The Absurdity of Feminism as Shown by Horizon Zero Dawn 

Let me know what everyone (if anyone lol) thinks!

At a certain point in the game I noticed something that just ruined everything for me. Besides I think like 2/3 men in the game. Every single man you interact with in the story, is fundamentally a bad person. They will either be violent, cruel, duplicitous, vicious, neglectful, cowardly, cruel, have substance abuse issues and will generally be overshadowed by the women in their lives. Any good men in the story get killed. This is basically without exception. It is so constant that it made the story very predictable. If I found a man who had a quest I could tell it was going to be one variation of those above. Even when you find a man in the game that seems like he has good motivations, as in his daughter is missing you later find out that he was neglectful and didn't pay attention to her issues. It made every quest just tedious as I just waited for how the man was somehow bad and then I can fix it. This IS NOT GOOD WRITING. It's just ridiculous. Find me more than 2/3 men in the entire game who are actually good people, but not just good people. Like the sun king for example, finally a good ruler, why was he a good ruler, why because his mother raised him right off course and his father was a religious psychopath that liked to sacrifice people to the sun god...can...can...can we just not for one fucking person. The fact that I automatically have expectations regarding the character of a person just because they are a woman or a man is just ridiculous. If I meet a woman in this game, I can automatically tell that she was most likely some virtuous person that was in some way hurt by some evil man. Allthough when I met Sylens I was like...ok, he's black, so the SJW's that made this game most likely won't make him evil. Allthough he is still a man, so it could happen. Was pleasantly surprised they actually made him a pretty complex character that was great to interact with. And then just at the end...bam...evil. Its just so stupid. It is so fucking grating its unbelievable.

It's a fantastic game but the feminism is really cringy and annoying everytime I get to choose what to say I can never say something nice because alloy always has to be incredibly defensive and acts like she knows everything and is better than the rest

As I played the game until the end one thing got more and more obvious: while all the female characters are strong and capable, almost all men and boys are either weak, pussies, evil, assholes, or downright useless. Yes, there is an exception, and that's Rost, but he plays the father role so he gets a free pass out of this but that's about it. Probably every other male character I can encounter in the main quest line is one of the things I mentioned above... and I repeat: weak, pussies, evil, assholes, or useless. There are bad female bandits, yes, but that could hardly compare to the ubiquitous "badness" and uselessness of men and boys. It's too obvious not to notice so don't pretend like you didn't. They basically hammer you in the face with it. I don't care that they made the females strong and good and capable, because females CAN be strong and capable. But they just HAD to make the men and boys so disappointing or despicable. If every character in the game was gender-swapped, I GUARANTEE you there would be outrage, particularly among feminists.

Just finished this and had to come on to see if anyone else noticed that all the male characters were comically flawed; either cowards, creeps, brawlers or drunks while all the female characters were strong, logical, calm, compassionate, etc. It got a bit too much with the misandry. It makes sense for Aloy to be a Mary Sue - she’s you, after all, and you have to win in the end. Strong female characters working together makes sense in the Nora tribe, but the farther away you go from your home, the more likely female characters will behave like any other character, i.e. have moral weaknesses and issues of their own. That being said, the back story all falls into place; it is amazing and tragic, and I loved it.

As Bill Burr put perfectly in a Conan interview ... "They don't want their shit. They want OUR shit. I think it's because we're happy, we're just sitting there enjoying ourselves, having a good time without them, it drives them nuts, and they just gotta go in there and ruin it."

Also, saying "it's nice to see a strong female character" carries with it the implication that there aren't strong female characters in gaming, or hasn't been for decades, which isn't true.

It gets much worse in Horizon Forbidden West.

