Horizon Zero Dawn Review The Guardian

Guerrilla Games’ have created a brave, independent, multi-dimensional heroine to lead this highly satisfying mission.

[UCForce]

"Sigh" I'm very tired about this article. Also, the whole Anti SJW VS SJW BS are just ridiculous. I'm very tired of it. More importantly, there will be a lot of misunderstanding, misjudged miscalculated and mistrust in the future. This is why I don't side with anyone. Because I'm afraid that one day I would hurt wrong person without knowing which one.

Edit : Let me tell you something that you people going to regret it. One day in the future, people will lose their sight of judgment and blame everyone without knowing who right and wrong. It will be no longer SJW vs Anti SJW, it will be free for all, everyone for themselves.

Edit#2 : I really hate this article.

[RpgSama]

There is no feminist agenda with this game, the feminist agenda is only coming from the media, do not let it kill your hype or feel conflicted and upset, if this game will succeed or not it will not be because the lead is male or female, but based on the quality of the whole package.

[UCForce]

For me, I really like Aloy it's not because she is strong female character, but she have cool personality. GG said Aloy is inspired by Ripley from Ailen and Sarah from Terminator series especially the personality. Also, her design inspired by Princess Mononoke.

Edit : @SmileManN It's not the game turn me off. It's the article.

[SmielmaN]

I too am tired of all the separatist movements. Everyone wants everyone to be welcoming of all types but also want to be segregated in their separate groups and if you present other opinions contrary to their main objective the name call and attempt to ridicule. It's all just ppl bickering non stop. So sick of today's "movements".

As for this game, it looks awesome. I don't mind playing as any being, human or otherwise.

But please, linking this game to feminism is going to turn me off big time.

[game4funz]

Exactly. Feminism has nothing to do with this game. There has always been strong female characters in the world, politics, and games.

That being said... If there is a feminist agenda within this game. I may not support it. Just like the LGBT crap from the next mass effect.

[nyckrazy]

Game4funz u have a right to be ignorant of injustices towards minority groups and other issues of today. I cant wait for this game though. Already preordered. GG looks like they got a hit on their hands.

[Omnislashver36]

I guess it depends on which wave of feminist and if you're talking about an actual social agenda.

Does it have a strong female heroine? Yes. Does it have an agenda? No. It's what you call well-adjusted. Regular. Normal. It's neither SJW nor Anti-SJW. It's feminist-friendly(depending on the wave) but not feminist nor anti-feminist.

It just normal. Can we all just agree on that? This is what games are supposed to look like. Good female AND male characters.

[AmUnRa]

^^^
This!!!

[uth11]

@Smielman-

It's loosely called "identy politics". The end result is it inevitably pits every group against every other and causes the chaos we see today

[WombBat]

I dont think its a feminist game.

Not my cup of tea, because of the style of it, but i dont think its feminist.

[Deadpooled]

"There is no feminist agenda with this game, the feminist agenda is only coming from the media, do not let it kill your hype or feel conflicted and upset, if this game will succeed or not it will not be because the lead is male or female, but based on the quality of the whole package."

This. Exactly how it should be, but nowadays people love to stir agendas to try to change people to their pointless opinions.

... oh wait, just realised the Guardian posted this review. Tbf long may they continue trying to stir the liberal fact-excluding stance in media since they're already dying, less people are believing their tripe, and the quicker they die the better the world would become.

[IamTylerDurden1]

I personally enjoy seeing a badass female protagonist.

[Death]

I'm not sure I would consider females a minority group. As for the LBGT movement in video games, I'm not sure why it's relevant or even wise to shoehorn issues like this into games in the first place. If sexual preference is left out of gaming, no one is offended and gamers can decide on there own. From a personal standpoint I don't understand how the LGBT community expects people to respect and accept their choices. You have about as much a chance to convince someone that is gay to be straight as you do trying to convince someone that is against it to accept it. To me it is a persons right to feel the way they do and decide on what they support as long as their views and actions don't violate the rights of others. The left and the right are both wrong. The answer is much closer to the middle. Most gamers play video games to get away from issues such as this. I'm not sure why devs want to create any kind of division in games.

[Fist4achin]

Yeah, there shouldn't be any agendas in any game. Why can't the game just be?! Sexual preference, race, gender shouldn't be made a point unless it has something to do directly with the story or moves it along in some way...

[joab777]

Exactly. She is a great example, I am guessing of a female characters that works within the context, as opposed to being shoehorned in on purpose. We will see but it sounds great so far...

Is it me or does this article say review. I guess it does review the first 3 missions!

[UnHoly_One]

Why does the hero look like a child? Is she supposed to be a kid?

That is the only thing that bugs me about her. Her face does not match her body.

Her face looks like she is 13, tops.

[UltraNova]

I dont give a flying f*** if the lead character of a game is male, female or a fricking pink alien; all I care about is getting off work/gym and all the other shit I have to deal with each day and escape this stinking reality by playing games I like. The moment a dev tries to force-inject a game with even a hint of this overblown socio-political cesspool that it designed to divide people, that dev/company is dead to me.

I would like to beleive that we, or most of us, play games because they allow us to escape reality for a few minutes each day... so what's the point when some start merging our games with the ugly reality?

Now that I got that out of my system...I havent seen anything when it comes to Horizons story/characters that alludes to such influences. That said I will not buy this day 1, I will wait for some trusted reviews/opinions first to see if its clean from any agenda bull.

