Daily Debate: Did Horizon Zero Dawn Stack Up to Breath of The Wild?
Posted on April 03 2021 by Andrew Millard
Horizon Zero Dawn launched shoulder-to-shoulder with bonafide institution Breath of The Wild. Fans and critics have discussed the pair’s similarities with a mix of excitement and disdain over the years. While the Zelda game enjoys unimpeachable acclaim, Horizon Zero Dawn‘s following grew quickly as well. Perhaps best among dedicated PS4 owners and gamers who had been unable to score a Nintendo Switch at the time.
The two bucolic games share a lot: beautiful, free-to-explore post-apocalypse vistas; improvisational combat; ancient technology run amok; optional set-piece dungeons; unwieldy inventory management.
But they diverge in important ways, too: Horizon‘s game is story-heavy, while Zelda‘s is not. Horizon‘s protagonist, Aloy, is an archer to the bone, while Link can mostly forego his bow, if the player chooses. And the harsh environment of wild Colorado seems to have taken a heavier toll on Horizon‘s NPCs than Hyrule has on its inhabitants. Horizon Zero Dawn is certainly heavier in tone.
Taken together, these games are certainly of a kind. Their fan bases have lovingly chased down every nook and cranny their worlds have to offer. They’ve developed mind-boggling trick shots and boss strategies. And I can’t help but hope that the cross-over appeal of these games has reached both camps.
Here at Zelda Dungeon, I imagine a lot of you are like me: Breath of the Wild was a day-one purchase that you mainlined for months; maybe years. So, I didn’t get around to Horizon Zero Dawn until just last summer. Of the gaming I’ve done since the pandemic began, it stands out as the game that truly took me away. And that feeling had been pretty scarce since I finished Breath of The Wild. And in Horizon’s favor, enough time had passed that I saw it as the perfect cousin to the Legend of Zelda, rather than derivative. Though I would shy away from calling Horizon Zero Dawn the better game, I enjoyed certain aspects of it far more than Breath of The wild.
Basically, Horizon gave me what is often only on tap in a Zelda game. And it came at a time when that feeling was more appreciated than usual. Debate topic aside, I can’t recommend it highly enough!
Have you played both games? Did Horizon fill a Hyrule-shaped hole in your day? Does it matter which title you played first? Let us know in the comments how you feel about Horizon Zero Dawn and its Zelda energy!
Andrew is a writing teacher in the American Upper Midwest. He has been playing Zelda games since 1990.