This game is subtle with its liberal agenda. Gotta have all the races here in the same tribe for some reason, everyone gives Aloy shit for being an outsider or a savage Nora but not even a hint of sexism? Lot's of quests where you save guys that are portrayed as weak or wives that make you go hunt for their silly husbands. Nothing like this with women in the game who are all portrayed as very strong and independent. Either the guy is a soft-spoken wimp, a stereotypical evil guy, or an asshole. Rost is a decent father figure but even he's portrayed as cold and distant in most scenes. Once you pay a little attention you notice this narrative starting to form it becomes obvious. I can keep going about the personalities of certain old civilization members that were very skewed towards "girl power" and "men are stupid and break everything haha" but I don't want to spoil anything. Needless to say, the Devs knew exactly what they were doing when writing this. That said I still enjoyed the game but my god this liberal trash is coming into games these days and it's very hard to ignore it anymore.

Alloy felt more like a teenage boy than a woman. I hated how the developers made every male character either weak, feminine, or a jerk.

As a woman myself, the feminist undertone of the game is a little off putting. I understand they want to show women in authority and powerful positions but it’s like they’re trying way too hard.

I just picked this up on sale last week because ... yeah... the gender of the lead character doesn’t and never has really mattered to me. The trailer looked cool so I bought it. And yes.. it is a very good game. Great story. Great gameplay.... but the more I played I noticed how every man in the game is portrayed as a total pussy and all the most brave and formidable characters are women. So I decided to search to see if this was discussed. It’s as you say. They just gender swapped every character. It’s comedic once you realize it. Either way... the money is spent. I’ll finish it, It is a good game after all but not because of how woke it is.

Aloy seems uncomfortable with anything resembling gender difference. When one of the few sexual innuendos come up - she is quick to dismiss them, even showing signs of annoyance. She seems reluctant to call weapons 'she', although goes along with it when upgrading them in the DLC. I tend to see the feminist angle more with the supporting characters - women being competent, while the men are mostly oafish. This begins to grate after awhile and made me long to get back to killing machines alone - away from the thinly veiled politics.

Same thing with me - just finished the game and wtf EVERY SINGLE male character in the game is weak, evil and stupid as fuck. Every single one. It got to a point where I just started skipping all dialogues because I knew male character will be evil or stupid. Bad and absurd writing. This was discusting.

"...men and women are different." Amen brother!

The first part of the game, I didn't notice anything out of ordinary. Aloy being the way she is made sense for me, as an outcast, she'd always rebel against authority, have a chip on her shoulder, and have some edge in her attitude. She can also be very principled because she was raised by Rost, a very moral person. At first, I thought Nora was suppose to be a matriarchal tribe, so their portrayal of strong women such as the original war chief and the matriarchs, even at the expense of portraying weak/bad men was ok if this wasn't omnipresent in the game. But problem was obvious once my game progressed to the Sundom/Carja territory, because it was still like this everywhere. The hunter lodge, the towns, the priests, etc... I don't have problem with strong women, but I just don't understand why that has to come at the expense of portraying most of the incompetent/weak/evil characters as men, even the scientists during Project Zero Dawn.

I was almost finished with the game when I finally realized that the npcs I talked too were 90% female and minorities. This in itself isn't a bad thing but once you learn the meat of the story and how things were supposed to be in the future its just points to the sjw bullshits infused into this game. That took away from the story for me as well.

My immersion was broken the minute I started noticing all of this.

Every competent character, besides Stylus, was female. While every villain/asshole was male (8/10 times they were white)

I honestly never even realised this, because coming out of the Nora lands, the feminist tones seemed well explained so I guess I just kind of kept that "yeah that checks out" attitude even to the west where its maybe not so realistic to happen. However I disagree that Aloy is a shallow character. I can get behind her working as either gender, that's completely true. But I think she is a great character, if a little mary sue-ish, not without explanation tho. She has decisive development, an alright sprinkling of personality 'flaws', although they are rather subtle and could have been expanded upon further, and she has some really powerful narrative moments.

I loved the game.. However I was very turned off by how sexist she was towards men. My fiancé completed it after I put it down. Her demeanour really put me off. If I play it again I will skip the dialog. At one point a guy asked for her help and she says "not my problem", this is after he helped her! Beautiful game, I like the story, *hate* the main characters attitude. She isn't strong she is self absorbed.. Thinking about her as you say behaving like a man? Yea I can stand behind that theory, a man in a woman's body sprinkled with a tad testrone filled sass.

also...the setting... It is set in a primitive era, in an era, where gender roles were perhaps the most prominent. ...but since Aloy was raised by an outsider, not complying to social norms of the time, it seemed possible for her to develop skills, that could match a man when it comes to hunting. However, every tribe had warrior women, which is rather unrealistic considering the era Horizon wants to imitate. Aloy gender should have played a much much bigger role, since what she did, is something usually the men were doing.

