The first time I played Horizon Zero Dawn around the time it came out, I gave it up at some point and never picked it up ever since. For some reason I wasn't too invested in the game, with the launch of the sequel however I became curious again and decided to give it another try.
On the positive side, what drawn me to the game was the intriguing premise: a post-apocalyptic take where humans go back to their primal selves with a mix of a world still ruled by technology. For me it was a ground breaking concept and the reason I actually decided to play the game.
The plot is intriguing and interesting enough for you to want to understand what's going on, the graphics still hold to this day and it's a fantastic achievement and for the most part the gameplay is fluid and fun, but there are several aspects of the game that prevent it from being great.
The open world is too large and not only that, the side quests are very boring and I got quickly discouraged from doing anything other than going for the main plot. The rewards that come out of these side quests are not at all interesting or worth that you would waist hours completing these repetitive tasks.
Also, the mechanic to move around the map where you are forced to buy special packs to be able to fast travel is a poor decision, if you run out and don't go grab the resources to build these packs, navigating through the map is insufferable.
In summary it's a solid game with a new and interesting premise, for me it fails as an open world concept due to the described above, I have doubts if I will play the sequel since I have heard it is even larger....