Horizon Zero Dawn was personally my favorite game to release in 2017. It had an extensive layout of exploration, a main character that defined a strong independent female lead, and a story that kept players intrigued with its history and narrative.
8 months later and we received Horizon’s first downloadable content, The Frozen Wilds.
The Frozen Wilds’ content is packed with new story missions, side missions, and more enlightenment on the “ancient” land that now stands in overgrown ruins. It also adds more weapons, customization, and collectibles throughout its added-on part of the map.
Players will be tasked to cross heavy snow-covered terrain and climb ice cap mountains to reach missions and collectibles.
Once downloaded, The Frozen Wild’s first mission will be available for players to access. It isn’t too apparent but experienced players with the game shouldn’t have trouble finding it. It is advised that players should not start the mission until they’ve achieved level 30 or higher.
The level cap has been extended to 60 and a new set of abilities become available to unlock as soon as the DLC is downloaded.
Aloy’s new adventure doesn’t come easy. Enemies and missions in the new DLC are stronger as it takes more patience and upgrades to fully dominate the new landscape.
New enemies such as one based on a bear will keep Aloy hard-pressed through most of the content. There is also a new tower-based enemy that will regenerate health to surrounding machines. Aloy will have to get past its defenses to destroy or take it over if she wants to progress through certain areas.
New collectibles are placed around the land for players to gain an advantage on high-leveled enemies. Bluegleam, a crystal-like matter, is the resource that the inhabitants, the Banuk, collect for better weapons and armor. By collecting Bluegleam, you can take it to merchants for a variety of new inventory for Aloy to use and wear. The only downside to this is it may feel more like a hassle to collect than entertaining or challenging as the main quest’s collectibles are.
The story has Aloy joining with the Banuk tribe to uncover the Wildland’s secrets and what lies beneath it.
Most of the story follows a Chieftan of the Banuk tribe and his sister. Aloy must take one of their sides to find a machine they call, the Spirit. Finding it will reveal more on the antagonist, the Daemon, and the terrain’s past.
The mysteries that surround the Banuk Tribe and the Spirit will keep players wanting to learn more about them and explore the area that they inhabit.
You also get to become a chieftain of a tribe, so that’s pretty cool.
You can buy The Frozen Wilds here from the PlayStation store for $19.99 and $14.99 for PS Plus Members