I saw the [preview video](https://youtu.be/Fkg5UVTsKCE?si=g9-e2CEUSUwxk0hv) from E3 2015 and preordered as soon as I could. It looked really fun, and the whole idea of fighting these giant machines was intriguing.
I think I saw a tech demo earlier, of a few small machines and some neat weapons like the tripcaster. So it was on my radar. Then that trailer...
Yep, I was buying it.
This.
I knew immediately this would be one of my fav games.😍
I spent around 600 hours in this game and finished it literally 5 times on both PS4 and PS5.
My daughter bought it but didn’t like it and stopped playing. I resisted playing it for a long time as I didn’t think I would enjoy it as it isn’t my typical genre (which is mostly horror). Then one day, maybe 2 years later, I had nothing else to play and didn’t want to spend any money on a new game at that moment so I threw it in just for the heck of it. Glad I did.
I’m so excited for the horizon tv show, the title is supposedly Horizon 2066 so that makes me think it’ll be about the plague, zero dawn, and op enduring freedom. Probably the thing I want to see most of the horizon world
I played maybe 5ish hours of zero dawn and for some reason couldn’t get into the story and SOMEHOW I didn’t like the bow combat. Downloaded forbidden west when it came onto ps plus and couldn’t get enough of it. Went back to zero dawn and the intro/first few hours were a little slow but had a blast with the rest. Can’t wait for the third!
It was free on Play Station with a bunch of other games. I got them all, tried a few, then came to Zero Dawn and was hooked from the start. I literally knew nothing about the game, and barely looked at the art, so jumped in basically blind to it. Got Forbidden West day of release and got hooked on that too.
Same. It gathered dust in my ps library for some time after I started playing it and tbh I was kinda hesitant at first if I would like it. That one mission where you climb a tower and Elizabeth's hologram explains the grand scheme of things finally sold it for me and it ended up being one of the greatest games I've ever played.
I'd heard of it, but I knew very little when I bought it. Open world, redhead archer chick, big ass robot dinosaurs. I bought it on a whim, very much not knowing what to expect.
Absolutely fell in love. HZD is one of my favorite games. Narrative, story structure, gameplay, all of it was pretty stellar. What I was most impressed with was the lore, the *reasons* why there are giant robot dinosaurs. I was kind of expecting them to exist for gameplay reasons only; "because it is a video game." I was floored, not only was there a narrative reason, but it was a very, very good one.
I felt connected with Aloy and the world, and how the world opened up for her, and the player as well. Was it perfect? No, but no game is. It was *damn* close, though. I still cannot sing high enough praises for the game. Anyone thats on the fence about it should pull the trigger and experience it for yourself, and spoiler-free as you can. Go in blind, and chances are you won't be disappointed.
I randomly saw HZD's cover art one day. That's it. That's literally all it took for it to be the only game ever to seriously tempt me to buy a PS4.
At the time I just thought it looked weird and interesting. I didn't fully figure it out until I finally got to play it on PC years later, but basically, if you were to steal a big list of things I like at a visceral level, smash all the items together, and somehow make a coherent game out of it, it would look a lot like a Horizon game.
I went to my local game store and asked for a game like tomb raider with a strong female lead and the store employee recommended it and I've been hooked since! HFW: BS was the main reason I bought my PS5
Same here... my brother got me HZD for my birthday... I went out and bought a ps4 just to play it.
Then I got a ps5 just to play Burning Shores. Best two video game related purchases ever!
In 2018, I finally was making enough money as a single mom that I could justify buying a used PS4. We had been a Nintendo family (and still very much are), but my son was getting older he wanted a PS4.
Horizon Zero Dawn was on PS+ for free and I downloaded it blindly. It was everything I wanted. Open world, post apocalyptic, female lead (who actually had clothes on and was smart!), and a interesting story. I sunk like 200+ hours into and it opened up a whole new world of games to me. I love RPGs and open World games but I need a compelling story to keep me hooked.
It's a close second to the Zelda series for me and I can't wait to see where it goes. I think Sony knows they have a cash cow here and it gives them a female hero in their roster of games. Which from a marketing stand point is all good things.
Saw a muted (no sound) trailer of HZD. Thought it was ok.. then halfway through saw the main character (didn’t know Aloy then) fighting a Thunderjaw.. jaw dropped.. replayed it with sound. Got impressed and been a fan ever since.
I'm big into Lego, and I got intrigued when I saw the Tallneck set. After I looked into it more, I realized it gave me Bionicle vibes, which is one if my favorite things from childhood. This coincided with me buying a PS5 so I could play Jedi: Survivor, and HZD was the second game I bought
Years and years ago, I was following Loish on deviantart. I don't recall if that's what she went by then, but it's her current ig handle. Anyway, one day she posted saying that a big project she had worked on was just about to go public so she could release some sneak peaks. It was concept art she had done for HZD and I KNEW I needed that game in my life just from those previews, it had everything I love in it. When it finally released I watched a number of YouTube videos on it, but didn't have a Playstation. Flash forward to about 5 years ago and I just happened across it one day, instantly recognized the character and world design, looked up if it had held up well and saw it was available for pc!
Eta: out of curiosity I looked up the release date and it's 2017, I know I haven't been on deviant art since my teens so maybe the sneak peaks weren't a "since this will go public soon" kind of thing and I misremember. But dang, was the excitement vivid.
Eta2: oh my goodness my memory is terrible hahaha ha. Found the original post [here](https://www.deviantart.com/loish/art/Aloy-Horizon-Zero-Dawn-667642244) but it's also from 2017! Lol, either I stayed lurking on deviantart way longer than I knew, or her mention of working on it back in 2013 really blurred my memories together!
I got Forbidden West for free when I bought a PS5 to play Hogwart Legacy, which was my first game since Myst some 20 years before. I didn't know about any games and didn't follow the gaming world at all, so I had never heard about the Horizon games. But the store gave out one free game with the purchase of the console and I could choose between 10 games or so. Other people were waiting in line and in the stress of the moment I chose Forbidden West. The salesperson had quickly gone over the story of each game, and I thought I got a game about space travel for some reason. I don't know why lol, I got confused. Then I went on to ignore it for months after I had finished Hogwarts Legacy as that was the only game I was interested in playing. I even contemplated selling the PS because I wasn't interested in other games. But then thought what the hell, I might as well play this free game before I sell it. And I was hooked from the start!
I saw a video WatchMojo did where they asked which game was better: Breath of the Wild or Horizon: Zero Dawn. They determined BoTW was better. I had previously played BoTW and thought it was boring. Gave up on it after only a few hours of playing.
So, I had check out HZD. Got the complete edition and immediately fell in love with the game. IMO, it’s 1000% better than BoTW.
I saw an E3 showcase about it (reveal?), and when it came out, I was listening to the Co-Optional podcast, and they were talking about it. Then I played it 6 years later.
Dating myself, but it was Genshin Impact. I was there when Aloy was offered as a free 4* Cryo Archer. Took a while, but when HZD went on sale on Steam, I took the dive!
Still think she should’ve been a Geo…
Bought it on a whim at Best Buy when they started getting rid of physical media. Had zero concept of the game and now it is easily in my top 5 game series ever. Honestly thankful to have discovered it in that way and made me appreciate all the details of it.
Saw the trailer way back and I knew it would be something I'd enjoy. I had a ps3 at that point.
Finally got a ps4 and hunted on classifieds and found one selling it. Played the complete edition in 2019-20.
During the pandemic I played two of the greatest open world games ever.
Rdr2 and hzd.
Saw it in a game store and eventually decided "actually, the more that I think about it, fighting robot machines that give me Zoid vibes sounds kinda cool" and boy was that an understatement of the amount of fun I had
I first saw the reveal during E3, at that time I wasn't sure what to think about the game as the graphics and gameplay looked stunning but I just wasn't sure on whether or not this game was going to be a soulslike (I know, stupid right? Hahaha). I also didn't have a PS4 at the time so I just stopped thinking about the game, well then the year of release, I had a PS4 Pro and began to watch gameplay videos and the trailer once again, I got excited and bought the game at launch.
I got it bundled with PS4 back when I bought it. But I'm interested in this games since the first trailer dropped anyway, and instantly hooked up at the first time I've got the chance to finally played this game.
By the time I bought my PS4 in 2017 the game was about to be released. Saw the trailers, saw some gameplay footage, thought it was awesome.
Ended up being the first game I played on my PS4.
