For those of you who missed the buzz around "Horizon Zero Dawn," which launched on PS4 in 2017, here's a rundown. The film is a system-driven sandbox in which you play Aloy, a tribal outcast with a chip on his shoulder and an undeniable talent for killing robo-beasts. Why are these mechanical monsters roaming a land that otherwise seems to have been brought straight from the set of "One Million Years B.C."? Because "Horizon" is that rare thing: a dystopian video game that has something original to say about Armageddon.

Instead of spinning a tale of naive tribesmen battling the oncoming evils of technology, "Horizon" has the chutzpah to spin a tale that encompasses complex themes. Whether addressing issues of abandonment or tackling uncomfortable themes such as ethnic cleansing, Guerrilla Games demonstrates a level of nuanced and mature storytelling that the "Killzone" series on PlayStation consoles never quite reached.

It helps that the "Mass Effect"-style conversation wheel allows you to manipulate Aloy's temperament a bit. In nearly every main mission and side quest, you can answer NPC questions thoughtfully, cordially, or curtly. While your decisions don't affect the overarching story, these moment-to-moment choices bring you closer to Aloy. This is a smart design decision that makes it easier to invest in Horizon's (initially emotionally distant) world.

It is to Horizon's credit that it has crafted a coherent and moving story with robotic monsters. Just because the open-world premise is a bit absurd doesn't mean it can't deliver a satisfying story. Maneater should take note.

The true glory of Horizon. Its magnificent machines. From Velociraptor-like Watchers to Thunder Jaws, the giant apex predator that dwarfs the T-Rex, the game's curious creatures prove a joy to fight. Showcasing the dumb but in some ways clever AI that "Far Cry" enemies have flaunted for over a decade, the machines of "Horizon" are easy to control but difficult to defeat. With Aloy's unlikely augmented earpiece (don't worry, you'll learn what it means as the story progresses), she can track the patrol routes of her giant foes and choose whether to manipulate or kill them.

Sneak up on Strider and hack its systems, turning the stocky beast into an almost docile mount. With Aloy's Deadeye Sharpshooter Arrow, he can blast Thunder Joe's turret off its mighty back. Expose the fragile entrails of the giant metal crab and bask in the crustacean's cruelty as you light it up with your flamethrower. Thanks to the variety of weapons and equally inventive enemies, Horizon's girl-versus-giant battles never get boring.

It's also fascinating to watch the mechanical marvels simply interact with their environment when you think you're not looking. Like the strange magical moment in the swamps of "Red Dead Redemption" when you come across a wild stallion rolling and playing in the morning dew, the beasts of "Horizon" can mesmerize with the same style of natural behavior. Well, if you can call a 45-foot android crocodile slinking into a lake natural. One moment you might observe a herd of elk-like broadheads munching on knee-high grass. The next moment, you might witness a group of small machines fleeing the path of a deadly ravenger as Horizon's three-ton pumas sniff around for their next mechanized prey.

Most fascinating of all is the moment when the camera is set up. As you point the camera above you, you can see them leisurely strolling around the rugged tallneck-set perimeter. This magnificent leviathan acts more or less like a walking version of Far Cry's antenna towers, revealing areas of the map as you climb up and hack into the satellite skulls. It is as awe-inspiring a creature as any I have ever seen in any game. When I first encountered the Alloy, I was like Alan Grant trying to shake off his sunglasses after witnessing a brachiosaurus grazing in Jurassic Park.

Aloy's encounters with his fellow humans don't go so well; there's no denying that when the console version of "Horizon" was first released three years ago, it was a bit derivative; in 2020, its all-too-familiar tone is even more out of tune. It's clear that Aloy was mimicking the "Enemy Stronghold 101" course in Far Cry 3 when she took it, as her map is dotted with encampments that prompt repeated stealth takedowns and silent bow kills to capture. What makes these similar attacks worthwhile, albeit safe? The promise of more XP and the unlocking of fresh machine-taming capabilities.

We want to gain stealth drops that allow us to plummet 50 feet without hearing a sound, or unlock skills that allow us to draw our bows in slow motion every time Alloy jumps. You should kill all the primitive bad guys in nearby camps with a minimum of fuss. These base-control quests are popping up all over the place, so it's a shame that they don't showcase the kind of streamlined, sneaky confidence that Ubisoft finally hit on in Far Cry 5. Aloy is good at knocking down oversized machines on the open plains, but throw her into a box camp with guards swarming from all sides, and she's nowhere near as good a fighter.

The world of Horizon Zero Dawn is much more interesting than Hope County; along with The Witcher 3, it is one of the most engaging and realistic open worlds on the PC. While the first few hours of the game depict a generic frosty environment that has already been featured in a number of hypothermia games, Horizon's gorgeous world quickly proves to be one of the most visually varied.

As the story progresses and Aloy's restraints are lifted, the hunter quickly finds his footing across a wide variety of landscapes: snow-covered wastelands that eclipse the tundra of Rise of the Tomb Raider and soon become Red Dead Redemption 2's Red Dead Redemption 2" into a meadow that could easily surpass the sweltering deserts of "Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Early on, it has been noted that "Horizon" is somewhat inconsistent as a PC port. Several members of the team tried playing the game on a variety of hardware, with somewhat erratic results. Fortunately, featured producer James Davenport was able to run Horizon at 1440p resolution on an RTX 2080 GPU at a mostly stable 60fps. The hardware team has also been hard at work benchmarking this game, averaging over 75 fps at 1440p on the RTX 2080.

But what about my setup: despite playing with a 2080 Ti and a powerful CPU, the frame rate went back and forth between the mid-40s and low 50s at the same resolution... I hope to be able to play Horizon in 4K with more performance than the PS4 version can offer. I expect to be able to play it. I may be out of luck with that too; the best I managed to get at 2160p with a mix of medium and high settings was a stuttering 25fps to 40fps experience. The first day's patch didn't improve it, but that's certainly not a universal experience.

Horizon's PC port falls short of a conversion like "RDR2," but it remains a very polished, top-class open-world adventure. While the stealth and exploration elements are appropriated from other games, the time spent in Horizon will burn brightly in my memory thanks to Aloy's imaginative combat and mesmerizing metallic enemies.