[Utalkin2me]

@RpgSama

You're totally right. And being that it has been so well received so far. Some haters try to stir things up to get people riled up. This game looks 50 times better then the Sea of Sleeps gameplay demo i just watched. I actually bookmarked that video for when i have trouble sleeping.

[Uken12]

@UCForce
I feel like she is clearly Ygritte from Game of Thrones. I mean the first time i saw the trailer way back, I was like wow, that is Ygritte.
That being said I feel like these developers with hyper real games copy characters likeness and tend to say other characters are what inspired them. When it looks like it was lifted from something else. Another example is Ellie from TLOU, she was clearly modeled after Ellen Page. So much so that it created an issue. I feel this is the same but people are just ignoring the connection.
All that being said it makes me like the character less. No hate to your opinion, but this is just how I feel. (Huge fan of A Song of Ice and Fire). The game still looks beautiful and cool though.

[gtxgamer2]

Can I ask what SJW means?

[Liqu1d]

Social Justice Warrior

[yeahright2]

They're the guys that get upset over every little thing. The most hi skinned of us. The reason why Jerry Seinfeld won't perform for colleges anymore, and Michael Keaton had to apologize for mixing up the names of a couple films, or MS being accused of being racists because of a zombie growl.

[game4funz]

Social justice warrior... Someone who feels there's an injustice in today's society vs minority groups. And normally also feel that white people have been living in a privileged way.

These people should study history. Racism or slavery has affected all people including white.

@jmac and that's how I know you're ignorant.

[bluefox755]

People that believe your rights end where their feelings begin.

[jmac53]

@game4funz "slavery has affected all people including whites". That's how I know your an idiot.

[TheRacingX]

@jmac53 why is game4funz an idiot? There were slaves in every race..... whites included, Romans enslaved other tribes from Europe. The Arabs, Ottoman etc enslaved over a million white europeans in North Africa during the 1500's, the Egyptians enslaved Jews, The Japanese enslaved Korean and Chinese peoples.... it goes on and on..... so inform yourself before calling someone else an idiot, because you sound like one with your comment.

[Mr-Dude]

@gtxgamer
Go to Neogaf, there are a lot of SJW there. Mostly hyperbole. Sometimes, but very rare it's just. They would have 8 topics about Aloy if she had bigger breasts or butt.

[Godmars290]

More like SJWs are people who want to judge others based only on an identifying characteristic. The color of your skin, your race, your gender, whatever gender someone wants to identify as, a disability, than anything you actually do in regards to talent skill or ability.

The gaming community didn't get hit with until Gamer Gate, which started because a hack female dev sexed up some game reviewers in exchange for positive press, got outed by her boyfriend, and in the resulting backlash many notable game sites as well as social community sites, namely Reddit, attacked and censored gamers with ethical questions for those very same news sites who in turn began attacking their very audience under the excuse that the female dev was being attacked for only being a female dev. Not that she had "paid" off reviewers for promoting her game.

Though really think SJWs got started with the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began well enough and with good intentions, only to fall apart because of internal politicizing based on the most disadvantaged group, which the establishment media spun and fractured further into irrelevancy in the eye of the public.

But then, largely on the liberal media side, they came back.

[Godmars290]

@jmac53

"That's how I know your an idiot."

What are YOU even talking about.

Indentured Servitude, someone either signing on to effectively be a slave for a specific number of years, such as in order to pay for passage to America, was a thing right besides colonial slavery. Just as slavery existed well before the European colonial period. There were periods in the US up until around the 40s mining and corporate towns rigged the local economies, used their own money, to keep their workers in debt.

Make no mistake, don't be so limited to think, that if they could business would do in the US what they do things like in China with Foxcon.

[Utalkin2me]

@jmac53

"@game4funz "slavery has affected all people including whites". That's how I know your an idiot."

SMFH.......ROFLMAO

[uth11]

What do you mean in the future? We already assign blame without knowing the facts today!

[G20WLY]

And who's fault is that??!

;^P

[uth11]

@G20WLY

I don't know all the facts here, but obviously it's the fault of left-wing Islamist fundamentalist Christian transgender Mexican pinko gamergater gundealers who voted for Trump. All 3 of them

[Bathyj]

Was this title changed? This is a review now?

[MagicBeanz]

Wtf?

[joab777]

That's relativism for ya! Everything is right in everyone's eyes, and thus...

[MyDietEqualsGames]

That is because you are sick of the politics. These kids attending university today, are learning all about this stuff. Then they get angry about issues that have prevailed before their time rather than have clear heads with the means to communicate and discuss based on rationale behavior and critical thinking.

I've never seen our country (U.S) so divided. It worries me when I give it thought.

Which is why I'd rather politics take a fucking hike, when it comes to our games.

[Mithan]

I don't care about SJW, most are biased idiots causing trouble and supported by ignorance.

[Mr Pumblechook]

This is NOT a review, it is a preview.

[TheSaint]

Don't be so melodramatic.

[Mister_G]

Dude! Chill. It's just a video game. If you don't like it, don't play it. Simples :)

[UCForce]

Also, this article isn't killing my hype of the game, but the feminist word that article put it that just made me feel conflicted and upset.

[Thetruebluebomber]

Same here.

[Seydoux21]

Same here Too

[CrystalFantasy]

Horizon is a femenist game no matter how you look at it. But it also looks like a good game. The only reason you'd feel conflicted is if ur insecure about yourself. Let the females preach their femenism if they want to.

[UCForce]

"Sigh" No, this is conflicted. I don't like Anti SJW and neither SJW. I have been through like that in the past. I had some people defend it and some people against it. The worst part is that I lost my trust between those two groups. I gave up because it was way too ridiculous. One day in the future, even if you are SJW or Anti SJW, you will hurt wrong person without knowing which one.