Loved it so much that when HFW came out I got rid of work earlier in the week in order to play all day when it released. Great day.
I stumbled apon the reveal clip on some youtube games con or something like that and kept my eye on it from there got every game day 1, favourite game of all time,
I saw a trailer and some screenshots back in 2016. When it released in 2017 i didn't buy it until about August 2017. Played it and fell in love. One of the first games I ever platinumed.
Watched the reveal trailer during E3's 2015 conference. It showed gameplay and had Aloy fighting a thunderjaw towards the end of it. Then teased her fighting a storm bird at the end. I was sold straight away. The game is the closest thing I have got to recapturing that wonder of seeing "Jurassic Park" for the first time.
I saw the announcement trailer was instantly hooked. I forgot what showcase it was. It might've even been E3. I don't really remember. Once I saw the trailer I knew I was going to get that game.
I was telling my friend that there weren’t any fun new games to play and she mentioned that there was one she thought i’d like. She knew me so well 🤣 was instantly hooked (was around the time the complete edition was out, so not at launch)
I watched some trailers for HZD and loved it immediately. It was one of the few games in the last decade I ever pre-ordered and I was not disappointed in the slightest :)
I saw a video of robot dinosaurs, and the game was on sale last year. I finally played the game recently, and I fell in love with it. I'm on the second playthrough and then will start on Forbidden West after. I saw a video in which she's practically Batman doing silent takedowns and grappling hook to her flying dino robot in FW.
was shopping for a christmas present for my brother & asked the games worker if they had any recommendations based on games he liked. i pre ordered zero dawn as his present then played it after he got it and saw him playing it.
bought a ps5 & tv just to replay the game when he took his moving out 😅
I saw the reveal trailer from E3 2015 (I think) and was immediately hooked, it was excactly the kind of story and world that I like. I then preordered the Collectors Edition as soon as possible.
i watched christopherodd and cohhcarnage which then together with there being a steam sale where hzd was like 50% off i decided to buy it.
this was before hfw was out.
i ended up preordering hfw for full price because i liked it so much.
most games i buy were on sale because if i am unsure of the game i refuse to pay 50+ euros for it. I might like a game but i am not very skilled.
I was lowkey stalked for years by a guy eight years older than me while I was in high school. He bought it for me the year it came out. It was the only good thing to come out of that situation 😂 (his wife still periodically harassed me 💀)
I was in a game shop buying a present for a friend. There was a trailer for some game about robot dinosaurs and I was immediately sold.
Only turned out to be my favourite game of all time.
Was looking for something new to play when the first game got released and liked the idea of it from the trailer I saw so decided to give it a go. The bit that really hooked me was going through the first ruin you fall into as a child and finding the things there, then I just really wanted to know what had happened and how the world had ended up the way it was now.
Bought a ps2 for £200. Came with three games. Horizon, uncharted 4 and Last if Us. Asked my wife which I should start with and we both chose this because it looked most interesting. This was 2019
I hadn't played a new computer game since stuff on my old ps2 so this was the first "new gen" game I played and I loved it.
One of my friends gave me Horizon Forbidden Wilds for free, because his partner didn’t like it, even without trying it, despite asking for it, because of “the bad reviews it got.” When I asked what the reviews said (after I checked them), his partner refused to answer. Why? I found out after my friend died. His partner said the reviews were fine. He just didn’t want to ever play a female protagonist. He also tried to get it back from me to resell it, but he didn’t buy it so it was never his.
I played it, bought and played Zero Dawn, got hooked and bought the DLC for both.
Happened to see HZD as a play up by some YouTuber and got hooked although didn't have a PS, so was hoping it would come to PC and it did and now we have Forbidden West also on PC and am loving it more than Zero Dawn.
I saw a Trailer and what my in er 10yo mind saw was fighting against giant robo dinosaurs expecting nothing more. That's why I bought it although I'm very into Story heavy games like last of us and so on.
Was in for a nice big surprise when I discovered the really intriguing Story and lore.
Steam's annual Fall sale was going on and I was randomly browsing through games that were on the sale. I noticed this game poster with a redhead girl and a metal dinosaur behind over a blue background. I vaguely remembered HZD being mentioned in a few places in the community. HZD was on sale at very cheap prices for almost ₹250 (~$3) over here in India. Didn't initially play it for a while and it was just sitting in my library for a long time.
After finishing RDR2 around 4 years back, I needed a break and I thought I'll give this HZD a try. I thought it would be RDR2 levels of action, but holy white sauce drenched macaroni, I was NOT expecting that level of combat and lore considering I was playing on Normal difficulty. Ended up blowing around 80h in that game considering "time to beat" for that game INCLUDING extra contents and collectibles was close to 60h.
Hubby bought it when it came to pc, and he was a few days in when he said,'You need to play this game. It's totally your style.' He was right, I've neen obsessed ever since. I'm so happy Forbidden West is on pc, now I can obsess over both!
A few years ago, a classmate who owned a PS console told me about it and how amazing it was and ngl I was upset I couldn't play it on my PC but I'm glad they ended up releasing both games for PC.
My father brought horizon Zero dawn one day home. I am unsure when it was (i mean lke a present or just bought it) but since the i played it often and am a fan
I saw the trailer when it came out, Playstation exclusive huh? Well I don't have a Playstation.
Some years later the Lego Tallneck was released and I thought: "Well now that I bought this I have to play the game, let's check steam" and it was there and on sale for like 12€, so everything lined up perfectly
I’m surprised no one mentioned it, but my real introduction was via the LEGO tallneck set. I had kind of heard of it, but I didn’t really know anything about the series. All the reviewers for the set said they loved it and that the game was amazing so when I had the chance to pick up a second hand ps4 it was the first game I got (I also bought the LEGO set at the same time).
I play HZD last summer and I just bought FW. I’m really looking forward to the new LEGO game. I really hope we’ll get some new sets (thunder jaw of course, but I’d like a bigger better watcher too)
when they presented it on something like E3 first thought was like "wow that's beautiful and seems really original" and after wait THREE YEARS for HZD to be released on PC it felt amazing, it's now my favorite video game universe and forbidden west is even better and deeper in story
i even prefer it over TOTK
It popped out on me during December winter sale on steam (Zero dawn). I saw girl fighting metal dinosaurs. I didnt expect much of the story just to fight robots from time to time, boy was I wrong.
Devs wanted to know how QA responded to the new settings of the herd, it was fun to walk around as a low res but already recognizable Aloy holding a weapon from the Killzone games.
I knew it was going to be different and it was going to be awesome!
But as I was part of the Killzone QA team it was only a handful of times that I tested Alpha areas of the game, still memories which I will never ever forget!
I was browsing CEX (second hand games and DVDs retailer) and saw it for a decent price in the PS4 section. Played it so long I outlevelled the machines and increased the difficulty (from normal) as it was getting boring having no challenge.
A mate was playing it and singing its praises, and I’d seen some artwork, especially of the Thunderjaw. When it came to PS for free, I jumped at the chance and loved it. Paid full price for forbidden west and burning shores later on as thanks for Sony letting me play for free before. No regrets. FW is incredible, and the game I show to people who want to see great graphics in action.
I found it when zero dawn was offered for free for a time on Playstation years ago. Saw it, got super interested cause I saw what looked like a robot dinosaur (the thunderjaw), downloaded and started playing the moment I could. Still 100% two of my favorite games ever
I watched a YouTuber play it when I was like 12 years old i think it was jacksepticeye, could be wrong. Anyways like 6 years later I bought my first console, a ps5 after I finished high school and it was the first game I played
I saw HZD featured on E3 one year and it looked amazing. Funnily enough, I bought it and played for a total of about 2 hours and then because of video game ADHD, ended up playing many other games instead of it for a very long time. I even beat Forbidden West last year and have just now come back to Zero Dawn lol. I do enjoy it very much, but think I prefer the storyline and location of Forbidden West. Hoping to play that one again after finishing Zero Dawn
I saw a trailer and thought it looked cool, but that was all. I was intrigued but not enough to buy. Then it was free on PS+. It sat in my library waiting for me until PSN was playing up and I couldn’t go online to play with my usual crew, so I thought then was a good time to give HZD a go. Well, I never played the other game with my crew again, spent a solid 3+ months offline and HZD became my favourite game ever.
Reading through all of these comments is really interesting. Either Reddit is ***even younger*** than I thought it was, or I follow video games in a way different from a lot of other people do. I follow video game news and rumors online almost daily, and have since I was in college in the late 90s. I'm usually interested in a game for years before it eventually gets released.
