Previews

Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the best-looking open worlds ever - and it could have the gameplay to match.

Horizon Zero Dawn may well be the best-looking video game yet. The tech wizards at Guerrilla, the studio that brought you the Killzone series, have again taken the PS4 to new heights, this time with a degree of detail we're not used to seeing in open world games.

Where Killzone was all destroyed buildings, grim dark corridors and battlefields drenched in grey and black, Horizon's world is vibrant, intriguing and colourful. Killzone was set in a dystopian future where soldiers fought each other in a seemingly endless conflict. Horizon is set in a future where Machines roam the land and mankind is no longer the dominant species. Nature, in all its glory, has reclaimed the earth.

The hunted becomes the hunter

Exploring the open world is a young hunter called Aloy. The fiery redhead already knows she is destined for greater things when a nefarious evil threatens the land. Rather than cower in a village tent, she sets out to face the challenge head-on. Of course, she must survive the post-apocalyptic world as well as the Machines along the way.

The Machines are, essentially, robot dinosaurs. If you're old enough to remember popular 80s cartoon Zoids, you'll find them instantly familiar. The Machines encompass everything from towering mechanised beasts to small, fast-moving critters. Some are content with a perpetual patrol, others are out for blood. All Machines are driven by a mysterious purpose.

There's no mystery about Horizon's graphics, though. Grass and trees sway realistically in the wind. Water flows as it should, the sun glistening off the surface of streams. And what about the Machines? The incredibly detailed beasts seem to have layer upon layer of mechanical innards. You can blow their armour away to expose weak spots, rip their weapons off to use as your own, and even blast loot boxes off their back for a quick getaway.

Aloy, though, steals the show. It's clear Guerrilla has spent weeks fussing over her design and months making her animations blend brilliantly. There's something about the way Aloy walks, sprints, slides and climbs that suggests she could be the most intuitive video game character ever created. And hers is the most realistic video game hair yet. You often find yourself mesmerised by her dreadlocks as they bounce about.

The bow and arrow is so in right now

So what do you actually do in Horizon? Well, it's an open-world action role-playing game, so there are plenty of quests to take on. The RPG elements are on the lighter end of the scale. You won't be fussing over stats, Skyrim style, but there's plenty of loot to get your teeth stuck into and equipment to ponder.

When it comes to combat, Aloy is particularly agile and able to dodge incoming attacks with ease. Her weapon of choice is the bow and arrow, although she uses many different types of arrowheads. Aside from her standard armour piercing arrows, Aloy has high damage exploding arrows and electricity arrows that stun her targets. The latter are particularly useful when facing fast-moving enemies.

Elsewhere, the Ropecaster lets you fire out, you guessed it, ropes, which are great for setting explosive tripwire traps, pinning down the Machines, or even tripping up giant ones. You'll then create opportunities to slow down time - another one of Aloy's special abilities - which makes it much easier to target enemy weak spots.

The best thing, though, about being out and about in the world of Horizon is riding your own Machine. If you can tame a robot dinosaur, which is no mean feat, you can take it for a ride. Aloy is a speedy mover, but getting from A to B in Horizon is much quicker when you have your own mount. The cool thing is, you can fire your weapons while riding a robot dinosaur, which is pretty much a childhood dream realised in video game form right there.

Perhaps that's why Horizon Zero Dawn has been nicknamed Far Cry Future Primal. It's actually a fairly useful comparison: Horizon looks a lot like Ubisoft's caveman game with, well, robot dinosaurs. It's an autumnal, primitive tribal aesthetic spliced with a science fiction 80s cartoon. What could be cooler?

What's that coming over the hill?

There's still a lot we don't know about Horizon. Who were Aloy's parents? Where did she come from? Why does she have a bond with old world technology? And what happened to the old world, anyway? Expect much of Aloy's motivation to be fueled by the pursuit of answers to these questions - and more.

While Guerrilla is yet to pull back the curtain fully on its upcoming PS4 exclusive, what we've seen so far makes it one of the most exciting games of next year. With graphics to die for, slick combat and an intriguing story, Horizon Zero Dawn should kick off 2017 nicely.