[OB1Biker]

Why would it be 'femenist'?
How would you define a feminist game? Besides the fact than neither of us has played it yet.

[Eonjay]

It is not a feminist game. It is a about a female lead. Oh wow, ring the alarms lol.

[vickers500]

UCForce

I hear you man. It's tough to strike a balance between the two.

On the one hand, you have whiny little sissies complaining that mario is sexist, people who will likely never actually play the games they complain about, even if every game dev did all of a sudden cave to their every whim. Many of these people are just trying to control shit.

On the other hand, you have these inbred racist/sexist/everything-ist-p hobic fuckwits who get upset when they are confronted with the realities of human society. "Oh noez, a gay! My fragile sensibilities demand I get angry and preach my own opinions on what is moral or gross!". Often times, if these scumbags are cowardly pussies, they will take the more subtle argument of not having "an agenda forced upon them" or "politics shouldn't be in my game", or the devs are "pandering".

Don't get me wrong, these reasons are fine, I just hate it when these biggoted pussies hide behind it and wont simply have the balls to just say they hate whatever group of people they're talking about.

It's usually hard to spot these people, seeing as how one hides behind the argument, and one actually believes in the argument, but generally you can tell these people at how butthurt they get whenever a main character in a game is announced as black/gay/trans, even when the game isn't even out yet, and throw fits, automatically assuming because it's not a straight white male, it's "pandering". Which it sometimes is (*cough* Overwatch *cough), but it is very rarely the case.

I myself fall in the middle. Anita Sarkeesian worshipers makes my stomach turn only slightly less than the bigots looking for some group of people to get mad at for existing in public.

I hate it, because too many people on this site are either one extreme or the other.

[ninsigma]

Female lead != feminism.

[slinky123456]

Feminist by definition is equality among Genders. But they think just because it has a Female playing the lead role it is "Feminist", and never any other way. That's now how most real modern Feminists work...

Technically a game with a male lead can be considered 'Feminist' and technically should be called so if people really believe the above and the word "Feminist" really means equality.

[sampson3121]

idiot

[rainslacker]

Just because a game includes a female protagonist doesn't make it a feminist driven game. That's silly. Sometimes, developers just want to have a female protagonist, without the politics.

Right now, I don't think we've seen enough of the game to be able to discern for ourselves what category this game falls in.

I don't think it's right that feminist get to claim anything that has a female protagonist as a game that is about them. It's ego-maniacal, and ignores any actual artistic effort the developer put into the job. Feminist like to take the "bad" representations of women as an insult, and the good one's as some victory for their cause. When a lot of times, it's just an artistic choice with no actual agenda attached to it.

@Slinky

That's how the modern extremist feminist works. The real feminist don't tend to deal with this kind of stuff, because it's superficial, and has little to no bearing on how women are treated in the real world. 20 year or so ago, the idea that women were belittled because of unrealistic representations in media was a thing. When it was realized that those representations didn't actually affect how most people treated women, they moved on to deal with the real problems that women fact in terms of equality.

The new breed of feminist seem to be hated equally by the "real feminist" that are out there and actually strive to be informed and make changes by tackling the important stuff. Most don't bother speaking out about it, because they recognize these current arguments as a passing fad, and they know that engaging heavily in the media is a waste of time in the way that social discourse is conducted nowadays.

[kenwonobi]

Shut up already. I guess you hate Resident Evil then? Ever heard of Tomb Raider? This game has a girl and all the sudden it's the first to do so?

[sampson3121]

grow the fuck up and grow a pair. jesus.

[rainslacker]

I've felt that the idea that a game is somehow feminist driven because it has a female protagonist has really ruined the idea that these characters can be independent of any agenda.

It's disconcerting that the good female protagonists are claimed up by the extreme feminists as examples of why their agenda is moving forward, even if the inclusion of said female has no bearing on the agenda at all.

The original Lara Croft was included as a strong female character, the new Lara Croft was made into a SJW pandering mess. The difference between a developer decision based on creative license, and one based on agenda politics is usually quite clear. Same with themes that may present themselves in games....such as Mass Effects inclusion of gay characters....although a lot of that was clouded because Bioware made a big deal about it. Other times it may not be so obvious, like Bill from TLOU, where it was very subtle, but I believe based partially on agenda politics.

It's not always bad it's included, but sometimes it's annoying.

That being said, from what we've seen of Horizon, I haven't felt there are any agenda politics going on yet, so with that limited information, I'm not willing to disparage against it.

[Cy]

Jesus Christ, can *anything* escape this BS politicization? You do understand that calling something a feminist game carries a *lot* of negative connotations, right? And it will turn people off who, otherwise, would have no problem with it? Although, this is The Guardian. I shouldn't expect common sense or restraint from them.

[Killa78]

Why would the word feminist hurt you?

They can call the game whatever they want, you have enough knowledge of the game to make your own opinion.

And even if this game was made by a bunch of feminists, what difference would that make to you?

If you like it, buy it. If people don't want to buy it because someone labelled the game as 'feminist', their loss

[Cy]

Never said it hurt me, I said it could hurt the game. Only 18% of the US identifies as feminist, and that's largely because modern day feminism is little more than an anti-man hate movement that espouses BS "privilege theory" and tries to claim that women are being oppressed by every man despite having the exact same legal rights men do, and, in some cases, even *more* rights than men do. And even if you don't agree with that interpretation, just claiming something is a "feminist game" adds an expectation of politicization that most likely doesn't exist. Will this main character claim that the deadly robots were made by misogynists? Will she travel from village to village to promote post-apocalyptic abortions? Will every female character in the game be a perfect goddess with no flaws, while every male character is either a "beta cuck" or 100%, irredeemably evil?

