything else but placing in top 5 best games I ever played. All the respect for Guerilla Games for creating this masterpiece.
Info
All the images were captured during my gameplay.
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