The Banuk also specialize in some elemental guns that provide short-range bursts of fire or ice, but I didn’t find these to be particularly effective for my play style - maybe next time I’ll try to build for specific elemental resistance and get used to their gradual rate of fire. (You still can’t save while riding, though.) Sylens’ Lance can now be upgraded, after a short quest. The additional skill trees provide nice quality-of-life options, including foraging while riding a mount. New weapons and upgrades also come with the package.
Horizon zero dawn the frozen wilds how to#
Control Towers, the DLC’s version of corrupted zones, must be either destroyed or repurposed, and figuring out how to do that while also fighting some of the bigger machines was a fun challenge. Scorchers are perhaps the most difficult to fight because of their speed and extreme range of their fire attacks. Their ice attacks and tendency to destroy trees mean that fighting them also requires constantly adapting to a differently shaped landscape. The new bear-like machines called Frostclaws are very similar to Thunderjaws in terms of tactics, but also throw their weight around, and tend to attack in terrifyingly weighty groups.
The new machines seemed simply like bigger versions of the base game’s heavy-hitters at first, but soon after I figured out how not to be utterly destroyed by a Scorcher I began to see the differences. The journey puts her right into the middle of the Banuk tribes roaming the Cut, site of the former Yellowstone Park. Most of the new region, the Cut, can be explored at level 40 or so before the big machines start seriously ruining Aloy’s day. With the main quest in The Frozen Wilds set at level 50 and guiding players up to the new level cap at 60, the best way to play this DLC might be both before and after the main game’s finale. Perhaps that’s appropriate for its placement. The Frozen Wilds adds a satisfying amount of gameplay while feeling like a step sideways instead of forward. Horizon is the story of Aloy discovering her own mysterious origins and that her world is not what she thought it was. The first and only DLC adds a substantial new region and a story that feels a bit like the main game’s journey in miniature, with nearly perfect gameplay. Fluid combat against robot animals in a post-apocalyptic wilderness complemented a deft science fiction story about catastrophe and human resilience.
Horizon Zero Dawn was one of 2017’s most impressive games. Release Date: NovemPlatform: PS4 Developer: Guerilla Games Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment America Genre: Open-world action RPG