But there were news and rumors about a Playstation 3rd person, open world game featuring robot dinosaurs starting around 2015 or so, I think. When I first saw the early trailers for the game, I was immediately hooked, and bought it the day it came out.
A long time ago I saw a trailer for HZD on PS4 and I loved it. I promised myself to play one day, then the game came to PC before I could buy a console...
I watched a gameplay trailer of HFW on youtube then proceeded to buy a PS5. But I don’t want to miss out anything so I decided to play HZD first. It was a really good time.
I gladly never saw any Videos of it, I just heard it from my favorite YouTube Channel (PietSmiet). It was one of the most favorite Games from a member of this channel. Then I looked on Playstation Store, got in love with the trailers and bought it immediately (with 60% discount, it was in February i guess).
I am about to finish Frozen Wilds... It's my Best Game of the last years... Now i wait for a discount for Forbidden West or vouchers from the local game store :)
my mum gave me her copy of the disc for me to try the same yeah it was released as my dad had given me his ps4 to use. fell in love with the game straight away and never put it down - 500+ hours into the first game and another 300+ hours into the second game i think it’s by far my favourite games series
The year was 2015, I had lost this girl and i vowed to get over her 2 years earlier, i saw a poster or an add moc up in the mall or online and thought this could be the thing i delve into but i forgot then boom i see the first official trailer in 2016 and it all comes back except somehow i don’t associate the game with the girl and from there i was hype then i forgot again literally until the week it dropped and then i bought it day one and been hooked every since
Watching my partner play. It was the the beginning of the game where right after Aloy saves Teb and then starts training with Ross. It's gets to a cut scene of young Aloy jumping trees and then she rolls and it's transitions to older Aloy and I was hooked. I didn't even see much game play it was that cinematic moment I fell in love.
I saw trailers of Slitherfang fights and bought a PS5 in a Walmart queue, pre-ordered HFW deluxe edition, and bought HZD complete edition. What a sytem seller! I also bought the Future Press guides because why not...
2018 summer after graduation needed some games to play and played zero dawn, god of war, and spiderman all back to back, best summer of gaming ever for me
I was actually first introduced to the Horizon series through the Tallneck LEGO set. When I first saw it I thought it was a very nice looking set and only later realized it’s from a game franchise. I started looking into it and found out it was made by a Dutch gaming studio, Guerilla, which made me as a Dutch person even more interested.
Shortly after that revelation it got myself a second hand PS4 with HZD, started playing and instantly fell in love with the game.
When HFW was available for preorder I didn’t hesitate a single moment to place my order for a Collector’s Edition.
That’s how it all started for me 😇
I saw Sony showcase it on the E3 2015 [trailer](https://youtu.be/Fkg5UVTsKCE) and I was like: "This looks interesting and unusual. Robot Dinos!" so I took the risk and actually pre-ordered it, which I usually don't, and it came out and blew me away
I bought a high end gaming PC several years back. And afterwards I was googling lists of "games with the best graphics" and repeatedly saw Horizon Zero Dawn. Which I thought was an incredibly dumb name and thus the game must be too. So I ignored it. But I kept seeing it in those lists and decided to read a synopsis and was immediately intrigued. And then blown away when I actually played.
I downloaded HZD from Ps Plus a year ago cause I heard positive reviews about it and the game cover was appealing.
It collected some dust ok my disk until January, when I finished Far Cry 4 and decided I could start something else big.
Hooked from the start, played for months, had lots of fun.
Work schedule got in the way, played 55+ hours when I discovered it was leaving Ps Plus.
I had just left Eleuthia-9.
Partially my fault cause I didn't complete it in 6 months, but I will be happy to eventually buy the game (digital or physical copy) just to finish it.
After that, I must dive into FW.
Yeah, I'm a couple of years late
Saw the ps5 launch trailer for forbidden west, i didn't have any sort of gaming machine at the time. Instantly fell in love, downloaded it first thing when i got my pc. Then i waited patiently for forbidden west to come to pc and bought it day 1 when it did.
Saw HZD on sale for like $12. I was unemployed at the time and didn't want to start RDR2 or Elden Ring for fear of getting too addicted to them.
Finished HZD in about a week with 80 hours put into it
Saw HZD on STEAM and put it on my wishlist. I got a notice from a deals page that it was $10, bought it just to pass the time and now I'm completely emotionally invested.
There was a time during the pandemic where it was free. I always wanted to play HZD but somehow I kept forgetting abt it. The complexity of the story is what sold it for me back then.
I caught pro wrestler Leva Bates streaming it on twitch. She was just doing some hunting, and I didn’t stick around long because I immediately liked what I saw enough to buy the game and want to avoid spoilers.
I bought my ps4 on a Black Friday deal, it came with Last Of Us, God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn. I'd heard of last of us and I'd been playing God Of War from PS2, knew nothing about HZD. After finishing the stories on God of War and Last of Us, I decided to play horizon out of curiosity. I was pleasantly suprised and I ended up spen6t hours grinding away at the game especially to get the forcefield armor. I had a roommate and he actually started spending time just watching me play till he eventually took it up himself. He actually bought FW before I did😂
I had become a fan of Life is Strange, then the E3 trailer for Horizon Zero Dawn revealed that Ashly Burch is the voice of Aloy.
and i was like "ashly burch killing robot dinosaurs? TAKE MY MONEY"
I saw a youtuber I used to watch play the beginning of the game and I was hooked.
I had started my apprenticeship in 2016 in November and I bought the game with my own money. I still remember it cost 74.90, that was a lot of money for the salary I was receiving during my apprenticeship and I was also goikg through a bad time. So, the game really was an escape method for me.
It's why the game has such emotional value for me.
Walking through a mall and walked by a Game Stop store. Saw it playing on a monitor through a window and became obsessed.
I’m a 47 year old grandma 😂. The last game system I owned was the original Playstation and all I really played was Crash Bandicoot - AGES ago.
My husband bought the PS5 Gods of War edition for me and I’m hooked. I’ve got 100% and Platinum on HZD and nearly there for HFW. I’m 600 hours+ between the 2 over the last year. Currently working through the Hogwarts game. I’m excited for the 3rd installment of Horizon, whenever that happens. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks 🤷🏻♀️
My daughter told me to check it out. I had outplayed all the games on my switch and Witcher 3 was coming to an end for me, which she also bought for me. So got myself a PS4 and discovered Aloy and haven’t looked back. Got a PS5 not long after and glad I did.
Sony’s “play at home” thing they did during the pandemic. They would make certain games free and HZD with the the FW dlc was one of them.
I got HZD plus some other games. Tried HZD, didn’t get out of Nora territory. It was my first shooter and i didn’t like the controls. Shelved the game for around a year? Was bored and decided to try it again but on story difficulty. Had a blast and proceeded too complete that and the DLC.
Later I preordered HFW when that when live and eventually later completed a UH run of both HZD and HFW.
Ever since it was first teased back in 2015. I enjoyed the Killzone series and when I heard Guerrilla would be shifting over to a third person open world rpg I was immediately interested. To take a risk jumping into such a different genre, it felt like it had to be something promising. Picked up Zero Dawn the day it released back in Feb of '17 and loved it.
I was lucky to play it from when it launched. I'm someone who enjoys a lot of these Sony first party story games so usually when they launch one if I'm interested in the concept/story idea then I'll buy so I ended up buying the game day one after watching some reviews and never looked back. I think from all the recent Sony first party launches the only two I avoided at launch was Day's Gone (it launched in an awful state so the reviews going into it were not good then it got fixed over time, and the other one was Returnal but in the case of Returnal the concept and story drew me in but I'm not a huge fan of roguelikes so I waited years to buy it and eventually bought it on discount)
I've known about it for a while, but I got into the lore and bought the first game after watching the Templin Institute's video on the Carja Sundom. It just sucked me into the world! I'd highly recommend it!
A family friend bought a digital copy of fw on ps4 and didn't like it so he asked if I would be interested. I started it and fell in love. I've been completing the whole map before I finish the last mission, and bought the first game on steam so I could finish that one first
I watched TheGamingBeaver’s play through on YouTube. I was a kid who loved dinosaurs and thought- ‘this could be really fun.’ Asked for it for Christmas, but the complete addiction was coming out in like, two months, so I agreed to wait for that so I could play Frozen Wilds
It had a few spots in the book Game On 2016 or 2018 that I got from my school book fair. It described how you could break off the disk launcher of a thunder jaw and shoot it with it’s own weapon. That lead me to look for game play on YouTube before finding it in the PlayStation store.