In context, it make's sense she didn't have any femine traits about her. No one would talk to her growing up except one person, Rost.

Spoiler alert. Cringy feminism is not about Aloy, She is ok. Playing with this caracter was very good and entertaining. But the other characters... oh god.. Super genious and world saver inventor woman against an ambitious university abandoned white male businessman. also, Great super brave warrior commander Sona, which is a female and an annoying discriminator incompetent male chief(ruling while she was out fighting.) ther are two siblings, male one is childish, drunk lack of responsibility (erend-) the other one is Elsa, who is female and great warrior, commander, saviour of the city and the best councelor of the submissive characterized male king. And then, a secret agent like female character Vanasha, which has super duper abdominals, saves the ass of chief male soldier. And also there is a side quest- "saving daradi" at this quest, a male scumbag brother conspire a massacre to get his all family killed, to get the farm and land for himself. and then his sister becomes the only survivor, and reveals how asshole he is. Not need the mention, All Bad Characters are male. There is no single female bad character, rather then nameless bandits..Dude this is pure sexism and evil. This has nothing with equality. Sick minded sexist pure propaganda.

This is basic stuff, we are attracted to you (women) because you are something that we are not, and we can never be. Opposites attract, if you behave like a man, it's just not attractive anymore. It's like living with another man.

The further you go into the story the more you notice how female heavy it is, and exactly with the point of the video, you notice it and start to get annoyed by it, 'cause all the female characters you encounter pretty much behave and look like men and all male characters are reduced to almost being lame npc's, you can also tell 'cause there's not a single good looking female in the whole game, making sure women don't get "objectified"

Funny how when the last of us 2 came out, this looks nothing compared to it.

Dude Zero Dawn is at least a bit more subtle about it, Forbidden West doubles down and in the DLC they triple down on making 99% of men Bad,Weak,Narcissistic or useless and is women who have the solution and men are in their way.

Unfortunately it's the same in the sequel. It might even be worse. But that could be the better VA and mocap making the moustache twirling bad man evil male/ incompetent bumbling useless male saved by rational competent female trope even more noticeable. The game constantly beats you over the head with it. And I'm only in the baby tutorial open world area. I had to take a break because it can be pretty unrelenting. And hey if you don't see it, cool I wish I didnt either. But it's there, strong and obvious to the point it ain't an accident.

