SPOILER WARNING: I will be talking about minor spoilers for the first hour of Horizon: Zero Dawn. You have been warned!
Horizon: Zero Dawn (opens in new tab)doesn’t sit you down to gradually explain its setting to you. Oh no. In the first hour you’ll meet mummified corpses, bratty children, and deadly machines prowling through the brightly-coloured landscape. If all that sounds surprising, some kind of abridged explanation of precisely what to expect might come in handy for those of you who are thinking of voyaging into Horizon’s luscious machine-ridden world.
Horizon: Zero Dawn review: "a world that begs you to explore every corner" (opens in new tab)
We’ve gathered, condensed, and polished the first hour of Horizon into a slender 4-minute video to showcase exactly what to expect and see whether the game is for you. Obviously, it’s chock-a-block with spoilers. Although most of you can probably guess that it’s a spiced-up tutorial level which explains the basics of Horizon, complete with a 6-year-old Aloy, whose age accounts for her general ineptitude. However, every single thing Aloy does is integral to the story - no throwaway missions here. The central characters you meet will return later on, plus the ruins you explore will be around for you to return to once you’re all grown up with even more to discover. Some key personality-shaping moments pop up in this first hour too, which will affect Aloy throughout the rest of her life. Give it a watch and see what you think!
