FINAL SCORE 9.8/10
Feels a bit like female God of War and a bit of Assassins Creed. A true masterpiece. Note: I moved over from the original to the Remastered version after its release, totaling over 30h of gameplay so far. I just finished it and oh boy, the game was so good I had to buy the remastered version and finished the game in the said release.

Magnificent sci-fi adventure game with a touch of technology and humans fighting with "sticks and stones". I was reluctant at first to pick it up because my brain could simply not categorize this game and the main attraction that really drew me in was the animal robots or dinosaur robots if you will. There is nothing more satisfying than climbing up to one of those huge tallneck dinosaurs.

Positives:
+ One of the best, if not THE best level design in recent years. The transition from snow, desert and jungle is impeccable.
Better than God of War, better than Assassins Creed. The level of detail is insane.
+ Incredible cinematics
+ Fantastic art direction and design
+ Great female protagonist (Aloy - nothing forced or any DEI stuff that I reckoned so far?)
+ Playing as little Aloy was one of the greatest things ever.
+ Open world
+ Great landscape with various vegetations and different terrain. You will definitely notice that certain areas
Have their own distinct landmarks
+ Easy to follow world navigation with compass, waypoints and markers. Straight forward, should be in every game. Sigh… makes me angry to think about GHOST OF TSUSHIMA because the game has nothing about what I just mentioned. Sorry for drifting off topic
+ Overall the combat feels good. There are some aspects for improvements in terms of how she uses the staff, as in like more special attacks - that's what I would've wished for. You do have "silent kill" method though. However, looking at it from a broad perspective, it is solid.
+ The story is good and the pacing is alright
+ There are plenty of outfits to choose from
+ Fantastic Decima game engine and it runs superbly smooth. I was very, very impressed!

Neutral:
*The weapons are interesting and weird. There are some weapons where you go "alright, that's ok" (like the tripmaster where you can make traps etc) but there was truly nothing that stood out. You got the staff, the bow and loads of blueprint weapons. You also get to pick the ammo type, which is pretty cool.

Despite all the blueprints, and tech stuff, the "cool factor" was missing. The interesting thing was, some human enemies had actual guns.

*I wish there would be more cooler and modern outfits to choose from. I understand the setting and the environment but the outfits look TOO similar to one another. Yes, they serve their specific purpose in terms of damage values etc but from the visual standpoint, they could do way more. On the other hand, there are plenty of outfit mods for the pc version and that elevates the gaming experience even more. I'm waiting on mods for the remastered version.

Negatives:
The "parkour features" like jumping, climbing and connecting to objects doesn't feel as smooth as in Assassin's Creed games in terms of freedom. That applies particularly when trying to climb up to a wall or the edge of the wall. You can only climb certain spots with a yellow or grey marker that indicates an action trigger. There were many instances where I just tried to climb up the wall like in AC but it just doesn't work. You can only do so accordingly where the game allows you to do so.

Other than that, jumping from one spot to another while hanging feels almost automatic and safe.

I have to admit, I became a fan and I got totally hooked. As mentioned earlier, this game is a mix of God of War and Assassins Creed. If you like any of the said games or love to try out adventures and scifi, this game is for you. I never read about it, I never looked it up, I didn't care for its sales numbers and reviews. I just dived right in and I couldn't stress enough, it is one of THE best games in recent modern years. Even the original version looks amazing in 2024. Top that with the remastered version and it's blowing!