Winner: Horizon Zero Dawn
Best New IP of 2017
Guerrilla Games has been best known as the developer of the Killzone series for quite some time now. That all changed this year, though. Rather than sending players back into the dreary, Helghast-filled halls of the shooter franchise, Guerrilla introduced players to Aloy, a bunch of giant robot monsters, and one of the most beautiful open worlds we’ve ever seen.
Horizon Zero Dawn takes players to a post-post-apocalyptic world where the landscape of our civilization has largely crumbled and nature has begun reclaiming the land. Tribes have formed, allowing for trade among one another, but more importantly granting protection for the giant machines lumbering around the world. As Aloy, players uncover the mysteries of this world, what happened to ours, and the truth behind the hostile machines intent on eating her for breakfast.
Taking the fight to these machines is the most satisfying part of Horizon Zero Dawn (once you’ve dragged yourself out of photo mode, that is). Each different type of machine is its own puzzle you’ll need to solve, utilizing your arsenal of weapons and ammo types to exploit their weak spots and elemental weaknesses. Using a Ropecaster to immobilize a nimble machine, before setting its Blaze canister alight with a fire arrow or explosive bomb never stops being satisfying, and that’s just one of the simpler variants of machine you’ll come across on your adventure.
Accompanying the combat is a gripping story with plenty of twists and turns, and this is expanded upon outside of the main quests by a ton of collectible datapoints that help to fill in the blanks. Add in an open world filled with side quests, hunting challenges, collectibles, and enemies to take on, and there’s more than enough content to keep you going for way over 40 hours. Oh, and the game is truly one of the best-looking games we’ve seen this generation so far.
Taking all of that into account, we’re pretty darn pleased that Guerrilla Games opted for something new. Horizon Zero Dawn certainly has the potential to stand as one of PlayStation’s headline exclusive series for the foreseeable future, and if that’s not an indication of the best new IP of 2017, we’re not sure what is.
