You will recognise the tribes your hunters belong to, the weapon and ammo types and the armour sets. If you are a fan and can tell your Striders from your Broadhead, everything in the board game will look immediately familiar.

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game is just about the hunt for the machines.

In fact, the main character, Aloy, does not make an appearance unless you count her body being used as a ‘coat-hanger’ for the armour cards, although you never actually see her face. The board game does not aim to re-tell the story of the video game or any other story in the same universe. It is no surprise then, that when transitioning from the digital form to a board game, the hunt-salvage-improve formula became the core gameplay aspect of Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game as well. Hunting them, stripping them down to their mechanical parts, using the salvage to improve your armour and weapons to take on a bigger opponent next time is an incredibly satisfying gameplay loop that became one of the core staples of the franchise. Beyond the mystery of the collapsed world of Horizon Zero Dawn, one of the biggest appeals of the game is seeing various animals re-imagined as machines with different abilities, mechanical parts and weaknesses. Tribal societies and advanced, often dangerous, technologies seem like too much of an improbable mix to work, yet Horizon Zero Dawn manages to weave hunting metal sabretooths with a bow and arrow in with a touching and relatable story of self-searching and identity.

Horizon zero dawn board game