I asked to be left alone for Mother’s Day weekend, and I spent that time wisely. Wisely as in finished Horizon Zero Dawn, the first of the Not a Challenge Backlog Challenge from the guys at Nerds Gone Platinum.

I loved everything about HZD. I understand fully why it received so many GOTY awards, and it certainly deserved them and every nomination. One thing I really don’t like in fantasy stories is this idea of an ancient civilization having so much more knowledge than the present. I’ve read this trope in so many fantasy novels, where wizards from thousands of years ago were more powerful than they are now. Looking at games, it’s in both Mass Effect and Halo; two civilizations far more technologically advanced than the present day existed thousands of years prior. HZD had the perfect setup for such a story, especially since it’s a post-apocalyptic future. In any post-apocalyptic future, the past society will be more advanced than the present. That’s just the nature of it. However, HZD was able to take this tired trope and build something else out of it.

The tribespeople always speak of the Old Ones and their meddling with machines that made the world it is today. While that is true, and all of this knowledge is lost, there’s more to it than that. It’s not simply an apocalyptic event that destroyed the knowledge. It’s not a story of “they just disappeared,” like you have with wizards of old, Protheans, or Forerunners. In fact, I was shocked to the point of gasping out loud when I learned why their plans to build a future for the planet died.

The story ended with a few questions still open, but the developers made sure you knew they didn’t forget to answer them. Instead, they created the perfect setup for a sequel, one I cannot wait to play.

The gameplay was just as enjoyable as the story. I spent countless hours hunting machines, completing side quests, gathering collectibles, and crafting everything. The grind was never tedious because I never noticed it.

But I do have a couple of gripes with game. The first one has to do with climbing, and a lot of that has to do with finishing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey right before starting HZD. You can’t take me from a world where I climb anything, anywhere, at any time, and then force me to look for designated climb spots. I felt like I regressed in gameplay, and it frustrated me at nearly every turn when I had to climb a cliff.

My other gripe was the death scenes. It never stopped being funny that a character would live long enough to tell me something crucial and then die immediately thereafter. Also, when Aloy kills the Big Bad of the Eclipse? Could it have been a more awkward-looking stab into the chest?

But those are minor compared to the 56 hours of overall enjoyment I had. I was actually a bit sad that it was over, but never fear, Twitter is here to tell me to buy the Frozen Wilds DLC. Which I did. And it’s amazing too. That’s gonna put off playing NieR:Automata for a little while.

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I have lost weekends to Horizon Zero Dawn. I’d start playing in the afternoon after my chores were done (like I’m sixteen again), and the next thing I’d know, my husband is asking what I want to do about dinner. Then after dinner I’d resume play, only to realize I’m exhausted. What time is it? I just started an hour ago. Oh, it’s midnight. Where did that time go?

Well, I’ll tell you.

I took it upon myself to do virtually all of the overworld stuff before getting too far into the story missions. Basically, I’d see a story mission that’s oh-so-far away, so I killed time (and plenty of machines) along the way. Cleared out bandit camps. Explored cauldrons. Climbed Tallnecks. Crafted all the things. Cleared corrupted zones. And of course, completed every side quest (!) that popped up along the way.

Almost. Completed almost every side quest along the way. I hate the Hunting Grounds challenges with a passion, so I did enough to get into the Hunter’s Lodge and promptly shunned the rest. I realize this means I won’t get the Platinum trophy, but I hate them so much, it’s not worth it.

But because of all of this adventuring, I didn’t really progress the story at all until I was level 40. Now, all I have left are story missions, and I know I’m near the end of them. I have the ultimate override, I know what happened to the Old Ones, and it’s time to hunt down the Big Bad. While I’m extremely overpowered for the story missions at this point, I have to say that the side quests do not mess around. Even though I’m ten levels over the recommendation for the later corruption zones, the corrupted Rockbreakers are no joke.

