Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds

Horizon Zero Dawn has been one of my favourite games to come out this year so when it was announced in June at Sony’s E3 press conference I was beyond excited to extend upon protagonist Aloy’s story in new and exciting ways. 

For those who haven’t played Horizon Zero Dawn yet (p.s. you should) it is an open-world action game about a young woman living in a mysterious, post-apocalyptic world where humans have broken into tribal factions and massive robotic beasts roam free. It is gorgeous and often exhilarating to play, a combination of The Witcher 3, Monster Hunter, Far Cry Primal and the new Tomb Raider. And this new DLC just expands upon what made the core game so fantastic. 

The Frozen Wilds is story expansion downloadable content and is set in The Cut, a region on the border of Banuk territory, and involves Aloy journeying to the peak of a mysterious mountain.

The expansion includes new machines, quests, weapons, settlements, trophies, abilities, activities, and characters not seen in the base game, and serves as a new chapter in Aloy's adventure making for new surprises and revelations that fans of the series will very much enjoy.

The new DLC has been sewn seamlessly into the main story which is how it should be. I’ll admit I hadn’t loaded up my save file since I completed the game months ago due to a myriad of different things but when I loaded back in, it was fairly simple to locate where I needed to go to get started on the new content. A massive section of unexplored land lay up the top of my map & all I needed to do was fast travel to the nearest camp fire & I knew I was heading in the right direction. 

The visuals are as stunning as ever with so many minor details from the grass underneath the snow that reveals itself as you walk through it, to the hairs on your armour. Absolutely everything in the visuals are breath taking with smoke, snow and fire as well as the day/night cycle showing exactly what the PS4 can do. I found myself again stuck for hours on end trying to get the right angle in photo mode to take the perfect snap. And all of the photos accompanying this review were taken in said photo mode, so it just shows the level of detail that has gone into the world building and character modeling to make it look so crisp. 

Similar comparisons could be made to the review IGN did on Pokemon Alpha Sapphire “7.8 too much water” and just replace water with snow but I disagree. Snow isn’t new to Horizon but it’s never felt as pervasive as it does here in this new expansion. It is yet another opportunity for the game to show off its stunningly beautiful graphics.  

Something about the crunch of the snow underfoot, the glistening snow flurry that constantly falls around you & the big, bellowing gusts of snow is just so amazing to look at. The contrasting red, blue and yellow colours of the Banuk tribe and especially the light turquoise hues that adorn many of their outfits are made so more vibrant and visible with the white snowy backdrop, making them far more striking than if they were in a warmer, more tempered environment.

After finishing Horizon’s main campaign I was at a pretty high level and had weapons and armour that made battles against machines feel relatively easy to beat and the fear that I once felt when engaging in a fight had been somewhat lost and I became more and more complacent as the game progressed. Here in The Frozen Wilds the stats of machines have been increased making them deadly enough to restore that dread and panic that I felt when I first picked up the game. 

The writing and story presented in The Frozen Wilds is just as consistent and excellent as what you will find in the main campaign. Ashly Burch reprises her role as the voice of the main protagonist Aloy and she’s still as dryly humourous and witty as ever. Whenever the situation she’s placed in starts to become outrageous she’s always there to reign things in and be the voice of reason which provides for some very funny moments which I’ve really come to love. The new characters you come across throughout your journey in The Cut such as Aratak and Ourea  have been well though and fleshed out to the point where you care for them as much as those to meet in the main story. 

Gameplay has been tweaked to feel fresh with the addition of the traveler skill tree making things more efficient such as disassembling resources and picking up items while on horseback. Abilities that would have been really useful during the main campaign. And if you’re someone who’s already completed the story this could be a little bit uninspiring unless you’ve got many leftover quests to complete or like me haven’t had the time to start a Game + file yet, in which these new additions will make a second or third playthrough that little bit more enjoyable. The Frozen Wilds has more of an emphasis of climbing and parkour as a means to traverse around the map and it reminded me very much of the Uncharted series in terms of how well Aloy jumped up or between rock faces. It was an mechanic that was somewhat utilised in the main game and for me it was very pleasing to see it used more here in this expansion. There were also a number of quite challenging puzzles which were very reminiscent of those found in the Uncharted games which even though boggled my mind for quite some time they were extremely satisfying once I eventually figured them out. 

If you are still in the middle of your main campaign playthrough of Horizon I would highly recommend being at least at level 30 to stand any sort of chance against the new highly powered machines and I would say that the best time to complete The Frozen Wilds would be right before you embark on the final main quest ‘A Looming Shadow’ that way you will have the most seamless experience through the story. 

The Frozen Wilds was a tad expensive at $30 but for the experience and length of the DLC I can forgive it for being this price. I was able to complete the the expansion in around 8 hours and that was without stopping to do all of the new side quests so similar to the main quest there is a whole host of things for me to still do, providing a pretty decent amount of replayability which is something that I always look for in a game. 

The only small issue that I could have with The Frozen Wilds and it’s really nit picking is that it feels disconnected from the rest of the Horizon world. The whole story is contained only within the confines of The Cut and the opportunity did present itself for the story to branch out to other corners of the map but this is really just scraping at the bottom of the barrel. The fact that the story is only contained in the one area isn’t much of an issue.  

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds dishes up more of what made me completely fall in love with in the base game. The breathtaking new location, fantastic story and gameplay which will forever be a joy to play. The new locales and expanded colours that feature in The Cut make the game look even more stunning than ever before. If you had a great time with the base game, you will love what is on offer here. The Frozen Wilds is a gallant victory lap on the way to a well deserved sequel that I really hope gets the green light soon.  

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds is now available on the PlayStation Store

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