When comparing Killzone: Shadow Fall vs Horizon Zero Dawn, the Slant community recommends Horizon Zero Dawn for most people. In the question“What are the best PS4 games that run at 60fps?” Horizon Zero Dawn is ranked 8th while Killzone: Shadow Fall is ranked 18th. 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.
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Pros
Pro Vivid environments
Shadow Fall features some very robust and colorful environments. For example there are vast cityscapes as well as lush forests. Not only does this change up the looks of the game allowing the player to never feel too visually bored, but it allows for different tactics to be used in game, depending on the area the player is playing in.
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.
Cons
Con Poor non-shooting sections of the game
At certain points of play there will be sections where the player needs to platform or control their character in a zero gravity situation. These are deviations from the shooter gameplay and often feel forced as well as control poorly. While it is nice to see the gameplay broken up a bit so you are not always doing the same thing over and over again, the non gun gameplay just does not feel intuitive, it does not work well with the flow of the game, which basically breaks the players immersion.
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.