ROBOT WARS

Go on a memorable sci-fisafari as you hunt down robotic big game in HORIZON ZERO DAWN.

- Dave Meikleham

PC ports of Decima Engine games are a bit like buses. Except, of course, they’re absolutely not. Sure, you might have waited impatiently for Horizon Zero Dawn and Death Stranding to show up on a rig near you, but now that both are here, these big-budget open-world games are obviously nothing like sweaty forms of public transport. Despite sharing the same genre, these PS4 hits also offer polar opposite experiences.

Longtime PlayStation collaborator Guerrilla Games developed the engine behind both sandboxes smashes, yet that’s where the comparisons end. Death Stranding is a technical triumph, but it’s also an example of a Hideo Kojima game at its most indulgent. Undeniably interesting, hugely silly, and often as boring as it is weirdly captivating, it’s a brilliant but bloated passion project that’s hard to pigeonhole and impossible to ignore. It’s also nowhere near as exciting to play as Horizon Zero Dawn.

Compared to Kojima’s postapocalyptic postman sim, Horizon is more respectful of your free time. Rather than force you to traipse through wildernesses listening to warbling Icelandic indie tunes, Guerrilla’s sprawling open-world sends you off to slay robotic dinosaurs. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather shoot a metallic pteranodon out of the skies with a tribal bow than watch virtual Norman Reedus mope about the Nordic-looking USA for 60 hours.

ALOY MEETS WORLD

If you missed the buzz surrounding