Hope is Important - Why Horizon: Zero Dawn's Story Was So Good

Initially, Horizon: Zero Dawn comes across as the same sort of formulaic, post-apocalyptic romp that has become familiar territory in the world of video games. Often, we, as gamers, are presented with a bleak vision of civilization crumbling, of towering skyscrapers smashed into dust by any number of extinction level events. We've explored the radioactive ruins of Washington D.C. and, more recently, Boston in the Fallout series. We've trudged across an entire country filled with mutilated humans deranged by a fungal infection in The Last of Us.  We've experienced a nearly overwhelming amount of disaster scenarios that have wiped out civilization as we know it, from zombie outbreaks to alien invasions. And in each one, our protagonists are faced with an unending tide of misery and man's inhumanity to man juxtaposed with shimmering moments of humanity. Regardless of whether or not the story of each game even acknowledges the massive departure from reality that these situations are, the cause of the global calamity is rarely the focus of the story and instead simply serves as a backdrop. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It allows the writers to craft a story within the world they've created that uses the inevitably harsher conditions to test the mettle of the story's characters. Creating this sort of drama and intrigue can be a fascinating look at the human condition.

So, how is Horizon: Zero Dawn different? Well, it starts out much the same, crafting a relatable and determined protagonists, an outcast at birth and it gives her a crisis to solve in the form of an assault on her and her people. But as the story continues, it begins to reveal the story of how Earth's civilization, our civilization fell. Scattered throughout the world, you'll find numerous landmarks that are familiar. Street lights folded over and overgrown. Massive skyscrapers folded into each other. Enormous metal rings that slowly unveil themselves to be sports stadiums. You can recognize the shapes of things but only just. How did this come to pass? Horizon: Zero Dawn's story behind our fall is a thoroughly refreshing take on the genre. Refreshing because rather than solely focusing on our civilization's hubris or environmental misdeeds or dangerous experiments, it instead takes the time to explain what we, as the human race, would do in the face of certain annihilation in the most hopeful terms. The whole world rallies and joins forces, the whole world takes faces an implacable, unmovable enemy and fights to the death not for the guarantee of survival but for the chance that life on Earth may continue, that life on Earth deserves to continue. Listening to the audio logs and reading the various text diaries strewn throughout the story levels becomes a fascinating portrait of how people react to their impending doom.

Much to Guerrilla Games' credit, they decided to take the road much, much less traveled particularly in video games and came down on the side of hope. The hope that amidst the terror and rage and uncertainty of imminent destruction that people would find a sense of shared commonality with one another, regardless of creed or color or nationality. The hope that we, as a species, would be able to put aside our various differences not to save ourselves but to eventually restart life on Earth after everything and everyone is gone. It's a wildly novel approach to the post-apocalyptic genre and it obviously struck a chord with me. In this time of such political upheaval and public dissent, where the unknown looms before us stark and grey, it was deeply affecting to experience a story about our civilization where everyone works together for the common good. Recognizing that humanity is just made of up of people and that people are, on the whole, decent by nature is not a storyline that is well-represented these days and witnessing it unfold over the course of Horizon: Zero Dawn was not only fascinating but unexpectedly and deeply moving.

Thanks for reading. Check out my full review of Horizon: Zero Dawn HERE.