The answer to all of that is, most likely, of course not.

But when you say a game is a feminist game, those are the kinds of things that come to mind. And I guarantee you there are going to be people nitpicking all the dialogue and characterization looking for feminist messaging, who might not have before this article.

[bluefox755]

If it were made by a bunch of feminists, it would be agenda pushing garbage, fortunately, I don't think that's the case.

[andrewsquall]

"A game made by feminists"??? Lol I guess that's another way to interpret "a feminist action game" from the title.

[BlakHavoc]

I think a lot of ppl get the wrong idea about feminism. Some ppl picture radical practices like women hating anything male related, but that's not what feminism is, it's basically just advocating women's rights. Ppl that call it bs are the same ppl that like to pretend racial inequality doesn't exist or isn't a problem. I just have an issue with this article labeling Horizon as such, when I've seen nothing that would suggest the game is pushing a feminist agenda, I feel like they drew that conclusion from Aloy being a female lead, which is ludicrous. The use of the word "feminism" has been taken out of context a lot these days.

[FunAndGun]

Because they are insecure.

Then they will complain, argue, and disagree just like the SJW crowd does.

Look at what one article does to this place. Just the word "feminist" attached to a highly anticipated game makes them uneasy and scared like something is being taken away from them.

[uth11]

@BlakHavoc - feminism used to be about equality, but that's not what it is now, at least not among the most vocal proponents. Equality feminists need to reclaim the movement from those that have ruined it.

[Killa78]

It's just a bunch of man babies afraid of 'feminism', the same type that think terrorists are out to get them and think that they have a birthright to whatever they want.

The term is so broad it means next to nothing in the modern day.

[annoyedgamer]

"man babies" Did you just assume their gender?

[Allsystemgamer]

The feminists in my area have forced male shelters to close down by cutting funding. As a result many men have been cast out in the street and some have died. The owner of the shelter also committed suicide after this.

It's more than just man babies. They have an actual effect on society and it's not positive.

That's ONE example of what they've done here.

[Deadpooled]

I remember when the Guardian used to be respected for having a fair stance on news, nowadays it has become a disrespectful liberal baiting tabloid trying to make news instead of reporting what actually happened.

[rainslacker]

Personally, I don't care if a game is a "feminist game" so long as that representation is addressed in a thoughtful and interesting way. I don't turn away from interesting stories or games just because they may have some agenda attached to them.

However, if that agenda is superficial, and uninteresting, then I'd be very crtical of the game, and say how such things tend to cause the game/story/whatever to suffer.

Good example would be Xenosaga. It had some extremely heavy promotion of Gnostic principals within it's story, which is something that the creator believes in. But he did that promotion in an interesting way, and the story didn't suffer for it. I don't think it was written in a way to say one should believe such things though. Then you have things like Passion of the Christ, whose story suffered heavily for the ideas it was trying to promote....even though the original story it's based off of is very interesting.

[kenwonobi]

What completely unprofessional way to talk of a game. It's made by Guerrilla. Not even a American company. Resident Evil 20 years ago had a female lead. What are these idiots thinking? There are games left and right with females and they choose this one?

[Pantz]

sick of politics leaking into gaming which *to me* is supposed to be fun

[kenwonobi]

For real. How did the Guardian get any say? They are not aware games have female leads? They are that far behind the times?

[WeAreLegion]

Jesus Christ

Give it a rest.

How do we downvote sites?

[UCForce]

Also, Here the video about the game and the character of Aloy : https://youtu.be/h7-xqviy4d...

[Yohshida]

One more :
https://www.youtube.com/sha...

[ninsigma]

You disservice the game by forcing this agenda on it.

[ThatGuyDart]

Oh F*** No!!! You feminists will NOT hi-jack this game for your agenda like you did The Last of Us! How about we all just play the game and enjoy it FOR ONCE!!!

[BlakHavoc]

Even with the last of us it makes no sense to say that's a feminist game. Why? Cause Ellie's female? Nothing about TLOU imo would suggest that they're advocating women's rights in the game. It's solely about a grown man and a little girl trying to survive through an apocalypse.

[SpinalRemains138]

Soooo, it's Terminator meets Avatar meets Planet of the Apes. How original.
I'm very excited for the release, and I want to play this game and enjoy it. It's just that the narratives explained within the article are hardly new or brave.

[gamer7804]

So tired of these articles, wish I didn't give them a click... won't be reading anything else from the guardian.

[Shadowsteal]

They just had to throw in the word "feminist". Makes you wonder if the author even knows the meaning of the word.

[Diffraction_Fos]

They'll just lazily point towards the dictionary definition, which we all know is BS, especially in recent years. Real world actions speak louder than words in a dictionary.
For example, the official dictionary entry of North Korea is "Democratic People's Republic of Korea". But we all know its not even close to that.

[GrimDragon]

Please don't ruin a good game by injecting feminist bs into it.

[Dario_DC]

Just fucking stop FFS...

[opinionated]

Wow a female character, what a courageous display of feminism lmao. So 2017.. Moronic mountains out of molehills.

[rainslacker]

Guess it's better than a game being called sexist because it has a male character.

[opinionated]

Is it though? I like it better when they show their true colors by hating on males instead of latching onto every female character like it's some subliminal call to arms.

