Horizon Zero Dawn: PS4 Feminist Reviews
Horizon firmly centers feminism as its moral compass
This is a series of feminist gaming reviews of major PS4 story-based games.
Warning: *Spoilers ahead*
I’ve discussed many of my feelings on Horizon: Zero Dawn in a previous article, but I want to revisit them for the sake of this series. In all transparency, HZD is my favorite video game of the bunch (maybe of all time?), so I may be a tad biased. It’s compulsively playable, the landscapes are breathtaking and a joy to explore, the story took my breath away, and tears were shed.
But when you get down to it, I also connected with this game in large part because it was just. so. feminist. Here’s why.
Diversity and women leaders
Our hero Aloy belongs to a matriarchal tribe, the Nora, led by elder women. The characters are robustly diverse, and they don’t seem bothered by different skin colors, features, or even different clans. Many warriors, leaders, and engineers are women, and that fact isn’t treated as if it’s remarkable. It’s normal because this is a more egalitarian society than our own. It isn’t unusual for the bad bandits to be women as well as men.
