#sending good thoughts to all the guerrilla peeps <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[robo-dino-puppy]

There are so many story moments that are seared into my brain, as well as the first time I heard a Tallneck's footsteps, but there's another moment that particularly stands out for me. Since I connect with this game so much through photomode, I can not only tell you but recreate for you what that moment was!

First, lemme set the scene: it's late 2019/early 2020 and I'd just gotten a PS4 for Christmas. It was the first gaming system I'd owned since my PS2, and I hadn't played games in probably a decade. The PS4 came bundled with HZD, but I didn't know anything about it. I'd seen the cover art, and remember someone somewhere saying something positive about it once, but otherwise I went in completely blind.

The Moment was early in the game - I was still in Nora lands - at a time when I was almost positive this was postapocalyptic Earth (as opposed to another planet or something), but hadn't run across anything to confirm that 100%. I was exploring the area behind the Valleymeet Hunting Grounds. There's a hill, and I was running up it:

and I see a rusty wind turbine in the distance. I get a chill down my spine, because this has to be Earth, right? I get closer, and pause next to the turbine where I see a broken tree, which seemed ominous:

but then at the crest of the hill you can see a whole forest of decaying turbines:

I can't really describe the feeling it gave me. There's a feeling of desolation here, of loneliness, but it's beautiful. I could see for miles! I was already gripped by the need to find out what happened in the story, but at this moment I knew I'd be spending hours and hours crawling over every inch of this map.

I continued on down the hill until I saw something moving in the distance. I zoomed in with concentration, and:

approximation of my inner dialogue at that moment: WHAT. That thing is HUGE. That's the thing from the cover. I have to fight that at some point! There's a Watcher next to it and it's TINY! It's stomping around knocking down trees! Oh my god it's actually knocking down trees that is so COOL no wait NO IT'S NOT. IT IS NOT COOL! THAT THING IS SCARY!!!

And then I said aw HELLLLL no and hightailed it out of there back to whatever quest I was on.

So that was The Moment for me. I so appreciate all the work everyone at Guerrilla did for HZD - it was my reintroduction to games after a long hiatus, and I don't think anything has topped it yet. I'm not sure anything can.

Today is the seventh anniversary of Horizon Zero Dawn!

After a heartbreaking day yesterday for Guerrilla—in celebration of the game and in boundless thanks to the incredible folks whose passion and care brought it to life for us—reply or reblog with your favorite moment of, or memory of playing, HZD! 🏹🏹🏹

For me, it was my first time traversing the Bitter Climb. With the environment, the music, and the weight of the story, I felt so in tune with Aloy and the world that the experience was nearly out-of-body. It takes a special, powerful entity of creation to invoke that feeling.