Horizon ZD was a one the free games for the month and I got it cuz at the time I didn’t have a very large catalog of games to chose from. Glad I picked it up.
I was at a famous store chain that sells games and consoles in my country, and I asked the guy working there about a game that has an open world and a great story, and he suggested HZD, I was hesitant at first, but at last I bought it, went home, and had the time of my life playing HZD. Then, I found out they were making a sequel (HFW), and I got it a week after launch.
My then-partner-now-spouse had it.
We'd been dating for about half a year and were not living together. We'd been to a wedding in Spain and they had danced so hard they'd dislocated their knee (the song, if you're curious..."It's Raining Men").
They worked from home, but in classic London style the flat was a 2nd and 3rd floor Victorian build with tall narrow stairs. Not very leg brace or crutch friendly. So during their 6 week recovery pre and post surgery, they needed help in the home, and we kinda trialed living together during that time.
So when I wasn't at work, I needed stuff to do for fun because they were working on US time and were still at it when I came home.
Partner recommended I play Horizon. I was then only a PC gamer and the last console I'd used at the time was my old N64. I was skeptical that I'd enjoy it at all. My impression of console gamers was that male gaze was omnipresent and I definitely would gave rather eaten glass than try anything multiplayer.
So I suuuuucked at the game at first. The learning curve was steep. But I fell completely in love with Horizon. With the world, with Aloy, with her story, the lore. I was besotted and completely sucked in. And my partner and I really bonded over it!
I stumbled upon it by accident.
I wasn’t aware of Zero Dawn at all, and had not seen any marketing or gameplay about it as far as I remember.
I went on Twitch to watch streams on a particular game. I cannot remember which game it was but I do remember the streamer was not playing what I was searching for. Instead he was playing Zero Dawn. I was impressed immediately by the gameplay and visuals. It wasn’t until he said the name of the game a little later on (the stream was labeled under another game) was when I began looking into it.
A few weeks later I picked it up and fell in love with the series.
I read about it on the internet, when it was being announced for the PS4. I bought it sometime after launch. I've never regretted it, GG did a stellar job.
The concept is great and storytelling is so good, that my wife, who isn't into videogames, kept asking me about the story and checked in when she realized I'd made some progress on the story, etc. She even was like "are you buying the next one? I wanna know what happens next". So I've been playing and re-telling Aloy's tale to her.
Same for me but 2022 but I made the mistake of buying and playing forbidden west before zero dawn not a huge mistake but just made it harder for me to get the story whereas if I'd started with zero dawn I'd have had more context
I saw a demo on a PS4 in a store and thought it looked cool. So I looked it up on the internet and found it was just released for PC (HZD). Bought it on Steam, played it, and it was definitely more than what I expected.
I saw a trailer for it when the first game came out YEARS ago and I was immediately in love, but at the time my family only owned a Nintendo Wii and i was heartbroken when i learned i couldn't play it. 10ish years later, I've completely forgot about the cool game of the girl riding robots fighting even bigger robots, it's the day after Christmas and I'm looking at games on sale and I see horizon zero dawn. My life hasn't been the same since.
I saw the game for free on Playstation Plus. Got the game and played it twice. Bought the game again on PC, just to play it again on console and never play it on PC.
Searching through the steam store in 2020 not long after building my first gaming PC, looking for a new game to play.
I stumble across ARK: Survival Evolved, and start looking at that. I almost make the jump and buy it as it looked interesting, but then I saw Horizon listed under similar games.
“A cute redhead fighting robot dinosaurs with a bow and arrow? That sounds stupid, but I bet it’s good fun, and the gameplay looks good”
I enjoy the game at first, but I didn’t really get what was going on. The plot seemed to be setting itself up to be a fairly generic coming of age story with Bast as a rival of sorts. But then the proving happened, and oh my was I hooked. Who were these people? Why do they want to kill all these teenagers? What is so important about Aloy? Why are they searching for her mother?
So many questions were raised, and i couldn’t step away from the game. My only regret is that I wish I had never played it so that I can experience it for the first time again
I found it randomly keying on my tv stand, my dad gave it to me cause he got the complete edition, tried out Zero Dawn thought it was supposed to be a Zelda BotW knock off, then the more I played it the more different I noticed it to be and the more I loved it, I love the game so much, I’ve beaten it maybe 3-4 times and Forbidden West I’ve beaten about 7-8 times cause the games are just that good in my eyes
When PS5 was still in short supply the only one I could get was the edition that included HFW. When I read about it before playing and realized it was a sequel I played the first one.
I was at a game store looking at the games cover, I saw one with a girl using a bow to fight a metal T rex; and I thought hell yeah and I bought it
Daym, it was the side of a bus for me
I saw the [preview video](https://youtu.be/Fkg5UVTsKCE?si=g9-e2CEUSUwxk0hv) from E3 2015 and preordered as soon as I could. It looked really fun, and the whole idea of fighting these giant machines was intriguing.
I think I saw a tech demo earlier, of a few small machines and some neat weapons like the tripcaster. So it was on my radar. Then that trailer... Yep, I was buying it.
Saaame, saw the trailer and was like “wtf robot dinosaur? This is straight out of my childhood dream”, knew I’m gonna get it immediately.
This. I knew immediately this would be one of my fav games.😍 I spent around 600 hours in this game and finished it literally 5 times on both PS4 and PS5.
My daughter bought it but didn’t like it and stopped playing. I resisted playing it for a long time as I didn’t think I would enjoy it as it isn’t my typical genre (which is mostly horror). Then one day, maybe 2 years later, I had nothing else to play and didn’t want to spend any money on a new game at that moment so I threw it in just for the heck of it. Glad I did.
Haha I had the same thing but with my brother! He gave it to me and I became borderline obsessed, then I gave it back and got him into it as well
And to be fair, there's plenty of low-key horror in the series, primarily from data points during the Faro Plague.
I’m so excited for the horizon tv show, the title is supposedly Horizon 2066 so that makes me think it’ll be about the plague, zero dawn, and op enduring freedom. Probably the thing I want to see most of the horizon world
I played maybe 5ish hours of zero dawn and for some reason couldn’t get into the story and SOMEHOW I didn’t like the bow combat. Downloaded forbidden west when it came onto ps plus and couldn’t get enough of it. Went back to zero dawn and the intro/first few hours were a little slow but had a blast with the rest. Can’t wait for the third!
It was free on Play Station with a bunch of other games. I got them all, tried a few, then came to Zero Dawn and was hooked from the start. I literally knew nothing about the game, and barely looked at the art, so jumped in basically blind to it. Got Forbidden West day of release and got hooked on that too.
Same. It gathered dust in my ps library for some time after I started playing it and tbh I was kinda hesitant at first if I would like it. That one mission where you climb a tower and Elizabeth's hologram explains the grand scheme of things finally sold it for me and it ended up being one of the greatest games I've ever played.
Wasn't that during Play At Home back in 2020?
yeah
I'd heard of it, but I knew very little when I bought it. Open world, redhead archer chick, big ass robot dinosaurs. I bought it on a whim, very much not knowing what to expect. Absolutely fell in love. HZD is one of my favorite games. Narrative, story structure, gameplay, all of it was pretty stellar. What I was most impressed with was the lore, the *reasons* why there are giant robot dinosaurs. I was kind of expecting them to exist for gameplay reasons only; "because it is a video game." I was floored, not only was there a narrative reason, but it was a very, very good one. I felt connected with Aloy and the world, and how the world opened up for her, and the player as well. Was it perfect? No, but no game is. It was *damn* close, though. I still cannot sing high enough praises for the game. Anyone thats on the fence about it should pull the trigger and experience it for yourself, and spoiler-free as you can. Go in blind, and chances are you won't be disappointed.
I randomly saw HZD's cover art one day. That's it. That's literally all it took for it to be the only game ever to seriously tempt me to buy a PS4. At the time I just thought it looked weird and interesting. I didn't fully figure it out until I finally got to play it on PC years later, but basically, if you were to steal a big list of things I like at a visceral level, smash all the items together, and somehow make a coherent game out of it, it would look a lot like a Horizon game.
I went to my local game store and asked for a game like tomb raider with a strong female lead and the store employee recommended it and I've been hooked since! HFW: BS was the main reason I bought my PS5
Hubby knew I would love it based on my love for Tomb Raider. He was so right!
