@creaturecomfort: At 40% of the way through, which would have included some side quests content undoubtedly, you have not given the story a chance or it's dues at all.
The story alone is a solid 8-9/10. It's epic and encompasses a global scale and the future of humanity itself. Not to mention the history that came before the time of Aloy (our near future). How that is not something worthy of becoming engrossed in, I do not know!
It has clear influences of Terminator, The Matrix and a few other post-apocalyptic scenarios.
And this is before you even get started on gameplay and combat mechanics. You've definitely jumped the gun giving it the score you did, based on 40% of play and pointing at the story as a weakness.
P.S. The story wasn't complicated and neither was the interplay between characters and/or factions.
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