Doodle-y comic today.  Generally when there’s a game I’m really interested in playing I try to play it as soon as possible.  In the age of the internet, spoilers are around every corner and I feel the best way to avoid them is to consume the content as soon as possible.  I managed to not touch any Horizon Zero Dawn spoilers at all until picking it up earlier this month when it released on Steam, and I’ve got to say that I’m glad it took me a while to get to this game.

While the gameplay is great and the world is visually gorgeous, HZD absolutely excels in the narrative to the point where I see it as so strong a story and so wonderful an adventure that I may never play it again, once is enough and honestly I imagine a second playthrough would lose the magic of the awe inspiring feeling of discovery the first playthrough had.

I think I played HZD at the right time for it to be most effective, the message of hope in the face of hopelessness feels extremely close to home in the face of the global pandemic and teetering on dictatorship, foundational institution eroding state of the US political climate.  In order to make things better, even if you never get to see the fruits of your labor, you need to put in the work.  The future depends on it.