The Deserts of Horizon Zero Dawn - Part 2

In my last gaming photography post on Horizon Zero Dawn, I showcased the frozen landscapes in the game. Today, I want to switch it 180 degrees and take you to the nearby desert. The game has such an amazing landscape, but the biomes could have been more. The sharp change from the snowy lands to the deserted areas makes it feel a bit less immersive.

That doesn't mean the actual landscape is bad; it is one of the best I have seen in games. I have yet to play the Forbidden West, but I am impressed with what I am seeing in this game. And today, I will show you some of my best shots that I took while exploring this area and hunting down deadly machines.

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I changed almost all of my HUD settings so they dynamically appear only when I am engaged in combat or taking damage. This increased the immersive experience this game gives us. The normal HUD is too busy for my liking, and having a minimalistic HUD in such a beautiful game is so good.

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I love sunsets and sunrises in modern games; these games know how to mimic the sky and make it more dramatic during those times. This gives me some good shots to look at, some of which will later be my desktop wallpapers, too.

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There are a lot of big cacti all over the place. You can see some of the snowy mountains in the background. The draw distance in the game is high enough that you can see them easily.

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It's not always this peaceful here. There is a lot of activity going on. I saw some Carja Tribe troops patrolling the area. They are friendly to Nora, so we were safe from them. But I still had to test if I could deal damage to them.

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The funny part is, I can hit them and they flinch and stop moving, but their AI doesn't know what to do. They don't attack me even if I am shooting them in the heat, standing next to them, nor do they die from those headshots. It is like the game registers it as a shot, but their health doesn't go down.

While I was playing with them and testing their patience. One of them saw a Snapmaw and started shouting. This made them all attack that Snapmaw machine. But they were just 4 of them against 3 big machines.

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I had to help them. During this conflict, they were certainly taking damage, and two of them died as well.

But once we killed all of those, look at how one of the remaining soldiers was posing in front of the dying machine. They sure have some courage.

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These fights are quite normal, but I have never seen them fighting against big machines like this before. Sometimes they would take on a few Watchers or Grazers, but not like this.

I had my eyes on something even more deadlier. The Stormbird!

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It is a monster of the sky. Tough to take down because of its high-flying manoeuvres and electricity-based attacks. My strategy is to slowly take off one component at a time and weaken it.

Look at that wingspan.

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With all that metal, I wonder how it is able to generate this much thrust to keep flying. But who cares as long as it's a cool fight...right?

I will end this post with Aloy balancing on a tight rope on top of a river. She is a talented one. She can even shoot with some accuracy like that... impressive.

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Let me know if you liked these shots and which one is your favourite.