REVIEW -- Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds (DLC)

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds is the first official add-on for the game Horizon Zero Dawn. It was released on November 7th, 2017.

This expansion brings Aloy to the Cut, a region on the border of Banuk territory accessible via a mountain pass just north of the Grave-Hoard.

Premise: 

The plot revolves around Aloy journeying to the peak of a mysterious mountain. The Frozen Wilds includes new machines, quests, weapons, settlements, trophies, abilities, activities, and characters not seen in the base game, and serves as a new chapter in Aloy's adventure.

When Aloy first arrives in the Cut, she learns that these are troubled times for the Banuk in the region. Many of their most skilled fighters were killed in a recent failed expedition to the mountain known as Thunder's Drum, and the werak's Chieftain plans to rally more hunters for another seemingly doomed attempt. The werak's spiritual leader, their shaman Ourea, vanished in the wake of their defeat, leaving many feeling abandoned and hopeless. Furthermore, new and exceedingly dangerous machines have been appearing throughout the Cut in a phenomenon similar to the Derangement seen across the south.

The Verdict: 

As much as I have raved about the base game for the duration of this year, you know that I'm going to be excited to rave about the game's first and only additional content. In that aspect, I'm disappointed, but at the same time, I'm fine with that as I know that I got the bulk of the game at launch. Guerilla Games have put in more than enough work into this game with weekly fixes and patches, so I'm more than happy for what I have paid for here. If only more developers in the gaming industry could adopt this model. 

The main quest for this DLC is pretty straight forward and familiar territory for anyone who has completed Horizon Zero Dawn's main story campaign. Something is "corrupting" the machines in this area in new ways (hence why the machines in this area are referred to as Daemonic), thus creating far dangerous hostile machines that can't be found anywhere else in the game. If that wasn't bad enough, the new Control Towers revive and repair hostile machines while coordinating their actions. The Control Towers even short out and disable the "overshield" functionality of Aloy's legendary (Shield-weaver) armor if you happened to acquire that as well. The Shield-Weaver can also be depleted by various weapons and devices in this new area, so players must exercise extreme caution. Guerilla Games thought of just about everything to challenge players in this new area. 

The sidequests (even though the in-game Quest menu chucks the entire DLC into the sidequest tab) are pretty much what you expect. Aloy helps the randoms of this area and more often than not, you get a nice amount of bluegleam (the currency for this area that are your only means of purchasing those special new weapons) or in a few cases after helping Varga - free weapon upgrades for your trouble. There's the occasional hunting club quests too if those tickle your fancy, but that's one of the few things I haven't bothered with in the main game, so I skipped over it here as well. I don't have anything against it, it's just that the rewards weren't worth it for the trouble. If you're a completionist, then you'll do it anyway at some point regardless. If I had to complain or had a minor gripe about these quests, it's that there's not enough of them. I'm still wondering the main game's map trying to find and do everything and found everything in this new area with minimal effort while questing. I didn't have to go out of my way for nothing really. A new Cauldron (that wasn't tied to the story campaign) would have been a nice addition, but I guess that was too much to ask. Even with these sidequests, I wouldn't garner this new content taking anyone longer than 8-15 hours of gameplay to finish. 

At first glance, the new machine types seem like most of the types of machines that you have encountered before. Sadly, that's a fact that I (probably along with many other players) found out the hard way. Scorchers are like the mean, steroid-infused cousins of Sawtooths, with fearsome offensive power with enough armor to shake off even Aloy's strongest arrows. Frostclaws are formidable but not as scary as their fire attribute counterparts, Fireclaws, that serve as the "final boss" of this DLC. Taking one down is a chore, but when the game sets you against two at once along with other machines in the vicinity? That's where things get really hairy. The "daemonic" types of existing machine types sport added defenses, but they are essentially the same creatures that Aloy encountered outside of the Frozen Wilds, give or take a lot more arrows to take them down. 

As someone who has been slowly grinding away 100+ hours in this game since launch, I have to admit I enjoyed the challenge(s) brought to the table here. The recommended player level is 35+ but I was between 50 and finished it at level 60, but still ran into some issues, so don't be discouraged to try this content out if you think you are over or under leveled. The new weapons and skills in this content are a godsend to take into the main game, with the upgraded bows (complete with an overcharge/Mega Buster-like function for more damage) and freeze gun being the best of the bunch, in my humble opinion. I wasn't considering an Ultra-Hard New Game+ run before but those new weapons and skills made me reconsider as it could be fun to try out things with the new arsenal. 

The new skill tree (Traveler) doesn't really do much for me outside of the ones for disassembling resources as you always tend to have too much of something in your inventory at times, whether it be resources or mods for weapons. I guess the skill for more rare drops is fine if you somehow don't know where to hunt particular machines/animals for crafting. At launch, the game was pretty unforgiving in that regard in terms of your need to grind/farm for crafting ingredients but after all of the patches/fixes to the game, I feel that it's a lot more generous than it was previously. I did appreciate the more inventory slots though as anyone who watches my streams for this game know that I'm a hoarder for anything and everything for "just in case shit hits the fan"... The skills for repairing mounts and overridden machines were useless in my honest opinion. I rarely use the Override skill outside Cauldrons as you can call mounts with a different skill and Corruption Arrows convert machines to help you from a distance without taking that unnecessary risk getting up close. If your mount dies, you can INSTANTLY call another without consequence, so those skills are a complete waste of points.

The ability to add modifications to Aloy's spear was a much requested feature by players during the main game's initial campaign and it's something that was added as part of this DLC content. You don't obtain it until completing one of the sidequests, so it's an optional upgrade in that regard. It's a nice novelty, but I honestly didn't find much use for it within the DLC. The enhancements to the spear are best used for outside of the Frozen Wilds than within them in my humble opinion. The damage output that they provide would wreck most machines Aloy stands against in the main game, but here in the Frozen Wilds, it's a totally different story. I personally didn't have my hopes up in that regard as close range/melee combat was never this game's strong point anyway. When push comes to shove, you're better of either resorting to stealth methods or dealing with obstacles in Aloy's way via long range and the use of traps/pinning it down long enough with the Ropecaster to target it's vitals. If anything gets close enough to hit you, then you should've killed it LONG before it noticed you or already had an escape plan in mind. 

Play It or Don't Bother?

If you bought Horizon Zero Dawn at launch and have completed all of the content so far, then this is a no brainer to pick this up. For everyone else coming into the game new, you're better off buying the game as the "complete edition" with this content already included instead of paying for it separately. The challenges here spice things up for the game and add more depth to the game's combat that already was disverse to begin with it. The new machine types aren't pushovers at all. Players are going to need all of their wits, along with the new weapons and upgrades found in this new area, to conquer these new challenges. 

Completing this new content awards Aloy with new information if you already completed the main quest as you can ask CYAN about some of the questions that were left unanswered at the end of the main quest. Guerilla Games have left enough bread crumbs to keep players invested in this world and warranting a sequel... hopefully that's on the horizon. I know, I know. Bad pun to end on.