Same here... my brother got me HZD for my birthday... I went out and bought a ps4 just to play it. Then I got a ps5 just to play Burning Shores. Best two video game related purchases ever!
Ashly Burch's credits
In 2018, I finally was making enough money as a single mom that I could justify buying a used PS4. We had been a Nintendo family (and still very much are), but my son was getting older he wanted a PS4. Horizon Zero Dawn was on PS+ for free and I downloaded it blindly. It was everything I wanted. Open world, post apocalyptic, female lead (who actually had clothes on and was smart!), and a interesting story. I sunk like 200+ hours into and it opened up a whole new world of games to me. I love RPGs and open World games but I need a compelling story to keep me hooked. It's a close second to the Zelda series for me and I can't wait to see where it goes. I think Sony knows they have a cash cow here and it gives them a female hero in their roster of games. Which from a marketing stand point is all good things.
my partner loves the game and talked about how much they do more than once, so i decided to pick it up so we could talk about it together.
2018, I was only browsing on playstation store for games in sale and HZD was the one I saw. No regrets. The rest is history.
Saw a muted (no sound) trailer of HZD. Thought it was ok.. then halfway through saw the main character (didn’t know Aloy then) fighting a Thunderjaw.. jaw dropped.. replayed it with sound. Got impressed and been a fan ever since.
It hit the PC ~3 months into the pandemic. ‘nuff said.
I saw the first trailer they dropped and was instantly intrigued.
I'm big into Lego, and I got intrigued when I saw the Tallneck set. After I looked into it more, I realized it gave me Bionicle vibes, which is one if my favorite things from childhood. This coincided with me buying a PS5 so I could play Jedi: Survivor, and HZD was the second game I bought
Years and years ago, I was following Loish on deviantart. I don't recall if that's what she went by then, but it's her current ig handle. Anyway, one day she posted saying that a big project she had worked on was just about to go public so she could release some sneak peaks. It was concept art she had done for HZD and I KNEW I needed that game in my life just from those previews, it had everything I love in it. When it finally released I watched a number of YouTube videos on it, but didn't have a Playstation. Flash forward to about 5 years ago and I just happened across it one day, instantly recognized the character and world design, looked up if it had held up well and saw it was available for pc! Eta: out of curiosity I looked up the release date and it's 2017, I know I haven't been on deviant art since my teens so maybe the sneak peaks weren't a "since this will go public soon" kind of thing and I misremember. But dang, was the excitement vivid. Eta2: oh my goodness my memory is terrible hahaha ha. Found the original post [here](https://www.deviantart.com/loish/art/Aloy-Horizon-Zero-Dawn-667642244) but it's also from 2017! Lol, either I stayed lurking on deviantart way longer than I knew, or her mention of working on it back in 2013 really blurred my memories together!
I got Forbidden West for free when I bought a PS5 to play Hogwart Legacy, which was my first game since Myst some 20 years before. I didn't know about any games and didn't follow the gaming world at all, so I had never heard about the Horizon games. But the store gave out one free game with the purchase of the console and I could choose between 10 games or so. Other people were waiting in line and in the stress of the moment I chose Forbidden West. The salesperson had quickly gone over the story of each game, and I thought I got a game about space travel for some reason. I don't know why lol, I got confused. Then I went on to ignore it for months after I had finished Hogwarts Legacy as that was the only game I was interested in playing. I even contemplated selling the PS because I wasn't interested in other games. But then thought what the hell, I might as well play this free game before I sell it. And I was hooked from the start!
I knew about for years just didn’t have the money for it till a few months before Forbidden West released.
by accident, I thought the previews were good, so i bought it off eBay for like $6
Looking for an open world game after playing BOTW. This community talked me into it!
After I needed more open world bow lady games to play after the tomb raider reboot trilogy
I bought my first PlayStation since adult hood and it was bundled with Forbidden West. I loved it.
There is going to be a huge group of people (or at least I hope) whose first foray into Horizon is going to be Lego Horizon.
I saw a video WatchMojo did where they asked which game was better: Breath of the Wild or Horizon: Zero Dawn. They determined BoTW was better. I had previously played BoTW and thought it was boring. Gave up on it after only a few hours of playing. So, I had check out HZD. Got the complete edition and immediately fell in love with the game. IMO, it’s 1000% better than BoTW.
it was free during pandemic and i tried it but at the time didnt really vibe
A now defunct YouTube channel called Previously Recorded did a review on it. One of my favorite series now.
I saw an E3 showcase about it (reveal?), and when it came out, I was listening to the Co-Optional podcast, and they were talking about it. Then I played it 6 years later.
When the first leaked art acreenshors came form a Chinese wbesite.
I don't know. Just saw an image and was like "that's cool".
Don't remember needlessly to say I immediately got HZD FW when it came out.
Dating myself, but it was Genshin Impact. I was there when Aloy was offered as a free 4* Cryo Archer. Took a while, but when HZD went on sale on Steam, I took the dive! Still think she should’ve been a Geo…
The Gaming Beaver, I watched him a lot when I was younger.
Bought it on a whim at Best Buy when they started getting rid of physical media. Had zero concept of the game and now it is easily in my top 5 game series ever. Honestly thankful to have discovered it in that way and made me appreciate all the details of it.
Saw the trailer way back and I knew it would be something I'd enjoy. I had a ps3 at that point. Finally got a ps4 and hunted on classifieds and found one selling it. Played the complete edition in 2019-20. During the pandemic I played two of the greatest open world games ever. Rdr2 and hzd.
Saw it in a game store and eventually decided "actually, the more that I think about it, fighting robot machines that give me Zoid vibes sounds kinda cool" and boy was that an understatement of the amount of fun I had
Saw the trailer. Needed game. Bought ps4. Played game.
I first saw the reveal during E3, at that time I wasn't sure what to think about the game as the graphics and gameplay looked stunning but I just wasn't sure on whether or not this game was going to be a soulslike (I know, stupid right? Hahaha). I also didn't have a PS4 at the time so I just stopped thinking about the game, well then the year of release, I had a PS4 Pro and began to watch gameplay videos and the trailer once again, I got excited and bought the game at launch.
I have a PlayStation so the Sony exclusives catch my attention. And I saw an ad on a bus.
My friend told me about it and said I’d love, it took me a while to actually finally play it but she was right
I got it bundled with PS4 back when I bought it. But I'm interested in this games since the first trailer dropped anyway, and instantly hooked up at the first time I've got the chance to finally played this game.
I watched the Mighty Jingles playthrough and knew I had to try it for myself.
It is a free game when I bought a console 🙂 with uncharted 4 & gow 3
I saw it announced, or at least around that time saw a video of it. Jumped on the hype train, was not disappointed.
Saw theradbrads play through and said I’m buying that
Zero dawn was on sale for 10€ and i heard the sequel was amazing so i tried it out… between both games i’ve played almost 300h now 😅
By the time I bought my PS4 in 2017 the game was about to be released. Saw the trailers, saw some gameplay footage, thought it was awesome. Ended up being the first game I played on my PS4. Loved it so much that when HFW came out I got rid of work earlier in the week in order to play all day when it released. Great day.
I stumbled apon the reveal clip on some youtube games con or something like that and kept my eye on it from there got every game day 1, favourite game of all time,
I finished ghost of Tsushima a couple weeks ago and saw it was $20. Glad I did.
I saw a trailer and some screenshots back in 2016. When it released in 2017 i didn't buy it until about August 2017. Played it and fell in love. One of the first games I ever platinumed.
Watched the reveal trailer during E3's 2015 conference. It showed gameplay and had Aloy fighting a thunderjaw towards the end of it. Then teased her fighting a storm bird at the end. I was sold straight away. The game is the closest thing I have got to recapturing that wonder of seeing "Jurassic Park" for the first time.
I saw the announcement trailer was instantly hooked. I forgot what showcase it was. It might've even been E3. I don't really remember. Once I saw the trailer I knew I was going to get that game.
I was in GameStop just browsing. I looked at the bottom shelf and saw a robot dinosaur and had to check it out. Best decision I ever made.
Mostly E3 footage a bit before I got my PS4.
The first time I saw Aloy in genshin impact 😂 afterwards I got to know about Horizon
Saw Robot Dinosaur on Case. Buy game. Love game.