[rainslacker]

Maybe it's just two sides of the same coin. Hard to make heads or tails of it either way.

[CrystalFantasy]

This will make virgin idiots angry. :D

[andrewsquall]

So Aloy is a feminist in the game and she is tackling edgy topics? Or its a game where you go around attacking and killing wild feminists? (if it were called a "zombie action game" you would be no doubt going around killing zombies)

But seriously, what a dumb title for an article. I need read no more.

[andrewsquall]

Haha and I guess somebody agrees because the title of this PREVIEW article has been changed from "Feminist Action Game" to "Horizon Zero Dawn REVIEW The Guardian".

I'm not sure which one is more wrong and stupid now since it is a Preview of the game and it still isn't a Feminist Action genre game

[fluxmulder]

Ignore the media's attempt to politicize our games. The Guardian isn't even a reputable game media outlet so who cares.

[CrystalFantasy]

I didnt know there were any reputable gaming outlets to begin with.

[fluxmulder]

I don't take any of these magazines seriously (Time, Guardian, Forbes, etc.). They seem to have started covering games in the past few years, and only because there's a profit in doing so.

[J-DARKnes]

What???

[KillZallthebeast]

Lol why does it matter if its a man or woman? I haven't seen the creators once make a big deal about their female lead so just drop this pointless agenda.

[SweetLeafSmoker]

"During our demo, we played the opening three missions, a couple of side quests and a point later in the game to see some different kind of robots. From this snapshot, though, it’s clear Horizon Zero Dawn is launching at the perfect time in our own history, with a heroine to match the prevailing mood. Lara Croft emerged as a highly sexualised entity into the era of lads’ mags and Page Three pin-ups, her feminism buried beneath swathes of marketing focused on her other assets. Aloy arrives into a culture where Everyday Sexism and online bigotry are being called out and tackled, where gender and mental health issues are being framed and discussed.

Horizon Zero Dawn manages to hint at all this. In the opening 15 minutes, there’s an LGBT reference that caught us pleasantly off-guard, while an early side quest has Aloy dealing with a man who has mental health problems and you’ll have to decide what happens to him and the way you handle the situation."

So basically a LGBT reference and a side-mission about a man with "mental health problems" is what this guy uses as his claim of feminism..

HAHAHAHA..

Someone really needs to go research feminism and truly understand what the concept is all about... because Horizon: Zero Dawn definitely has absolutely nothing to do with it.

[Ristul]

I wont let this article spoil this game for me, I will just ignore it.

[RedDeadLB]

I wasn't waiting for a feminist action game.

[TomKnowles]

A game featuring a female protagonist is automatically a 'feminist game' now? What is happening to the world?

[PixelGateUk]

WOMUN IN GAM? NO NUDE? MUST B FEMISNISMZ. But really, this people who seem to overlook (often on purpose) games with female leads for the sake of pushing their lop sided point is getting pretty silly now

[StormLegend]

Here we go again with this BS

[madpuppy]

"the feminist action game we've been waiting for"

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

I really don't think anybody at Guerrilla Games used the phrase "feminist action game" to pitch Horizon Zero Dawn. I love how articles like this co-opt a game that just happens to have a female lead, into the feminist agenda.
Also, there are plenty of games out there that have Strong Female leads and no one says anything about them being "feminists action games", From Metroid to Alien: Isolation and heavenly Sword. lots of great female characters in gaming that have been around way before every feminist with a College degree in "Womens Studies" started banging the drum of "video games are made by misogynist to cater to misogynists" (translation: anything male or enjoyed predominantly by Men is inherently misogynist.)
The reason why is that if these games with strong female characters have always been around the Feminists agenda against the Video games industry has no purpose (which is doesn't) and people like Anita Sarkeesian Couldn't profit off exploiting the video game industry and would have to find a REAL job that ACTUALLY involves adding value to the world in some way.

[BlakHavoc]

Wtf about this game is feminist? Just cause Aloy is a strong female lead doesn't mean the game advocates feminism. I didn't get any kind of vibes from this game that one of the main plots is going to be based around Aloy being deprived of equality cause she's a woman. Really confused as to why you're calling this game a feminist action rpg?...

[Sm3000]

You're making lara croft feel bad, I just want you to know

[PolishWingedHussar]

Wait, since when is feminism applicable to video game genres? As others have stated, if a game is good and the story is well-developed, the gender of the protagonist really doesn't matter.

[discobastard]

Next we'll have those guys at PETA complaining about her wearing fur...

[G20WLY]

Lol don't give them ideas!

[rainslacker]

One day when Skynet takes over, the machines will cite this game as anti-robo, and a sign of just how backwards we were back in the day.

[trooper_]

I'm a female and even I feel this feminist thing is annoying.

[opinionated]

*high five*

[G20WLY]

You go girl! ;^P

[Mrveryodd]

omg

[Gwiz]

You really needed to squeeze that " popular " tag in there didn't ya?.

[spicelicka]

Don't click this shit article ffs.

[Chaosdreams]

...Sure...or you know...it's a game...with a hero...who happens to be female....so....that's cool.

There must be something I overlook or just don't get. My first thought when the game was revealed, wasn't "Ah, where's the dude?" it was "This looks awesome!"

[ILostMyMind]

lol Alert: Text already starts with spoiler.

So if a game has a female main character, it is a feminist game. If it has a main gay character, it's a gay propaganda game. If it has a black main character, is it a game with racial politics ...?

Society is completely lost.

[Kokyu]

I dont mind Aloy being female, I played tomb raider and enjoyed it fine. I did notice that a lot of the main and lead roles are women though which made me wonder if this was more beta male feminism being pushed but lll wait and play the game and then make a decision.

