RE: Opinion on games changing over time for better or worse.
Regarding the game in question in the original letter, Hollow Knight, time has increased my estimation of the game. The pinpoint controls, brooding atmosphere, and Dark Souls-like challenge and reward keep me coming back. It’s a game I love to inhabit so I find its length and wealth of content are positives. All of the content is of a very high quality.
A game I do feel less about since my initial play and appraisal is Horizon Zero Dawn. It’s still a great game I enjoy but I put it in my top three for 2017, along with Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and Resident Evil 7. The last two have gone up in my estimations but Horizon down and I don’t think it’s one of the games of the generation contenders now.
Still love the bombastic fights and also the origin story off the robots and Aloy, which is what kept me playing first time around. But the identikit, Ubisoft style icon-filled map, rinse and repeat collectathon core elements felt tired at the time and have withered further with time.
The game still looks breathtaking but its world’s beauty is skin deep, as there’s not a whole lot of secrets to be found aside from the aforementioned collectables, the cauldrons and power suit were great discoveries and I wished there where far more cool finds in the game like that.
The tribe story elements are terrible and it’s very annoying Aloy seems to be suffering from some kind of condition when not in the presence of clearly marked yellow grapple points.
A good game but lots of meh components to it.
Simundo Jones
