Review: Horizon Zero Dawn
Based on the highly popular game, Horizon Zero Dawn follows the stories of principal characters Aloy and Talanah immediately following the end of the events in the game.
The premise of the Horizon Zero Dawn world is an Earth one thousand years from now in which a once-ruined ecosystem has been rebuilt by a range of animal-shaped robots. A greatly reduced human population lives in separate tribes with very little technology. When the robots (referred to simply as machines) suddenly become hostile for no apparent reason, warriors have to fight back using specially adapted versions of pre-industrial weapons. The warriors' armour is made from the irregular metal components of machines they have slain. They have a kind of cyberpunk Plains Indians style to them. What you have here is a mix of sci-fi with mythological heroic legends.
The design of the machines - many of them resembling semi-organic mechanical dinosaurs - is a striking feature of the world: a Terminator/Jurassic Park blending. Set against a backdrop of stunningly beautiful natural landscapes, it adds up to a highly stimulating visual feast.
Aloy is a warrior of the Nora tribe who discovers she has a greater destiny than she could have imagined in the struggle against the machines. Talanah is a noble hunter of the Carja tribe; for her the battle is as much a matter of honour as it is survival. The two make a formidable duo...
The comic picks up where the game leaves off. I think I can reveal without it constituting much of a spoiler that the two women celebrate their success... but the aftermath leaves them restless. But, luckily, not for long! A strange new breed of machine has started to appear and threatens the new-found peace. Aloy and Talanah band together to hunt them down.
Fittingly, the creative team is also a girl-power duo: writer Anne Toole and artist Ann Maulina. Toole explores the complex relationships between the protagonists and the varied characters they clash with on their quest. Not all hunters are motivated by altruistic goals....
Maulina's art captures the visual magic of the game, the detailed machines with their guts'n'bolts style juxtaposing dramatically with softly watercoloured forests, mountains and savannahs. The human characters are alive with emotion, both subtle and dramatic, and our Amazonian heroines are never more than a few panels away from some very athletic action scenes.
Fans of the game will find plenty to draw them in, and newbies will enjoy it too, as an introduction to a fascinating new world.
Zak Webber
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