[uth11]

Feminism isn't inherently bad, if it's actually about equality.

It's today's SJW feminists that have poisoned it with their anti-male and female supremacy narriatives.

Edit: why does autocorrect turn male into malware but not fix a misspelled "supremacy"?

[opinionated]

Feminist auto-correct.

[uth11]

Lol, I thought about that after I edited.

Male = malware.

[MilkMan]

ZZZzzzzz

[DanteVFenris666]

Man a lot of people on here hate the word feminist. I can't believe that's a trigger word for so many people. why create drama for yourself. A good game is a good game, I play good games. So I'm going to play horizon no need to think further.

[Gwiz]

Because it's synonymous with a lot of drama within the industry which we as gamers didn't create.

[Judochopjames]

The definition of feminism is "the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes."

Are you in favor of women having the same basic human rights as men? Then congratulations, you're a feminist.

Do you not consider yourself a feminist? Then you are opposed to women having equal rights with men.

Any other version of feminism is simply a strawman version of feminism. Saying "feminists hate men" is the same as saying "christians hate gays" or "muslims are terrorists". All of those things are anecdotally true but not of them are broadly true.

[opinionated]

I'm not a feminist because women already have the same rights as men. They have for decades, the movement is literally useless in my country. If these people were fighting for women's right to go to school without being stoned to death in some backwards Middle East country then I could understand. But they dont, they couldn't give a shit about women in the Middle East.

[Judochopjames]

You're a feminist if you support women having equal rights to men in general, it doesn't matter what rights women currently do or don't have. Do a simple thought experiment, would you support women having their right to vote being taken away? Most people (hopefully) would say no. If you say no, you're taking a feminist position. Also, feminism isn't some nationalistic ideal. It's not like it only applies in the country you live in. If you're opposed to women being stoned to death in some backwards middle east country, you're still taking a feminist position. My suspicion is you've already wrapped your identity up in not being feminist and you're unable to genuinely engage with the facts around the issue as a result.

[rainslacker]

There are issues with women being discriminated against even today. In those cases, feminism is still relevant. Outside of that, most feminism today is about removing stereotypes, and removing the barriers that still exist within societal perceptions and bigotted viewpoints.

Despite women legally having all the same rights as men in most cases, the real world practice of said rights is not ubiquitously practiced.

It's not to say that the kind of feminism being talked about here(modern radical feminist) is worthwhile, because it's more about being the victim of oppression through representation which somehow holds women back, despite there being no real world analysis which supports this conclusion.

Nothing they do really changes anything for anyone in the real world, and I think a lot of people on here recognize that....which is why they speak out against it, and then you get comments like Judo's which tries to make a straw man argument to shame us for speaking out against the radical movement and it's methods, by implying that we are somehow misogynistic because we don't support modern feminism.....despite the fact that Judo specifically defines what feminism is, and can't see that actual feminism is in no way actually a topic of discussion with the article, the game, or even what most people are complaining about.

[opinionated]

I don't want segregation or slavery to come back but that doesn't make me a "blackenist". Equal rights are equal rights, if I support equal rights for everyone it doesn't make me a feminist. I don't Balkanize the society into different factions, "separate but equal" is the opposite of real equality. If you are a feminist in modern America advocating for rights you do not have then you are ignorant, plain and simple. You don't know what your rights are. Not you personally, you in general.

[Judochopjames]

You seem to be caught in a logic circle at this point. Think of it logically and not emotionally. Feminism (x) = equal rights for men and women (y). You're saying, I support equal rights for men and women (y). If you support (y) you must also support (x) because they are the same thing. While you don't have to necessarily identify actively as a feminist, you are being logically inconsistent if you say you support (y) but don't support (x). The only way out of this logic problem is to describe feminism as something it isn't, which seems to be the usual tactic. Feminism does not advocate for women to have special rights or for men to have less rights.

Of course, you can say whatever you want if you've decided not supporting feminism is a necessary part of your identity, but opinions and beliefs, even those people hold about themselves are ultimately meaningless in the face of logic. You could believe you were a space alien from planet Nibiru and it would have no bearing on objective reality.

[opinionated]

I am thinking of it logically. Why would the equal rights of men an women be called feminism? Let's hypothetically say men lost a right that we all had. Would it still be called feminism? Feminism = equal rights for men and women, correct? No. What kind of logic is that? It makes no sense. The word feminism is a term used for the advocation of equal rights for women, right? If men and women have the same rights then the term is essentially throw away, it means nothing. I already acknolwedged that some countries are in dire need of women's rights but I'm not talking about them. Neither are these idiots that march in the steers playing the victim card. First world feminism is a joke, that's not emotion it's fact.

[Judochopjames]

Equal rights of men and women isn't necessarily called feminism, it's more accurately called egalitarianism, but feminism is still the advocacy for equal rights between men and women. You're getting lost in semantics. Let me give you an example. Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. Philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge. Epistemology is encapsulated by the concept of philosophy. It would be bizarre to say I'm in favor of philosophy but I'm against the concept of epistemology. epistemology is philosophy. Likewise feminism is egalitarianism.

Why do we use the term feminist? Because historically women have been second class citizens in the past and have been fighting for equal rights as recently as just one or two generations ago. The problem is the assumption that because women have recently achieved equal rights that the systemic socio-economic damage caused by literally hundreds of years of oppression suddenly disappears once women obtain legal equality. You yourself have pointed out that women are oppressed in many parts of the world and have accused western feminists of not caring about those women without providing any evidence of that claim. Furthermore, the ideals of feminism are contained in the ideology itself, not in the beliefs of any individual person adopting the ideology.