And people wonder why Breath of the Wild is considered the better open-world game of that year. Horizon is certainly better than most western-developed games of its kind, but it still suffers from the same problems, such as homogenisation, superficial content, uninteresting movement, restrictive or tedious exploration compared to the likes of BOTW and Xenoblade 1 & X, and a try-hard story that aims to please everyone and pander to the feminist crowd. These problems, again, aren't as severe as its contemporaries, like the multitude of Ubisoft sandbox games. But if I wanted to explore the wild, forage, and come up with my own solution to problems, Breath of the Wild has that in spades. If I wanted to immerse myself in a compelling, emotional and well-thought-out story accompanied by top-notch world building and an inventive combat system, Xenoblade 1 is the perfect game, and Xenoblade X's movement and pure freedom to try, fail and succeed on my own wherever I go has yet to be rivalled. I like Horizon a hell of a lot more than the rest of Sony's mediocre PS4 exclusives, but even then, their two good Japanese games, Bloodborne and Gravity Rush 2, do what it does far better. Bloodborne's gameplay has high stakes and a rewarding pay-off for those who accept the tough but fair challenge. I know both games aim for something mostly different, but the fact that I can save at a campfire and just throw myself at the enemy as many times as I need to until I win without the fear of depleting my resources just feels like I finally ticked off another piece of busy work. Gravity Rush 2 was arguably Sony's last good PS4 exclusive, letting you fly/fall, explore at your own leisure, and wander each district as soon as you enter the first main area of the game. It especially saddens me that Sony didn't even bother to market Gravity Rush 2 upon its release, which was another game featuring two female protagonists, that didn't feel the need to masculise either of them. Kat felt like a real character with charm and charisma not present from any of Horizon's characters. Yet I don't see any feminists heralding GR2 as a worthy contender for GOTY or best open world game of that year. Its story carried far more emotional weight without having to take itself seriously at all times, and just the very act of moving in that game was dream-like and instilled a sense of child-like wonder within me. I mean for god sake, what happened to Sony's games being fun, and experimental? Gravity Rush 2 felt like the last non-VR game to be anything like that Remember when PlayStation exclusives got you giddy to return home after a long day, because not only was the gameplay fun, but the characters were fun to learn about? The atmosphere was enjoyable to experience? The premise and concept of the game aimed to instil joy in the player, and executing that was a developer's top priority, rather than focusing all resources on visuals and other superficial elements that don't even supplement the game? So I have to ask, why would you go for this game when even Sony themselves published a far better sandbox/open-world game that same year on the very same platform? What it brings to the table is machine combat, dem graffix, and.... that's about it, really. The market is over-saturated with open-world games, so why not play the examples that breathe new life into the genre and don't try artificially lengthening or padding themselves out? Gravity Rush 2 accomplished far more and succeeded to a greater effect, all with an even shorter budget and less support from their own publisher.

My favorite line in the game: “I don’t like that term crazy. People called me crazy when I decided to wear a woman’s armor.”

looks like someone didn't take sociology.

I never ever comment on RU-vid videos but I wanted to thank you for making this video. I get shamed by women all the time for not having typical "feminist" views, especially about family, and you really hit the nail on the head here. I couldn't agree more. I think a lot of the male characters are portrayed as fools in the game as well, while Aloy (a typical male personality) is applauded time and time again for her bravery and perseverance when most of her achievements don't feel genuine (i.e., getting inside the door in the mountain at Mother's Heart via DNA match).

I tried to play this game... I didn't last long

that's what most people don't understand about characters like Aloy or Lara Croft. They're not successful characters for being strong independent women... they're successful for being strong, intelligent brilliantly created characters... their sex plays no role in their success. they just happened to be women.

I figured there was something about Horizon Zero Dawn that didn't feel right when I saw it. This is one PlayStation exclusive I won't be playing that's for sure.

I came to a similar realization. I absolutely loved my first playthrough of HZD, and I still love it to this day. But I was playing recently and I noticed something. I noticed how many of the men on screen were weak, antagonistic, or majorly flawed in some way. Then I started paying attention to the women and noticed just how many were strong, virtuous, and decisive. It wasn't representative of all characters and there were definitely a fair few flawed women, but every major male character seemed to be in some way subservient or flawed except Rost. Even King Avad was soft spoken and desperate to get Ersa back (I think he even said that she was a source of strength for him). There are plenty of examples like that, but ultimately it was really disappointing for me. I am sad that they felt the need to do that in pursuit of an agenda. I personally loved Erends plot line. He learned to better himself and grew as a character, but I didn't get that feeling from Aloy. It seemed like her growth was confined to the first 30 minutes of the game. I wish they had taken as much care crafting her character as Erends, but now I can't help but think that they treated her differently because they didn't want to show her as imperfect because of a narrative they wanted to push. Welp. That sucks. It feels like they limited her as a character. It also makes it frustrating for me because I get reminded of modern politics all the dang time and I would rather just escape that while I play.

This woke ideology thrown into this games story has ruined a lot of the experience for me, gameplay graphics and world are a 10/10 though

i do not get it why people find this game good it only has good looks. the world looks amazing the machines look amazing. the rest is at best mediocre. the world is empty only some boring sidequests some USELESS colectebles braindead AI on both machines and humans. worst thing are aloy and ALL sidechars facial expressions are horrible die dialogs are shit. and the voice acting is terrible worst off all are Teb and Sona. This is not a good open world game.

