First, a note: I've been a fairly big critic on this site of my at a distance impressions of Horizon (specifically about its open world design choices), so this post is definitely a bit hypocritical. Bear with me.

After bingeing Breath of the Wild for the past week and change, I'm really jonesing for a game with a stronger focus on storytelling and RPG elements to mix things up a bit. Since Mass Effect Andromeda is looking...iffy, to say the least, I'm giving Horizon another look.

Before potentially jumping in, I've got a few questions. Any responses and opinions are appreciated!

1. How strong are the storytelling RPG mechanics? Are there plot-affecting choices or companion/ally mechanics?

2. Is it, by and large, a "Chosen One" story? If so, does it still mix things up sufficiently? Feel free to be a little spoilery if it helps. :)

3. On a scale from Dragon Age Inquisition to Witcher 3, how are the side quests? Are there a lot of filler/repetitive tasks and fetch quests or is there a good variety? (I'd love examples!)

4. Does the world feel handcrafted? Is it fun to explore for the sake of exploration or does it mostly function as a hub for quests and activities?

5. How does traversal feel? Is climbing and riding fun to do? Related, does verticality and the environment play much of a role in combat?

Thank you!

1. It's all very light/surface level stuff in that nothing major is going to change regardless of what choices you make. Characters will remark on things you've said before and certain ones will show up at the end of the game, but it doesn't really change anything worthwhile.
2. Kiiiiiinda? Like many things in Horizon's story, it's not as simple as it seems upon first glance. It mixes up tired old tropes very well if you ask me.
3. Hmmm, I wouldn't say there's a ton of variety in what you do, but I personally never felt they were tedious if that makes any sense. The game does a good job of switching up the location of each quest and the fact enemies (well, the robots anyway) behave so differently helps things feel fresh. For instance, fetch quests are pretty straightforward, but one moment you'll be asked to get something on an island surrounded by Snapmaws. Then next, you'll be in a densely packed forest fighting Stalkers. All the while there may be other enemies prowling nearby that aren't part of the mission but ay decide they want to fuck you up anyway. That said, most of the quests are completely forgettable. A nice, fun distraction every now and then, but forgettable. Some are genuinely really cool though.
4. Some parts, very much so. There's a ton of beautiful vistas in that game. Other times, it's just like...here's a forest. I love the way the game looks don't get me wrong, but not every single location is going to wow you.
5. I enjoy them. I mean, climbing is pretty automated as you just sorta hold a direction and go, but the fact it's animated so well helps tremendously if you ask me. If you want something involved, I think you'll be pretty disappointed. I really like riding though. I would turn off the whole "mount automatically follow the road" setting that way you can just book it across fields and through groups of enemies (you can hit enemies with mounts just fyi). And yes, vertically does play a role in combat. I am a big fan of the slow down time while jumping skill because it's cool as shit.

1. The story it self is very strong (this of course is very subjective), but as far as influence you have on the story, it's mostly down to how you choose to have Aloy (the main character) react (thoughtfully, compassionately or angrily) rather than influencing large outcomes. That said there are side stories that absolutely have different outcomes based on your answers, but it's not like this is for every quest. You don't have companions except where the quests dictate it.

2. Yes, but it makes a lot of sense as the story progresses. Mild spoiler: you are in some way related to the person that was deeply involved with the why of how the world is the way it is

3. Closer to W3 but not as big. Early example: Some merchant wants you to go look for a wagon of shipments that's late, you find it under attack and save the dudes with the shipment only to find out they've been betrayed by a 3rd guy who wanted to sell the merchandise on the side and was hoping for the robots to finish of his friends wand clearing the evidence. You chase him down only to find him under attack by a stealthed robot, After you deal with this new robot you return to the betrayed who has died from his wounds. The writing is very good in even simple quests like this one, and it made me want to do every quest I came across, and I usually don't enjoy stuff like that in open world games.