In fact, many first world feminists primary cause is bringing feminism to other parts of the world where women don't have rights, and any decent person who agrees with that should support their cause. Saying "First world feminism is a joke" is not a fact, it's an opinion because it can not be factually shown to be true or false. Let me give you an example of how facts and opinions work. Yellow is a color is a fact. Yellow is my favorite color is an opinion, it's subjective and not rooted in objectively falsifiable information. My suggestion is to not hold a preconceived notion about what feminism means and to try and keep an open mind to the fact there are other perspectives that you may not be aware of.

[opinionated]

"Equal rights of men and women isn't necessarily called feminism, it's more accurately called egalitarianism"
I agree. Feminism is the advocacy for women's rights that have not been obtained. You are fighting for rights you do not have to be equal to men. Modern feminism is not egalitarianism. If it was you would just say "hey we're all egalitarians, or should be at least." Why wouldn't you use a broader term when it comes to human rights? It's not a generic example like you just used. You advocate for feminism like it's still needed here.

"The problem is the assumption that because women have recently achieved equal rights that the systemic socio-economic damage caused by literally hundreds of years of oppression suddenly disappears once women obtain legal equality."
It's not an assumption, it has disappeared in the developed world. Can you give some examples of lingering systematic oppression on women? I mean real shit, not the fake modern feminist stuff like the "male gaze", identity politics or the wage gap myth. What is some real systemic oppression that holds true to this day? I can't think of a single thing. I see a lot of stupid feminist claims but nothing of any real substance or even the simplicity of a basic definition that you mention. Help me understand. "Viagra isn't taxed but tampons are!" Kind of shit is laughable.

"Saying "First world feminism is a joke" is not a fact, it's an opinion because it can not be factually shown to be true or false."
I have nothing against the feminists trying to spread it to other countries that need it but ultimately they need to do it themselves like every country has done before them. A western feminist can only do so much. I bet they don't go over there and get as ballsy as they do over here with their victimhood.

It is in fact a joke. I can factually and physically show you how modern first world feminism is a joke relating to our rights and their philosophy. Self proclaimed feminists call modern feminism a joke. It is utterly useless and a tainted term. It's nothing but an excuse to blame failures on somebody else. A rallying cry to herd people into a boxed logic. If you don't support these loud mouths on the street then you are a woman hater even though they represent less than half a percent of women in the country.

[Greyfoxdbz]

I've lost count of the amount of newbie feminists that use the definition of feminism to defend and rationalise how shitty the movement has become. I've heard this before. it is an oversimplification of a complicated issue. it's like saying that in order to believe in equality, you have to have a feminist membership card first. Ridiculous. Feminists don't own the concept of equality and you have no right telling people that they are a feminist just because they think they do. A lot of feminism today IS man hating. for example manspreading, toxic masculinity, the male gaze are but a few terms created by feminists to denigrate men's natural desires and behaviours. Some feminists are really dumb and don't understand basic ideas. for example some feminists think that regretting a sexual experience is the same as withdrawing consent and therefore somebody has retroactively raped them. not to mention the expanding definition of rape is making the waters so muddy that it makes most people into sexual deviants. also laci green. nuff said. you have a long way to go. i know this because i was where you were once. learning and growing as a person made come through the other side and i see much more clearly. I hope the same will happen for you.

[DashArrivals]

So now you're telling people that they're feminists? In America, less than 1-in-5 women identify themselves as being a feminist. LESS THAN 1 in 5.... let that fact sink in...... sunk in yet? Good, now shut the F up and get lost. Thanks

[annoyedgamer]

N4G should be renames N4P for News For Politics with the way things are going...

[slinky123456]

Feminist by definition is equality among Genders. But they think just because it has a Female playing the lead role it is "Feminist", and never any other way. That's now how most real modern Feminists work...

Technically a game with a male lead can be considered 'Feminist' and technically should be called so if people really believe the above and the word "Feminist" really means equality. But, Feminists cater to Females, not to males. Hence the 'Fem' in the word.

[jer1122]

I really wish you would stop improving these articles they're coming out for every single game. What was the article the other day that some guy was like Resident Evil 7 with and I was like this is getting nutty. People are losing their minds . They're putting their own stories and Spins all these games let's just let the games exist and judge him if they're good games or not and just have some entertainment not everything has to be politics or social identity issues.

[Morgue]

You can't spell feminist without men.

[Greyfoxdbz]

The word feminism is not synonymous with the word woman. just because the main character is a woman does not mean this is a flagship title for your toxic movement.

[Rob_Ko]

so now every woman is a feminist......right

[DashArrivals]

In America less than 1-in-5 women identifies themselves as any kind of feminist. Less than 1 in 5. Their whole thing is a joke now. It wasn't in the past when there were real issues, but now? It's a f****kn joke.

[DrShoe]

Piss off Guardian!

[Scatpants]

I don't know, she's pretty skinny and attractive and her arms are exposed.

[The7Reaper]

And this makes me not want the game, don't you fat feminists have a McDonalds to be at? Modern feminism is a joke.

[Last_Boss]

Talk about the fucking game. Nobody cares about your agenda.

[sampson3121]

review? lol you will be sued.

[sampson3121]

:( 95% of all games have white male protagonist and i want to play them because some look really amazing but i hate that society has been, and continues to shove White male characters down our throats.

or

the social justice warriors are always trying to fit a woman in "OUR" games for some kind of agenda. makes me sick.
i want all characters to be white males and if they aren't than someone has an agenda.

wow!

just play the fucking game and shut the fuck up for once.