Not to mention, that Hunter’s Lodge side quest to hunt down a Stormbird? Holy HELL. Thank God I was wearing the ultima armor, or I would have gone through all of my medicinal reserves. I’d rather fight two or three corrupted Thunderjaws alone than deal with another Stormbird. It didn’t matter how many ropes I used to tie him down. The fucker always found a way to break free and stay on my back. I’ve yelled, “Get off me!” less when fighting Sawtooths.

I should finish this weekend. I plan to pull the Mother’s Day weekend card to get solo time to play and finish it. After that, I need to find a non-open world game to play before I move on to NieR:Automata. Which, after looking at my unplayed library, points to Mortal Kombat 11 as practically my only option.

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I am pleased to say that over this past weekend, I finally started the backlog challenge-not-a-challenge from Nerds Gone Platinum. First up on the list is Horizon Zero Dawn. This is a game I’ve started twice before. No idea why I didn’t continue each time, but I’m sure it had something to do with game reviews. Or maybe a new game release. Who knows.

This is the first time I’ve actually attempted the Proving.I’m not sure if I’m grateful or mad that I didn’t do it sooner. If I had, I definitely wouldn’t have stopped playing. While I would have known about its greatness sooner, I probably wouldn’t have gotten any work done either. It’s a toss-up between loving it sooner and not getting in trouble at work. Perhaps this is best, where I can love it AND not fall behind review deadlines.

Regardless, I’m finally playing it, and I’m having an absolute ball. I already see myself clearing out all of the side quests and collectibles.

That said, though, I doubt it will take me 123 hours to complete, unlike Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. That’s another reason why I’m glad I waited until now. HZD‘s map intimidated me back then. After playing ACOdyssey and dealing with that massive of a map, I’m not sure what would scare me. I was cleaning my office over the weekend a bit, and just for grins, I pulled out my strategy guide maps for HZD, ACOrigins, and ACOdyssey. What was once overwhelming now seems completely doable and “not as bad.” When it comes time to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, I’m going to have to hope that map isn’t ACOdyssey large either.

I also see myself hunting down all of the machines. Literally all of them. I love easy ways to become overpowered. It’s how I roll in RPGs, action games, and action-adventure. Actually, it’s how I roll in all games.

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Last year, the Nerds Gone Platinum podcast invited me to be on their show the episode they were going over their Backlog Challenge. I gotta explain their Backlog Challenge, because this is one of the coolest ideas I’ve heard for backlog in a long time. Perhaps in ever.

The three members of the podcast each presented their entire backlog for the PlayStation 4. The other two members picked 20 from the list that he would have to play. If he vetoed one or noped out of the game, they got to pick two more to take its place. Whoever doesn’t finish or finishes last has to buy the others a $50 PSN card.

When I was on the show, they asked me to go back over their individual backlogs and pick five games for each of them that they need to finish. They call it their “Not a Backlog Challenge.”

Since then, they’ve egged me on about my own backlog that is pitiful beyond belief. I finally turned in my list for them, and I waited in agony as they picked three games for me, one from each of them. Here’s what they chose for me (really small games):

• Horizon Zero Dawn
• NieR:Automata
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

I basically have my entire year planned for me. I honestly wasn’t sure when I could get to it, because as Managing Editor for PSLS, I reviewed a lot of games. Well, then THAT went up in smoke, so I don’t have many other excuses. Well, I had one, and it was that I wanted to finish Assassin’s Creed Odyssey first. Now that I’m not having to review a bunch of games every month, I really can work on finishing one game before I start another one. You know, that thing that most normal people do?

Well. This weekend, I finished Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. All side quests done. All of the “lost tales of Greece” from DLC done. Other than The First Hidden Blade DLC episodes, there is literally nothing else I can do in the game. Well, I could always go stabbing in forts, because new regional leaders are always cropping up, but there’s only so much stabbing one can do before that gets monotonous.

So. It’s time. Never mind the fact that I have The Division 2 staring at me, begging to be played. Or Anthem, for that matter. It’s time to set down with Horizon Zero Dawn, yet another open world game. I bet it’s full of question marks that I’ll have to clear out before I can move on to do anything. Hopefully this won’t take as long as ACO did (final clock time was 123 hours upon the Platinum trophy unlocking).

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