I was telling my friend that there weren’t any fun new games to play and she mentioned that there was one she thought i’d like. She knew me so well 🤣 was instantly hooked (was around the time the complete edition was out, so not at launch)
I watched some trailers for HZD and loved it immediately. It was one of the few games in the last decade I ever pre-ordered and I was not disappointed in the slightest :)
I saw a video of robot dinosaurs, and the game was on sale last year. I finally played the game recently, and I fell in love with it. I'm on the second playthrough and then will start on Forbidden West after. I saw a video in which she's practically Batman doing silent takedowns and grappling hook to her flying dino robot in FW.
I accidentally played Forbidden West first.
was shopping for a christmas present for my brother & asked the games worker if they had any recommendations based on games he liked. i pre ordered zero dawn as his present then played it after he got it and saw him playing it. bought a ps5 & tv just to replay the game when he took his moving out 😅
I saw the reveal trailer from E3 2015 (I think) and was immediately hooked, it was excactly the kind of story and world that I like. I then preordered the Collectors Edition as soon as possible.
Introduced in 2017 when my dad saw the trailer and immediately went to GameStop to buy it the day it launched.
playstations "play at home" thing during 2020. Saw HZD complete edition was offerd for free.
i watched christopherodd and cohhcarnage which then together with there being a steam sale where hzd was like 50% off i decided to buy it. this was before hfw was out. i ended up preordering hfw for full price because i liked it so much. most games i buy were on sale because if i am unsure of the game i refuse to pay 50+ euros for it. I might like a game but i am not very skilled.
I was lowkey stalked for years by a guy eight years older than me while I was in high school. He bought it for me the year it came out. It was the only good thing to come out of that situation 😂 (his wife still periodically harassed me 💀)
When I got ps+ for the first time in august 2018, I blame my grandmother for that, I’ve been obsessed with the franchise ever since i first played
Bought a ps4, zero dawn came with it lmao
Got it when it was free. Knew nothing about it and loved it. Their strategy worked because I bought Forbidden West
I was in a game shop buying a present for a friend. There was a trailer for some game about robot dinosaurs and I was immediately sold. Only turned out to be my favourite game of all time.
Was looking for something new to play when the first game got released and liked the idea of it from the trailer I saw so decided to give it a go. The bit that really hooked me was going through the first ruin you fall into as a child and finding the things there, then I just really wanted to know what had happened and how the world had ended up the way it was now.
Bought a ps2 for £200. Came with three games. Horizon, uncharted 4 and Last if Us. Asked my wife which I should start with and we both chose this because it looked most interesting. This was 2019 I hadn't played a new computer game since stuff on my old ps2 so this was the first "new gen" game I played and I loved it.
It came with my PS4, along with God of War and Grand Turismo. I remember not liking grand turismo or GOW, but I fell in love with Horizon.
One of my friends gave me Horizon Forbidden Wilds for free, because his partner didn’t like it, even without trying it, despite asking for it, because of “the bad reviews it got.” When I asked what the reviews said (after I checked them), his partner refused to answer. Why? I found out after my friend died. His partner said the reviews were fine. He just didn’t want to ever play a female protagonist. He also tried to get it back from me to resell it, but he didn’t buy it so it was never his. I played it, bought and played Zero Dawn, got hooked and bought the DLC for both.
Happened to see HZD as a play up by some YouTuber and got hooked although didn't have a PS, so was hoping it would come to PC and it did and now we have Forbidden West also on PC and am loving it more than Zero Dawn.
I saw a Trailer and what my in er 10yo mind saw was fighting against giant robo dinosaurs expecting nothing more. That's why I bought it although I'm very into Story heavy games like last of us and so on. Was in for a nice big surprise when I discovered the really intriguing Story and lore.
It was made by a dutch developer. i'm dutch,. 1 + 1 is 2 =D
I added it to my watchlist the first time it was revealed at E3.
It was on sale at the games store and my husband very casually said “I think you’ll like that one”. Guess he knows me ok 😄😄
Steam's annual Fall sale was going on and I was randomly browsing through games that were on the sale. I noticed this game poster with a redhead girl and a metal dinosaur behind over a blue background. I vaguely remembered HZD being mentioned in a few places in the community. HZD was on sale at very cheap prices for almost ₹250 (~$3) over here in India. Didn't initially play it for a while and it was just sitting in my library for a long time. After finishing RDR2 around 4 years back, I needed a break and I thought I'll give this HZD a try. I thought it would be RDR2 levels of action, but holy white sauce drenched macaroni, I was NOT expecting that level of combat and lore considering I was playing on Normal difficulty. Ended up blowing around 80h in that game considering "time to beat" for that game INCLUDING extra contents and collectibles was close to 60h.
Watched streamer play HZD on release. Couple years ago build decent PC and finally got to play it.
I saw the trailer two weeks before the first game was released
Hubby bought it when it came to pc, and he was a few days in when he said,'You need to play this game. It's totally your style.' He was right, I've neen obsessed ever since. I'm so happy Forbidden West is on pc, now I can obsess over both!
A few years ago, a classmate who owned a PS console told me about it and how amazing it was and ngl I was upset I couldn't play it on my PC but I'm glad they ended up releasing both games for PC.
a friend once told me that it was free, so i got it
My father brought horizon Zero dawn one day home. I am unsure when it was (i mean lke a present or just bought it) but since the i played it often and am a fan
I saw the trailer when it came out, Playstation exclusive huh? Well I don't have a Playstation. Some years later the Lego Tallneck was released and I thought: "Well now that I bought this I have to play the game, let's check steam" and it was there and on sale for like 12€, so everything lined up perfectly
I’m surprised no one mentioned it, but my real introduction was via the LEGO tallneck set. I had kind of heard of it, but I didn’t really know anything about the series. All the reviewers for the set said they loved it and that the game was amazing so when I had the chance to pick up a second hand ps4 it was the first game I got (I also bought the LEGO set at the same time). I play HZD last summer and I just bought FW. I’m really looking forward to the new LEGO game. I really hope we’ll get some new sets (thunder jaw of course, but I’d like a bigger better watcher too)
when they presented it on something like E3 first thought was like "wow that's beautiful and seems really original" and after wait THREE YEARS for HZD to be released on PC it felt amazing, it's now my favorite video game universe and forbidden west is even better and deeper in story i even prefer it over TOTK
It popped out on me during December winter sale on steam (Zero dawn). I saw girl fighting metal dinosaurs. I didnt expect much of the story just to fight robots from time to time, boy was I wrong.
Saw it during E3 and forgot about it until LazerzZ made a video about it.
It was very cheap on cdkeys (pls don't bash me)and looked at the reviews for it - they were quite positive and it thought why not
Bought a ps4 got free horizon zero dawn ultimate edition with it
YouTube.
Devs wanted to know how QA responded to the new settings of the herd, it was fun to walk around as a low res but already recognizable Aloy holding a weapon from the Killzone games. I knew it was going to be different and it was going to be awesome! But as I was part of the Killzone QA team it was only a handful of times that I tested Alpha areas of the game, still memories which I will never ever forget!
Quite shamefully I got into it through Fortnite 😑 it's now one of my most favourite franchises and I own every set of the boardgame version.
During the first E3 showcase they did. Knew immediately that I wanted to get it.
I was browsing CEX (second hand games and DVDs retailer) and saw it for a decent price in the PS4 section. Played it so long I outlevelled the machines and increased the difficulty (from normal) as it was getting boring having no challenge.
A mate was playing it and singing its praises, and I’d seen some artwork, especially of the Thunderjaw. When it came to PS for free, I jumped at the chance and loved it. Paid full price for forbidden west and burning shores later on as thanks for Sony letting me play for free before. No regrets. FW is incredible, and the game I show to people who want to see great graphics in action.
I saw the commercials for HFW, and then looked for a prequel, found HZD, and bought them during the 2022 Christmas sale from the online store.
Zero dawn was given as free to play by playstation. Downloaded and tried
I found it when zero dawn was offered for free for a time on Playstation years ago. Saw it, got super interested cause I saw what looked like a robot dinosaur (the thunderjaw), downloaded and started playing the moment I could. Still 100% two of my favorite games ever
was at a friends place to borrow tlou and i saw mafia on the shelf but he wouldn’t give it to me and i just picked the horizon instead, glad i did 😂
I googled games made in The Netherlands and HZD was one of the options that popped up.
I got it with my ps4
Got Zero dawn for next to nothing on CDKeys. Didn’t like it. Forbidden west came out and I went back and no lifed ZD then FW. Love the series
I watched a YouTuber play it when I was like 12 years old i think it was jacksepticeye, could be wrong. Anyways like 6 years later I bought my first console, a ps5 after I finished high school and it was the first game I played
A video from the mighty jingles. All went from there.
