With a new Horizon game announced this week, a reader questions why Sony is making so many entries in the series, while ignoring others like Bloodborne.
For what seems like years there’s been talk of a Horizon Zero Dawn multiplayer game. Sometimes it’s described as a MMO and sometimes it’s said to have cartoon graphics, and this week we learned that’s because there’s actually two multiplayer spin-offs and one of them is the MMO, and made by a Korean company, and the other is a made by the original developer.
So that’s three games coming soon, if you include the inevitable proper sequel, to add to the first two games, the VR spin-off, and the Lego spin-off. And that’s not counting the remasters, PC ports, and DLC. Is it just me or is that not a lot for a franchise that I have serious trouble imagining anyone cares that much about?
Maybe it is just me, because apparently it sells well, but to me this is by far Sony’s most boring franchise. I don’t mean to say that it is the worst, just that it takes a bunch of interesting ideas and uses them in the least interesting way possible. And what worries me is that that’s probably the secret of its success.
There was talk earlier in the week about Far Cry being a bit of a nothing franchise, that has run its course, and I tend to agree. In fact, I’d say both franchises were quite similar: big open world single-player games with forgettable story and characters, that just sort of wash over you as you play them.
They’re the perfect games to play after you’ve come home tired and exhausted from work and don’t want to put too much thought or effort into anything. I feel this is the secret sauce behind a lot of Ubisoft style games, including Assassin’s Creed, where nothing is really bad but then again nothing is done particularly well and absolutely nothing sticks in your mind after you’ve played it.
People have been saying that sort of thing about Ubisoft games for a long time and I don’t think that’s too controversial a take, but what frustrates me about Horizon is how much effort it goes to, to make giant robot dinosaurs, and a really cool post-apocalyptic back story, as dull as possible.
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I don’t know if it’s on purpose, I’m only guessing, but it’s so consistent I think it’s fair to assume it is. For a start, all the characters are completely uninteresting. The only one who’s name I can even remember is Aloy and that’s only because she’s the main one, she’s still completely uninteresting – and always comes across as mildly irritated whenever she speaks. As if she doesn’t really want to be in the game.
A game with giant robot animals and dinosaurs is such a silly idea I feel the game should be a lot funnier and less serious than it is. The whole concept sounds like an 80s cartoon, the sort that would have a rocking guitar lick in its theme tune, but there’s nothing like that in Horizon. Everything is taken deadly serious and while the back story is good the actual plots are completely forgettable.
And then there’s the gameplay, which is aggressively fine. There’s not a single unique idea of its own and half of the steals are from other Sony games, especially the Uncharted style platforming and the very simple combat and skill trees.
You might be wondering why I play the games if I don’t like them, but I got the first one not knowing – obviously, it was the first one – and then I found the second one on cheap and curiosity got the better of me, because I knew the graphics were meant to be really good. And they are, but that really doesn’t matter after about an hour, when you start taking them for granted.
I don’t want to upset anyone who likes the games, but it does worry me that one of Sony’s biggest sellers is so painfully average. Even worse is the idea that it’s like that on purpose because they know that being nothing much of anything is the best way to attract more people.
If you like Horizon then I don’t want to spoil your fun but to have so many games in the franchise in just eight years seems overkill when an actually good PlayStation exclusive, like Bloodborne, has only had one in 10 years. But I guess that one can’t be played when you’re half asleep and not really paying attention.
By reader Dean James
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