Beaten: 24-Jun-2018

This game's reputation as one of the best of the current console generation is well-deserved. Everything about it: the deep story, amazing art direction, high-level graphics and entertaining game play have been polished like glistening metal! Although it doesn't beat The Witcher 3's sheer size, ambition, and level of detail, HZD manages to craft a mesmerizing and beautiful world of its own. And while many a game has been set in a post-apocalyptic setting, HZD immediately establishes a unique, fractured world of primitive human civilization that exists alongside amazing working technology in the form of robotic animals that roam the countryside. Machines are dangerous, feared, respected, and hunted. Scrap metal and pieces of machines are valuable commodities for building materials, clothing, armor and trade. You play as Aloy, a young outcast girl from a highly religious tribe. The primary quest is tracking down a group of cultists who are responsible for a deadly attack on the tribe's lands, but this task takes on much larger dimensions that leads to the discovery of what destroyed Earth's civilization and why robots are everywhere in the world now. (Minor spoiler: thankfully, aliens have no role this time.) If you enjoy open-world games this is a must-play!