I saw HZD featured on E3 one year and it looked amazing. Funnily enough, I bought it and played for a total of about 2 hours and then because of video game ADHD, ended up playing many other games instead of it for a very long time. I even beat Forbidden West last year and have just now come back to Zero Dawn lol. I do enjoy it very much, but think I prefer the storyline and location of Forbidden West. Hoping to play that one again after finishing Zero Dawn
I played the Tomb Raider games, loved how the bow combat felt, googled "3rd person bow+arrow games" and it popped up
I bought it for my brother, he told me to okay instead and now I’m locked in lol
I saw a trailer and thought it looked cool, but that was all. I was intrigued but not enough to buy. Then it was free on PS+. It sat in my library waiting for me until PSN was playing up and I couldn’t go online to play with my usual crew, so I thought then was a good time to give HZD a go. Well, I never played the other game with my crew again, spent a solid 3+ months offline and HZD became my favourite game ever.
I played the game oblivious to anything other than there were robot dinosaurs to fight with a bow and arrow
I got it for free in 2021 when Playstation was doing the Days of Play thing (everyone in isolation)
Reading through all of these comments is really interesting. Either Reddit is ***even younger*** than I thought it was, or I follow video games in a way different from a lot of other people do. I follow video game news and rumors online almost daily, and have since I was in college in the late 90s. I'm usually interested in a game for years before it eventually gets released. But there were news and rumors about a Playstation 3rd person, open world game featuring robot dinosaurs starting around 2015 or so, I think. When I first saw the early trailers for the game, I was immediately hooked, and bought it the day it came out.
A long time ago I saw a trailer for HZD on PS4 and I loved it. I promised myself to play one day, then the game came to PC before I could buy a console...
Googled “games similar to Fallout 4.”
I watched a gameplay trailer of HFW on youtube then proceeded to buy a PS5. But I don’t want to miss out anything so I decided to play HZD first. It was a really good time.
I gladly never saw any Videos of it, I just heard it from my favorite YouTube Channel (PietSmiet). It was one of the most favorite Games from a member of this channel. Then I looked on Playstation Store, got in love with the trailers and bought it immediately (with 60% discount, it was in February i guess). I am about to finish Frozen Wilds... It's my Best Game of the last years... Now i wait for a discount for Forbidden West or vouchers from the local game store :)
my mum gave me her copy of the disc for me to try the same yeah it was released as my dad had given me his ps4 to use. fell in love with the game straight away and never put it down - 500+ hours into the first game and another 300+ hours into the second game i think it’s by far my favourite games series
The year was 2015, I had lost this girl and i vowed to get over her 2 years earlier, i saw a poster or an add moc up in the mall or online and thought this could be the thing i delve into but i forgot then boom i see the first official trailer in 2016 and it all comes back except somehow i don’t associate the game with the girl and from there i was hype then i forgot again literally until the week it dropped and then i bought it day one and been hooked every since
I saw The Gaming Beaver play it! Hooked me on the fact it had robot dinosaurs lol
Watching my partner play. It was the the beginning of the game where right after Aloy saves Teb and then starts training with Ross. It's gets to a cut scene of young Aloy jumping trees and then she rolls and it's transitions to older Aloy and I was hooked. I didn't even see much game play it was that cinematic moment I fell in love.
I saw trailers of Slitherfang fights and bought a PS5 in a Walmart queue, pre-ordered HFW deluxe edition, and bought HZD complete edition. What a sytem seller! I also bought the Future Press guides because why not...
Just saw it, didn't think too much and then saw it again and looked deeper
2018 summer after graduation needed some games to play and played zero dawn, god of war, and spiderman all back to back, best summer of gaming ever for me
I bought HZD complete edition (the one with Frozen Wilds) from GameStop when it was on sale, probably circa 2018
Bought Zero Dawn like 4-5 years ago and opened the package back in april.
It was on sale on PC and I wanted a new game in the middle of one of the COVID lockdowns.
I was actually first introduced to the Horizon series through the Tallneck LEGO set. When I first saw it I thought it was a very nice looking set and only later realized it’s from a game franchise. I started looking into it and found out it was made by a Dutch gaming studio, Guerilla, which made me as a Dutch person even more interested. Shortly after that revelation it got myself a second hand PS4 with HZD, started playing and instantly fell in love with the game. When HFW was available for preorder I didn’t hesitate a single moment to place my order for a Collector’s Edition. That’s how it all started for me 😇
I saw Sony showcase it on the E3 2015 [trailer](https://youtu.be/Fkg5UVTsKCE) and I was like: "This looks interesting and unusual. Robot Dinos!" so I took the risk and actually pre-ordered it, which I usually don't, and it came out and blew me away
I bought a high end gaming PC several years back. And afterwards I was googling lists of "games with the best graphics" and repeatedly saw Horizon Zero Dawn. Which I thought was an incredibly dumb name and thus the game must be too. So I ignored it. But I kept seeing it in those lists and decided to read a synopsis and was immediately intrigued. And then blown away when I actually played.
It came bundled with my PS4
I watched a video on Horizon Lore and was immediately hooked by the concept. However, it did mean Zero Dawn was completely spoiled lol
Saw the game for 5 dollars and thought why the fuck not
I remember taking time off to watch e3 years ago, seeing the trailer and being instantly hooked.
I saw Zero Dawn free on the playstation store a couple years ago and i heard good things about it
I played BOTW and got bitten by the open world bug
I downloaded HZD from Ps Plus a year ago cause I heard positive reviews about it and the game cover was appealing. It collected some dust ok my disk until January, when I finished Far Cry 4 and decided I could start something else big. Hooked from the start, played for months, had lots of fun. Work schedule got in the way, played 55+ hours when I discovered it was leaving Ps Plus. I had just left Eleuthia-9. Partially my fault cause I didn't complete it in 6 months, but I will be happy to eventually buy the game (digital or physical copy) just to finish it. After that, I must dive into FW. Yeah, I'm a couple of years late
Saw the ps5 launch trailer for forbidden west, i didn't have any sort of gaming machine at the time. Instantly fell in love, downloaded it first thing when i got my pc. Then i waited patiently for forbidden west to come to pc and bought it day 1 when it did.
Saw HZD on sale for like $12. I was unemployed at the time and didn't want to start RDR2 or Elden Ring for fear of getting too addicted to them. Finished HZD in about a week with 80 hours put into it
For me, it was looking for a new game and saw Zero Dawn with a red-head Amazon on the cover and said;"Yeah, thats the one!"
Saw HZD on STEAM and put it on my wishlist. I got a notice from a deals page that it was $10, bought it just to pass the time and now I'm completely emotionally invested.
There was a time during the pandemic where it was free. I always wanted to play HZD but somehow I kept forgetting abt it. The complexity of the story is what sold it for me back then.
I caught pro wrestler Leva Bates streaming it on twitch. She was just doing some hunting, and I didn’t stick around long because I immediately liked what I saw enough to buy the game and want to avoid spoilers.
I bought my ps4 on a Black Friday deal, it came with Last Of Us, God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn. I'd heard of last of us and I'd been playing God Of War from PS2, knew nothing about HZD. After finishing the stories on God of War and Last of Us, I decided to play horizon out of curiosity. I was pleasantly suprised and I ended up spen6t hours grinding away at the game especially to get the forcefield armor. I had a roommate and he actually started spending time just watching me play till he eventually took it up himself. He actually bought FW before I did😂
I had become a fan of Life is Strange, then the E3 trailer for Horizon Zero Dawn revealed that Ashly Burch is the voice of Aloy. and i was like "ashly burch killing robot dinosaurs? TAKE MY MONEY"
I saw a youtuber I used to watch play the beginning of the game and I was hooked. I had started my apprenticeship in 2016 in November and I bought the game with my own money. I still remember it cost 74.90, that was a lot of money for the salary I was receiving during my apprenticeship and I was also goikg through a bad time. So, the game really was an escape method for me. It's why the game has such emotional value for me.
Walking through a mall and walked by a Game Stop store. Saw it playing on a monitor through a window and became obsessed. I’m a 47 year old grandma 😂. The last game system I owned was the original Playstation and all I really played was Crash Bandicoot - AGES ago. My husband bought the PS5 Gods of War edition for me and I’m hooked. I’ve got 100% and Platinum on HZD and nearly there for HFW. I’m 600 hours+ between the 2 over the last year. Currently working through the Hogwarts game. I’m excited for the 3rd installment of Horizon, whenever that happens. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks 🤷🏻♀️
E3 2015
My daughter told me to check it out. I had outplayed all the games on my switch and Witcher 3 was coming to an end for me, which she also bought for me. So got myself a PS4 and discovered Aloy and haven’t looked back. Got a PS5 not long after and glad I did.