[Donnie81]

I don't care if the protagonist in a game is male or female. Just give me a good game and a good story.

[mogwaii]

There are people that belive in social justice, right and wrong, equality then their are what has been coined the dreaded "sjw", there is a difference but unfortuneatly the reasonable minded are far outweighed by irrational idiocy....on both sides.

[mogwaii]

Anyway the game is a reskinned farcry with a few new weapons and some bigger enemies.

[mixelon]

Back to usual.

Nothing wrong with strong female characters, and that can easily be interpreted as feminist. Just because some people see feminism as the bogeyman doesn't mean it's not something completely different to most people. Ed: they make a strong case for considering it a "feminist game" if there can be such a thing, too.

Me: Male, happily married. Proudly identify as feminist while looking out for *equality* and so on. Don't care if people think I'm a sjw. Not anti male. You think maybe there's more nuance? The guardian's readership is largely left leaning people who's angle on what feminism IS - is completely different to the interpretation of many here.

Nb: not a big guardian fan myself, most of the time.

Edit: just read the full review and I'm much more interested in it now than I was before.. see? Effective review *for the paper's demographic* - it wasn't written with gamerz in mind.

[DCadence]

This game is going to rock, anyone with a PS4 that would choose to miss out on this because of overt or covert feminist or LGBTQ+ themes... Well, I just say it's your loss.

[kenwonobi]

Not reading the guardian again. How they made this about a feminist agenda when they completely overlooked Resident Evil as a franchise whose main hero's are women mystifies me. They just took this article over with LGBT references and stupid political stuff. I don't care about that and neither do gamers. We know a gaming company which isn't even based in America and whose main franchise Killzone with hulking alphamales. They don't care about that. They just try to create a good game.

[SCW1982]

This is not a review of the game.

[Zikax]

boring game...anorher far cry with robots....

[DashArrivals]

You just described one of the most unique games to come out in the generation. Your salt is so obvious it's actually funny. Go play your shit console

[Zikax]

unique like no man sky... go do your homework

[InKnight7s]

**** on movements enjoy your life.

[rocketpanda]

Can the media stop throwing SJW labels around like candy on Halloween, The title "Horizon Zero Dawn – the feminist action game we've been waiting for" is enough to make you want to stop reading right there regardless how good it is. It is disingenuous to the developers that wanted the lead character to be a strong female lead without attracting feminist bs. I am surprised there wasn't a pop up on that review where a video for "Single Ladies" didn't play.

It seems it isn't enough we have to deal with SJW BS in daily life hoping that you didn't offend someone, lets squeeze it into gaming culture more and more like an obese person squeezing into skinny jeans so it never escapes our lives.

Does the author think Lara and Samus never existed?

[dennigo]

wrong title this is a review of a demo not the game, it's not a good read either.

[dadavis1992]

Good god, the amount of times N4G users like to use the phrase "pushing an agenda"
*EYEROLL*

[Profchaos]

Uggh so fucking stupid this is not a review its a preview it's useless fluff like most pre views are as authors never air their true feelings until a review.

Also the author reads to much into things and it comes off poorly

[TheOptimist]

To think they have the gall to ask for donations after such a stupid article. *Mindblown*
You know, you should just stop games journalism. Bringing in stupid stuff in a culture which is united by games and other nerdy stuff, please, just go do your other things, and leave gaming journalism.

[S1n8ste7]

Next thing you will know is that all characters will be non gender humans because being a MAN or a WOMAN is offensive. So then we will all confused in what happens because everything in this world is offensive. The sign of the times geez might stick my head back in the sand.

[Mister_G]

This is a PS4 exclusive produced by one of Sonys top studios so some people will want it to fail. Who's care about the gender of the lead character?

[NonShinyGoose]

This isn't a review. It's a preview, albeit a very in-depth one.

[CandarianGaming]

This review was complete garbage. All I got was it's the witcher 3 meets far cry: primal. Are there boss battles? What are the controls like? What do you do in the main campaign, what are the side missions? Garbage review

[X-Alchemist]

Lol they changed the title. Damage control.

[xastan]

This isn't a review, as the title suggests. It's a preview.

[DrShoe]

Can we ban this rag off N4g?

[KakashiHotake]

I still remember how upset people were with Watch Dogs 2 when they first saw the main character was black. All because the setting was in San Francisco. Apparently blacks aren't allowed to live there. Now everytime a game stars a female it's feminist? Apparently Lara Croft is the only exception. The hypocrisy is great indeed.

[gamer7804]

i'm no longer giving this site clicks. They have an agenda, the game was made well and looks amazing, its too bad sites have to have an agenda and try to attach that agenda to this game.

[Pixelgameruk]

This is not even a review. Its a preview based of the demo other outlets have been covering. This shouldn't have been allowed to be approved surely the Admins are watching????

[Yohshida]

Wtf is this

[spartan112g]

This article makes it seem like Rise of the Tomb Raider never happened.

[SlashHabit]

Is this the first game in history with a female lead? Revolutionary, I've never seen anything quite like it!

[MoveTheGlow]

This isn't a review. Not even close. The Guardian uses star ratings in their reviews, and this is explicitly about a demo. This weird-a** headline shouldn't exist.

And I bet it's a lot of why people are incensed - oh it's a review, and social justice is informing it!

Again, it's not a review. Just to be sure you read that.

[QUIMICOMORTAL]

a review of a demo?