2. Horizon: Zero Dawn
Played on Very Hard. This is pretty solid and reminds me of Witcher 3 in a lot of ways. Huge, visually lush fantasy world, lots to do, a pretty engaging plot, tons of rolling, light character customization, etc. The combat is a step up, though: the game asks you to hit an awful lot of tight and often fast-moving targets, and the more complex machines get really cool in how you can break them down and use their weapons against them. It doesn't always hold up (I definitely saw my share of odd and exploitable behavior), but overall it does a good job considering the scope of the game. The human fights are numerous and a clear step down, and the entire inventory and item management layer feels like overkill. You have tight potion carry limitations, for example, and you can do busywork to expand these, but this doesn't really matter because you can pause and prepare potions mid-combat using the junkyard's worth of crafting ingredients Aloy carries on her at all times. Same with ammo. And man does this game need ledge-grabbing.
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