4. There's collectibles (that you can choose whether to buy a map for or not) all over the world, and there were several villages with quests I had to go out of my way to go to because the main story didn't take me there.

5. The game controls really well. Climbing is more like the Uncharted series with marked places to climb on, there are a few places I felt it was strange I couldn't just grab the ledge and climb up, but for the most part it works fine. I didn't ride too much because I just really enjoyed running around in the game, but it feels fine, and you can choose in the options menu if you want your robot horse to follow the road automatically or not.

@banefirelord: it's basically a flat "No this isn't what you're looking for" to all those questions.

Horizon is a pretty good action game first and foremost with some exposition issue and an interesting story. There is no real exploration, no meaningful choices and the RPG mechanics are as light as they come and only apply to skills. As for quests? Witcher 3 had a ton of really "exciting" ones like hey follow tracks #35 to cave #52 where you will find out the missing farmer was eaten by a monster - just like Inquisition had, among its more interesting quests, similarly throw away experience dumps. Horizon basically only has this type of quest variety because as mentioned above it's an action game, so it all sort of funnels down to you fighting something in the end.

If you're looking for an RPG with an open world then get Andromeda. If you want an action game with an open world then get Horizon - although I've heard the action in Andromeda is actually pretty decent.

@humanity: But the facial animations that have always been bad in Bioware games but we somehow expect to be good now for some reason but lets still give Nintendo a pass on all the shit it should be better at!!

I haven't finished HZD yet but for the most part it's totally an action game. The RPG mechanics are just sort of bolted on. Like at some point you'll be a high enough level that you'll just have ever skill unlocked - so it's not like the Witcher or the older Mass Effect games where my characters go down one skill path and yours go down another skill path and they play differently. In this everyone will eventually pick up the same skills and have them all.

There are dialogue choices but they barely do anything. And they're few and far between. And there's no rep system. You don't have followers to curry favour for, you get sidekicks at times but really only for missions that they insist they go on.

The side quests range in quality but so far none of them have been bad. They usually at least present an interesting challenge. Similar to the "towers". The towers are easy to climb - but the trick is often figuring out how to get there past all the robots who want to murder you.

I enjoy traversing the land and exploring it, though often it's just to go gather something. It's not like say a Fallout where something will be in a cave and I'll discover a brand new storyline. There are sometimes random NPCs around the world giving out quests, but that's few and and far between.

The climbing is basically fixed - look for white marks or yellow ropes. There is verticality to the combat, including skills that take advantage of it but I've never once used them.

I saw someone somewhere relate this game to MGS5 and in a sense that's a pretty good comparison.

The story is there but audio/written logs can be found to flesh it out. Like Jeff, I really enjoyed the story, and tried to find everything I could which is not usually the case for me.

The upgrade mechanics, whether it be upgrading your bow or upgrading your character, are all there to make combat easier.

You can explore the open world and find neat things to see but there isn't really any reason to. The only randomised 'loot' that you'll get are modifiers that you can add to your weapons or armour, i.e. 30% increase to damage or increased stealth. I was disappointed at first by this but the world is just so wonderfully crafted that I often found myself wandering aimlessly and enjoying every second of it.

Minor spoilers here with regards to factions but in the last mission there is the idea of everyone banding together to fight a common enemy. This would depend on the side quests you may or may not have completed. I'm not actually sure though whether you have to complete them to move on because I ended up doing aaallllll the side content first and then main lining the story since I had nothing else left to do :P. In terms of side quests they're split into 'errands' and 'side quests'. The errands are smaller quests and occasionally you might find a couple where they're 'fetch' quests but the side quests are larger and often involve multiple characters.

If you're looking for an RPG then you should look elsewhere. If you're looking for a kick-ass action game with a cool story, novel mechanics and some RPG elements tacked on then you'd be hard pressed to find anything as original and fun to play as HZD.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think I'm going to hold off on Horizon for the time being, since I'm looking for something with a bit more roleplaying depth right now.