When comparing Horizon Zero Dawn vs Ratchet and Clank (2016), the Slant community recommends Horizon Zero Dawn for most people. In the question“What are the best single player games on PS4?” Horizon Zero Dawn is ranked 2nd while Ratchet and Clank (2016) is ranked 48th. The most important reason people chose Horizon Zero Dawn is:
At first glance the world seems simple. Tribes-folk living in beautiful landscapes of snow, sand, and lush green, trying to get by through hunting and gathering. Then you get introduced to the other inhabitants – the machines. It suddenly makes you wonder about their origin, their appearance and their purpose. What lead to their creation and why did civilization regress to pockets of tribal settlements. You'll be interested in exploring the world and finding out for yourself.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Intriguing world
At first glance the world seems simple. Tribes-folk living in beautiful landscapes of snow, sand, and lush green, trying to get by through hunting and gathering. Then you get introduced to the other inhabitants – the machines. It suddenly makes you wonder about their origin, their appearance and their purpose. What lead to their creation and why did civilization regress to pockets of tribal settlements. You'll be interested in exploring the world and finding out for yourself.
Pro Each upgrade and skill feels meaningful
Most games nowadays are plagued by needlessly high level caps, useless skills and meaningless upgrades. In Horizon Zero Dawn Each upgrade and new skill unlock actually helps you become a more efficient hunter.
There's Silent Strike, which lets you perform silent takedowns on enemies, both robotic and human. Enemies that would've taken a lot of effort to beat previously, can now be taken out in one hit. However, on its own it's mediocre at best, so you have to get other abilities to make it more effective. One such ability is Low Profile, which makes you less visible when you're crouching. This lets you to sneak up on enemies much easier, allowing you to use Silent Strike more often.
There's also the upgrades, which can be either a boost to your damage, rate of fire, an increase to your carrying capacity or a unique technology such as the cloaking field. The damage and rate of fire upgrades are very straightforward, allowing you to defeat machines in a shorter amount of time. The carrying capacity upgrade helps you go on longer hunts without having to make a return trip. The cloaking field makes it a lot safer to travel and a lot easier to get the jump on enemies.
Pro Exciting hunting gameplay
The main focus of the game is hunting robotic creatures also known as "machines". They are similar to real animals in both appearance and behavior, so a lot of them move in packs. You have to be careful in how you approach them, because provoking one of them will also provoke the others.
You can hide in tall grass and attract them one by one with whistling. This way you can take them out silently with your spear, minimizing the danger.
Or you can get into a direct confrontation, which is a lot more intense when there are multiple enemies. You'll have to learn their patterns, so you know when to dodge or attack with your weapon (usually a bow or slingshot). When you finally manage to defeat them, it truly feels like an achievement.
Pro Great story
Story based around robots and A.I. is something rare in the sea of fantasy open world games.
Pro Tons of humorous weapons
One things this series is known for is the amount of weapons and their humorous powers. Of course this title does no disappoint as there are many many weapons to be found to use, with each having some crazy mechanic as to what and how they shoot.
Pro Rewarding level up mechanic for weapons
Each weapon will level up as you use it, meaning the game will levels to your own play style. This is also a good system as it rewards experimentation, as each weapon levels up it gains new powers, so to see what each weapon will grow into it has to be used.
Pro Amazing graphics
The graphics are quite impressive, giving a feeling of Pixar like animation, but in a videogame. While a bold claim, the graphics are some if not the best on the PS4 to date.
Pro Unlocks are all part of the game, no DLC
There are many unlockables in the game including new costumes. Frankly it is refreshing to see a title include this with the core game instead of locking it behind a paywall.
Pro Expands on the original story
While the game is pretty much a remake, there are added elements tot he game that expand on the story and character development. Overall this is a way more fleshed out title than the original.
Pro Great mix of gameplay elements
While the game does focus on third person shooting, there is also many platforming elements along with dogfights in space, chase scenes, hoverboard racing, etc. This makes for a good mix so the player never gets too board of doing the same thing over and over again.
Cons
Con The game is difficult
Horizon Zero Dawn is incredibly challenging. Even players that are good at the game still have difficulties facing some enemies.
Con Remake or original
Original has a better story, and overall is a more fun game, this remake swapped 60 fps for better quality, and don't even bring up the motion blur!! But still, it is really fun.
Con Narration used during gameplay
While not always a bad thing when done well (such as Bastion), a lot of the gameplay in the game is narrated in a sens of humor told through Captain Qwark. Telling the player if a certain box has ammo and such things. Not only does the humor not always match with the cut-scenes of the game and the character overall, but it becomes tiring to hear over and over again.
Con Is a remake
While the graphics are all new as well as many elements of play the game itself is a remake of the first title. So for those that have played the first game, this will be mostly a rehash with a few new things.
Con Somewhat short
The game can be beaten easily in under 10 hours, though there is a fair share of replayability thanks to all the collection aspects of the game.