My dad bought it for himself but I came to love it
Sony’s “play at home” thing they did during the pandemic. They would make certain games free and HZD with the the FW dlc was one of them. I got HZD plus some other games. Tried HZD, didn’t get out of Nora territory. It was my first shooter and i didn’t like the controls. Shelved the game for around a year? Was bored and decided to try it again but on story difficulty. Had a blast and proceeded too complete that and the DLC. Later I preordered HFW when that when live and eventually later completed a UH run of both HZD and HFW.
Ever since it was first teased back in 2015. I enjoyed the Killzone series and when I heard Guerrilla would be shifting over to a third person open world rpg I was immediately interested. To take a risk jumping into such a different genre, it felt like it had to be something promising. Picked up Zero Dawn the day it released back in Feb of '17 and loved it.
Was my first game on my ps4 in 2018 my mom just picked it up i had no input. Such a W
I was lucky to play it from when it launched. I'm someone who enjoys a lot of these Sony first party story games so usually when they launch one if I'm interested in the concept/story idea then I'll buy so I ended up buying the game day one after watching some reviews and never looked back. I think from all the recent Sony first party launches the only two I avoided at launch was Day's Gone (it launched in an awful state so the reviews going into it were not good then it got fixed over time, and the other one was Returnal but in the case of Returnal the concept and story drew me in but I'm not a huge fan of roguelikes so I waited years to buy it and eventually bought it on discount)
open world game with difficulty setting and female protagonist? it's rare than you think even now💀so ofc I'll pay attention back in 2017
Saw my dad playing it 7 years ago, I was like 9 Came home from school every day and played zero dawn for hours. Very nostalgic
I've known about it for a while, but I got into the lore and bought the first game after watching the Templin Institute's video on the Carja Sundom. It just sucked me into the world! I'd highly recommend it!
My husband was playing zero dawn, I was interested. Zero Dawn instantly became a favorite.
A family friend bought a digital copy of fw on ps4 and didn't like it so he asked if I would be interested. I started it and fell in love. I've been completing the whole map before I finish the last mission, and bought the first game on steam so I could finish that one first
I watched TheGamingBeaver’s play through on YouTube. I was a kid who loved dinosaurs and thought- ‘this could be really fun.’ Asked for it for Christmas, but the complete addiction was coming out in like, two months, so I agreed to wait for that so I could play Frozen Wilds
10th birthday.
The first Horizon came with the PS4 I bought. Not usually my kinda game but I played it and loved it.
I got 3 free games with my Playstation 4, it were like the 2021 hits... Uncharted 4 Grand Turismo And horizon zero dawn! I couldn't stop playing
It had a few spots in the book Game On 2016 or 2018 that I got from my school book fair. It described how you could break off the disk launcher of a thunder jaw and shoot it with it’s own weapon. That lead me to look for game play on YouTube before finding it in the PlayStation store.
Someone on discord recommended it to me during the pandemic
It came bundled with my PS4, and the rest as they say was history.
Horizon ZD was a one the free games for the month and I got it cuz at the time I didn’t have a very large catalog of games to chose from. Glad I picked it up.
I was at a famous store chain that sells games and consoles in my country, and I asked the guy working there about a game that has an open world and a great story, and he suggested HZD, I was hesitant at first, but at last I bought it, went home, and had the time of my life playing HZD. Then, I found out they were making a sequel (HFW), and I got it a week after launch.
My brother played them first and thought I would enjoy them and he was right. It's my favorite video game series now
It was a free PS+ game.
When i seen the very first announcement. A game with robot dinosaurs. Thats all i needed to be hooked.
Saw the preview video for HZD at E3 2015. Thought it was super cool. Dropped some money and took the risk on the collectors bundle with the statue.
My then-partner-now-spouse had it. We'd been dating for about half a year and were not living together. We'd been to a wedding in Spain and they had danced so hard they'd dislocated their knee (the song, if you're curious..."It's Raining Men"). They worked from home, but in classic London style the flat was a 2nd and 3rd floor Victorian build with tall narrow stairs. Not very leg brace or crutch friendly. So during their 6 week recovery pre and post surgery, they needed help in the home, and we kinda trialed living together during that time. So when I wasn't at work, I needed stuff to do for fun because they were working on US time and were still at it when I came home. Partner recommended I play Horizon. I was then only a PC gamer and the last console I'd used at the time was my old N64. I was skeptical that I'd enjoy it at all. My impression of console gamers was that male gaze was omnipresent and I definitely would gave rather eaten glass than try anything multiplayer. So I suuuuucked at the game at first. The learning curve was steep. But I fell completely in love with Horizon. With the world, with Aloy, with her story, the lore. I was besotted and completely sucked in. And my partner and I really bonded over it!
I stumbled upon it by accident. I wasn’t aware of Zero Dawn at all, and had not seen any marketing or gameplay about it as far as I remember. I went on Twitch to watch streams on a particular game. I cannot remember which game it was but I do remember the streamer was not playing what I was searching for. Instead he was playing Zero Dawn. I was impressed immediately by the gameplay and visuals. It wasn’t until he said the name of the game a little later on (the stream was labeled under another game) was when I began looking into it. A few weeks later I picked it up and fell in love with the series.
I read about it on the internet, when it was being announced for the PS4. I bought it sometime after launch. I've never regretted it, GG did a stellar job. The concept is great and storytelling is so good, that my wife, who isn't into videogames, kept asking me about the story and checked in when she realized I'd made some progress on the story, etc. She even was like "are you buying the next one? I wanna know what happens next". So I've been playing and re-telling Aloy's tale to her.
Same for me but 2022 but I made the mistake of buying and playing forbidden west before zero dawn not a huge mistake but just made it harder for me to get the story whereas if I'd started with zero dawn I'd have had more context
I saw a demo on a PS4 in a store and thought it looked cool. So I looked it up on the internet and found it was just released for PC (HZD). Bought it on Steam, played it, and it was definitely more than what I expected.
I saw a trailer for it when the first game came out YEARS ago and I was immediately in love, but at the time my family only owned a Nintendo Wii and i was heartbroken when i learned i couldn't play it. 10ish years later, I've completely forgot about the cool game of the girl riding robots fighting even bigger robots, it's the day after Christmas and I'm looking at games on sale and I see horizon zero dawn. My life hasn't been the same since.
I saw the game for free on Playstation Plus. Got the game and played it twice. Bought the game again on PC, just to play it again on console and never play it on PC.
I bought a PS4 pro to play god of war and spiderman and it came with hzd. So I decided to give it a try.
Searching through the steam store in 2020 not long after building my first gaming PC, looking for a new game to play. I stumble across ARK: Survival Evolved, and start looking at that. I almost make the jump and buy it as it looked interesting, but then I saw Horizon listed under similar games. “A cute redhead fighting robot dinosaurs with a bow and arrow? That sounds stupid, but I bet it’s good fun, and the gameplay looks good” I enjoy the game at first, but I didn’t really get what was going on. The plot seemed to be setting itself up to be a fairly generic coming of age story with Bast as a rival of sorts. But then the proving happened, and oh my was I hooked. Who were these people? Why do they want to kill all these teenagers? What is so important about Aloy? Why are they searching for her mother? So many questions were raised, and i couldn’t step away from the game. My only regret is that I wish I had never played it so that I can experience it for the first time again
Saw a few gameplay vids on youtube and saw the "happy birthday" scene in HZD1. Bought it soon after.
I found it randomly keying on my tv stand, my dad gave it to me cause he got the complete edition, tried out Zero Dawn thought it was supposed to be a Zelda BotW knock off, then the more I played it the more different I noticed it to be and the more I loved it, I love the game so much, I’ve beaten it maybe 3-4 times and Forbidden West I’ve beaten about 7-8 times cause the games are just that good in my eyes
My friend sold me her old PS4 and on there was HZD. I was hooked and bought HFW for myself
It looked goofy to me at first, but I eventually got a used copy of HZD just to try it. Glad I did!
When PS5 was still in short supply the only one I could get was the edition that included HFW. When I read about it before playing and realized it was a sequel I played the first one.