Review from someone who loves this universe very much. I am disappointed. The developers could come up with and show so many interesting and leading to the continuation, but they did... this.
I should warn you that I'm only talking about the main story quests. Let's start with the good. The battle with Horus in the final is tense and dynamic, the gameplay is divided into several sections, each of which is a separate arena. The nature and music is amazing. You can swin on new machine and fly high as you can. Very beautilul clouds.
Remember the most interesting story of Frozen Wilds, where Aloy visited the Banuk tribe and found out mysterious secrets together with the locals? So forget it.
And it's not even about deceived expectations. The second part, in principle, became simpler and more mundane and less focused on the details of Laura, although there were also enough of them, and I liked the progression of the main character on the way to the team. In Burning Shores, it's about the lack of sense in this add-on as a whole. It can even be described in a few lines: One Zenith survived and fled to Hollywood to fix his spaceship there and fly to another planet. The launch of the ship will cause pollution of these lands, so Aloy and Seyka (one of the Quen) try to stop him. Zenith activates Horus, but still loses.
THAT'S ALL. I am not kidding. No clues to the future, no hint of the position of Hephaestus, no reasoning about the nature of Nemesis, no at least somewhat ambiguous antagonist (which was the same Faro), no clear trail that would help stop Nemesis, just a dull wandering around the islands back and forth. And it's poor written. The all situations feels like a bad rom-com. There is a siluation when our characters trying to sneak to enemy base and saying to the guards: "HEY WE MET YOUR FRIEND AND HE TOLD US WE CAN PASS!" Yeah that's bad. It is very noticeable that the screenwriter has changed and he absolutely does not know how to write at least some interesting story. In the main task of the add-on, the hand of the "brilliant" screenwriter is generally seen everywhere in the form of the thought "I live as I want, the team is not a decree for me." No depth and interestingness of the characters, just a direct hacking of the phrase from the screen: BOSSES ARE BAD, LET'S REBEL! This is very much out of the tone of the narrative of both games, and the decrease in the quality of the script is noticeable to the naked eye.
Oh yes, there is also a love line that was forcibly inserted or what the authors allegedly tried to show us, which is perhaps the biggest pain for me. Why? Because Seyka is boring and uninteresting character but typical interaction between her and Aloy somehow born the "attraction". You know after literally the SAME situation in Ikrie or Talanah arc which you can describe the same words: brave woman warrior and almost match for Aloy lost part of the family and now trying to safe them or memory of them in battle + she doesn't accept any authority. But they decided like this was never happened and Seyka in this situation somehow love interest right now? That's why I don't believe in this story. It comes from literally NOTHING.I love this universe so much and don't mind gay characters whom i met in Horizon games. But if they wanted a romance line i prefer to choose between man, woman or no romantic interest at all for protagonist. But here they just forced one bad line. It is especially hard to believe when Aloy tells Seyka that she has become an example for her in everything. And I sit at this moment and think: why? No, seriously, when? The only thing that Seyka remembers is the incessant comments admiring every action of Aloy like "There you go! Or whining about how everyone around are bad. Or yelling and running away. Nothing more. Therefore, the scene when Aloy holds out her hand to Seyka and says that she cares about this fool feels strained, if not mocking. In Aloy's friendship with Erend or Kotallo, there is more dynamics and real care, not to mention the relationship with Beta.
Previously, everyone could decide for himself with whom he wanted or did not want to see Aloy, and her disinterest in romantic relationships only gave a peculiar character to the character. Not to mention, during the creation of Zero Dawn, the developers said: "Aloy is a woman on a mission and she has no time to think about such things." Obviously, the producer's hand gave a sign to correct this situation at the time of the crisis and earn easy money on cheap hype. The players themselves want to choose, because there are quite a lot of attractive and charming men and women in the world of Horizon. But they just screwed all fans and made a only chose. A bad one. Only a bitter resentment that another character with a gradual development beloved by the fans of the game was sharply sacrificed to the social agenda. That's all I wanted to say
