Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition

Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition is a third-person open-world action RPG for PC built around tactical machine hunting, environmental exploration, and a story-driven mystery about a lost civilization. It has not been renamed on PC: Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition remains the standard bundled edition, while Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is a separate, newer storefront product rather than a rebrand of the original PC release.

Aloy's hunt is the real core loop

You play as Aloy, a young hunter and outcast raised among the Nora. The campaign moves between tribal settlements, wilderness regions, ancient ruins, and hostile machine territories as Aloy investigates her origins and the forces reshaping the world.

The main gameplay loop combines open-world exploration, questing, scavenging, crafting, and real-time combat. Aloy can use bows, spears, traps, bombs, tripwires, and other tools, with each weapon serving a different tactical purpose. Fights are not simply about reducing a machine's health bar. The better approach is to study the target, identify its vulnerable components, and decide whether to disable, stagger, override, or destroy it.

The third-person camera gives you a clear view of Aloy, nearby threats, and the terrain around an encounter. Movement, stealth, sliding, dodging, and positioning matter because larger machines can control space with charges, ranged attacks, area effects, and sweeping melee strikes.

Machines, weak points, and the Focus

Aloy's Focus device is one of the game's defining systems. It scans machines, highlights components, reveals elemental weaknesses, tracks movement, identifies clues, and exposes information hidden in old-world locations. It turns preparation into an active part of combat rather than a menu exercise.

Machine encounters are built around readable behaviors and detachable parts. You can tear weapons from a Thunderjaw, remove armor plates, target power cells, ignite flammable components, or freeze a machine before committing to a heavier attack. Smaller machines such as Watchers and Scrappers behave differently from large threats such as Snapmaws, Ravagers, Behemoths, and Thunderjaws, so the same loadout will not solve every encounter efficiently.

Elemental ammunition adds another layer to the hunt. Fire, freeze, and shock effects create openings, while tear damage helps strip components from heavily armored targets. The weapon wheel slows the action while you select equipment or craft ammunition, giving you time to adapt without removing the need to react to the battlefield.

Stealth remains useful even when a fight is unavoidable. Tall grass, sound, machine patrol routes, and the Focus's tagging functions let you isolate targets or prepare an ambush. Aloy can also override selected machines after completing Cauldrons, turning some of the world's creatures into temporary mounts or combat allies.

Progression without a rigid class system

Aloy's development uses levels, skill points, equipment upgrades, weapon modifications, outfit resistances, and a crafting economy based on materials gathered in the world. The three-branch skill tree supports different priorities, including stealth, combat, resource management, healing, and machine interaction.

Weapon and outfit coils let you tune equipment toward damage, elemental effects, handling, stealth, or protection. This is not a class-based RPG with fixed roles. Instead, you gradually build a hunter suited to your preferred approach, then change equipment when a new machine or quest demands a different answer.

The world also contains hunting grounds, bandit camps, corrupted zones, errands, collectibles, ancient datapoints, settlements, and story missions. Some activities are conventional open-world objectives, but the strongest optional content usually comes from machine encounters, lore discovery, and quests connected to Aloy's main investigation.

What the Complete Edition includes

The commercial appeal of this edition is straightforward: it packages the base game with The Frozen Wilds expansion and the principal bonus items associated with the expanded release. You do not need to assemble the main campaign and its major story expansion separately.

• Horizon Zero Dawn main game
• The Frozen Wilds expansion with new lands, quests, machines, weapons, and skills
• Carja Storm Ranger outfit and Carja Mighty Bow
• Carja Trader Pack
• Banuk Trailblazer outfit and Banuk Culling Bow
• Banuk Traveler Pack
• Nora Keeper Pack
• Digital art book

The Frozen Wilds is best treated as substantial endgame-oriented content rather than a cosmetic side pack. Its harsher northern setting, new machine threats, additional equipment, and higher combat demands make it a natural follow-up once Aloy has established herself in the main world.

Who should play it?

Horizon Zero Dawn suits players who want a solo action RPG with readable combat systems, a strong central mystery, and a world that mixes tribal cultures with advanced machine technology. It is particularly appealing if you enjoy learning enemy patterns, collecting materials, improving gear, and using ranged precision instead of relying only on close-range attacks.

It is less suitable for players looking for co-op, competitive multiplayer, a party-based RPG, or highly reactive role-playing choices. Aloy's dialogue responses can change her tone, but the campaign remains a directed story rather than a branching narrative sandbox.

The open-world structure also includes familiar map activities and repeated resource gathering. Players who prefer tightly authored missions may find the optional content uneven, while those who enjoy hunting, exploration, and methodically clearing machine territories will get more from the wider map.

PC controls, display support, and storefront details

The PC edition supports keyboard and mouse controls alongside popular gamepads, including Xbox and DualShock controllers. Key bindings can be customized, and mouse aiming makes precision archery feel substantially different from playing with an analog stick.

PC-specific options include ultrawide support, adjustable field of view, graphics settings, and unlocked frame-rate presentation. The game is designed for a standard desktop or laptop display setup rather than a specialized online ecosystem, and it has no co-op campaign or competitive mode.

Storefront behavior depends on where you own it. The GOG release is DRM-free and can be installed from an offline installer without requiring GOG Galaxy. Steam and Epic versions use their respective storefront clients for ownership and installation. There is no multiplayer anti-cheat layer because the game is structured as a single-player experience.

PC localization includes English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese variants, Polish, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Chinese variants, and several Nordic languages, with voice availability varying by storefront and language.

Similar open-world action RPGs on PC

Players who enjoy large maps, investigation-heavy quests, gear progression, and monster-focused combat may also appreciate story-rich open-world RPGs such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The two games differ in tone and combat design, but both make exploration, contracts, side quests, and equipment preparation central to the experience.

For a more combat-forward comparison, third-person action RPGs like Middle-earth: Shadow of War share Horizon's emphasis on enemy encounters, stealth approaches, character upgrades, and open-world activity loops. Shadow of War is more focused on melee combat and its Nemesis System, while Horizon stands out through machine anatomy, ranged precision, and elemental tactics.

Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition FAQ

Is Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition the same as Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered?

No. Complete Edition is the original bundled PC edition with The Frozen Wilds and bonus items. Remastered is a separate product with upgraded presentation and additional PC features. The original edition has not simply been renamed Remastered.

Does Complete Edition include The Frozen Wilds?

Yes. The Complete Edition includes The Frozen Wilds expansion, along with its additional region, quests, machines, weapons, and skills.

Is Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition multiplayer?

No. It is a single-player campaign with no co-op, split-screen, or competitive multiplayer mode.

Does the PC version support keyboard and mouse?

Yes. The PC edition supports keyboard and mouse input, controller play, customizable bindings, and precision aiming with the mouse.

Which PC edition is DRM-free?

The GOG version is DRM-free and supports offline installation without requiring GOG Galaxy. Steam and Epic ownership remains tied to their respective storefront clients.

What makes the combat different from a normal open-world RPG?

The combat is built around scanning machines, exploiting elemental weaknesses, and removing components rather than attacking one generic health bar. The Focus, detachable weapons, traps, stealth, and machine overrides make preparation and target selection central to every serious hunt.