#the cauldrons and tallnecks were some of my favorite parts of the game

[mehoymalloy]

Cauldron IOTA Tallneck - Horizon Forbidden West

[sushigirlali]

Review: Horizon Zero Dawn - The Frozen Wilds

Previous Reviews:

Broken Age / Dishonored / Dishonored 2 / Horizon Zero Dawn / Oxenfree / Prey / Ratchet & Clank / Song of the Deep / South Park: The Fractured But Whole / Wolfenstein II - The New Colossus  

Previous Lists:   Top 11 Video Games at PlayStation’s Paris Games Week Conference 2017/ Top 11 Favorite Horror Video Games / Top 11 Video Game Characters / Top 11 Games at E3 2017 / Top 11 Video Game Couples / Top 11 Games 2016

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds

The Frozen Wilds is a single-player expansion to Horizon Zero Dawn, my personal game of the year. The Frozen Wilds was released nine months after the initial game, and adds about twenty hours of content, depending on your play style. Horizon Zero Dawn is developed by first-party Sony studio Guerrilla Games, previously best known for the Killzone franchise.

The Frozen Wilds expands the base world map to the north, adding a huge new area to explore. The incredibly beautiful environments consist of snowy mountain peaks, a fiery volcano, rainbow pools, and crumbling industrial parks. The design of the intimidating new enemies is inventive and requires the player to think outside the box in order to defeat them, even with the Shield Weaver armor acting as a health buffer.

There are new weapons, outfits, and items to collect, as well as the all new Traveler Skill Tree and a level cap increase. The new skill tree focuses on improving mounted interactions, including picking up items and attacking enemies while on a mount. 

Guerrilla also added a new puzzle type in The Frozen Wilds that, while fun, was ultimately pretty easy. The real strength for me is that the expansion redefines the typical cauldron, bandit camp, and tallneck side missions, making them feel like fresh challenges.

The story focuses on Aloy’s interaction with the Banuk, a nomadic tribe that live in small groups of hunters called weraks. Each werak is led by a warrior chieftain and a spiritual shaman. The shamans believe they can commune with the machines, and are responsible for stripping parts from machines brought down by hunters. While hunters don’t have the same technical knowledge as shamans, they are proficient at destroying machines.

The Banuk were also a story point in the original release, but at a much smaller scale. The Frozen Wilds really takes the time to explore the Banuk’s history, culture, and spirituality, which sets them apart from the Carja, Nora, and Oseram tribes. The Banuk are seen as mysterious by the other tribes, as they prefer to stay isolated to the mountains in the north.

I won’t spoil the story, but the main quest fills in some vital information only alluded to in the original release. If you haven’t already completed Horizon Zero Dawn, I would recommend that you play The Frozen Wilds right before the final mission to defeat HADES. Conversely, if you have finished the original game, it’s worth it to go back and play the final battle again after completing The Frozen Wilds for new character interactions.

The Frozen Wilds is a worthy expansion to Horizon Zero Dawn, and gets me hyped for the future of the franchise. Guerrilla Games iterated off the original game so well, and added a few surprises too boot. Check it out!