Like almost everyone else who played it, we absolutely loved Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Zero Dawn. Everything from the expertly crafted open world and the intense, strategic combat to the breathtaking visuals and the surprisingly well told story came together to make for an unforgettable experience that will be remembered as one of the best of its generation, a feat that is made even more impressive owing to the fact that all developers Guerrilla had worked on before were narrow, corridor first person shooters in the Killzone franchise.
As such, we feel like Horizon: Zero Dawn has done a lot for the open world RPG genre. It is, admittedly, an overcrowded genre, and Horizon is more of a jack of all trades, master of none type of game, but their is much that games in the future can learn from the masterful adventure. Yes, even open world RPG megaton The Elder Scrolls. For years, games have been chasing the Skyrim template, attempting to follow in the game’s footsteps, but we feel that the inevitable Elder Scrolls 6 would stand to learn a thing or two from Horizon: Zero Dawn.
And the first of those things would be world building. Now, world building has always been one of The Elder Scrolls’ strengths to begin with, but the way that Horizon manages to blend its story and all its side-plots and seemingly irrelevant errand missions into its magnificently crafted world is an incredible achievement. It feels like everything is tied together, like everything is working to tell a story that is, ultimately, all about the world of Horizon: Zero Dawn and the mysteries behind it. Skyrim, Oblivion and Morrowind were great at world building, and had some of the best lore ever seen in video games, but to tie that world intrinsically with the game’s very narrative is something that games like Horizon and previously The Witcher 3 have done very well, and something The Elder Scrolls 6 should too.
Another rather impressive thing that many people have noticed in Horizon: Zero Dawn is the fact that despite being a massive open world game with so many things working together at the same time, the game has an alarmingly low number of glitches and bugs, especially when you compare it to your typical open world games these days. That’s not to say that Horizon doesn’t have any glitches whatsoever- that would be a nearly impossible achievement for any open world game- but the game is surprisingly well polished, making it even more of a technical marvel. The Elder Scrolls games have been synonymous with glitched open world experiences over the years, Skyrim more so than any other game in the series, so a potential sequel would do well to follow in the footsteps of Horizon at least in this aspect.
Recently, we also talked about what The Elder Scrolls 6 can learn from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which we now know is nothing short of a generation-defining game. You can read all about it here. Also, don’t forget to tell us what your thoughts are on the matter of Horizon and The Elder Scrolls in the comments section below.