I'm playing it now in 2020 on pc, I like the graphics, the design, the environment, the machines, the weapons, the open world, what I don't like is just her, but not because she is a tomboy, I don't like her attitude, so entitled, so arrogant, everytime someone doubts of her she goes full defense, sarcastic, she has no struggles, she is all mighty, I'm just about 30% of the game but I'm just coping her massive ego, I enjoy the gameplay, that's all, you can tell right away she (and all the female characters actually) is feminist, even in the beginning as a child she was a pain in the ass, with her the rolling eyes intensifies

In the first game I find it hilarious that the one tribe that got their asses totally kicked and were on the verge of going extinct by the eclipse was the Nora, the matriarchal tribe. You know the one “ran by women” as Aloy put it. You know the tribe that shunned and outcast her for simply being born.

Wow - thank you for this video. Just bought the game and played it for 2 hours. Man.... What you are talking about is so real. It's up in your face.

What an AMAZING TAKE!!!! I think u literally just hit the nail on the head with whats wrong with feminism at its core... Women today... they dont want to be EQUAL WOMEN!!!.. they want to be BETTER MEN!!!

As long they are told and respectively well in both story growth and character development lastly how likeable they become in the end.

Companies will never care about the general public. This was a simple marketing tactic. That is the only reason why her character was so shallow and bland. They are cashing in on this muscular feminism the same way they cashed in on horny teenagers earlier on. They are playing you for a fool, at least most of them. Modern day feminism is one step forward one step back. It encourages woman to have self-respect but at the same time it tells them to act like men .

And herman huslt is now supervising all of sony games..dark times approaching for sony

After 3 years of when i played this game got platinium and beat the game on new game plus ultra hard spend over 150 hours in this game i finally realized this lololol, i exactly have the same opinion as you do, it is one kf the most beautiful games the gameplay is amazing but it is so funny since i just realized lmao, btw fun fact: aloy does not have a father, she is ourely born out of the woman who once saved the world because a freaky male character wanted to control the world with robots and then in the present day of aloy she once again saves the world from the fault of a black male character who passed his villainous into an angry male antagonist and then after the credit scens that black male characters seems to follow his thirst for knowledge, you can see how strong every single female character is but when it is a male character they act like 5 year olds, who saved the little sun king? That strong black fenale characters with help of alloy and then there is that meridian guy i just fogot his name who's sister just died who acts like a 5 year old, but now look at the dlc, which is the biggest character in the dlc campaign? A woman, thats right, aloy even challenges the leader of the shaman which is male and win, SOO MANY STUFF, so basically horizon zero dawn is the girly version of god of war....... now don't get me wrong, those 2 are my favorite games of all time... i am here after of the last of us 2 leaks btw

How exactly does Aloy act like a man?

Something that really bothered me is when Aloy sees a holographic recording and sees planet earth. Sylens tells her that earth is not flat as probably it was what the people think... but not Aloy she is more inteligent and schools Sylens on why the earth is not flat... she figured it out... That scene bothered me, because there is nothing in the game that suggests a reason why she would know that... ita just because she has to be the bigger brain... pfff

I saw her as someone devoid of personality, which is why she is not a character that I can look fondly upon ,she's not very memorable but the game was fun,I enjoyed my time with it and completed it

Aloy was born a clone, in a machine, and was raised and trained by a man (Rost) so her character will be missing many basic female qualities even though she’s a classic, redhead, beautiful and graceful. There’s a subtle awkwardness in her interaction with most of the Male characters, and she seems to struggle with her repressed feminine emotions. I think the writers try to bring this out in her character but unfortunately she does come across as a bit woke now and then. It’s a tricky one because the game itself is utterly stunning in all other aspects. I would have kept the little ‘ messages ‘ in the story to a minimum myself. The story, graphics, costumes and gameplay speak for themselves.

Bioware's Mass Effect Andromeda fits the same mold with its ugly and cringy characters. Thank God for mods, however. The feminist would not want to play my version of HZD or Mass Effect.

BRILLIANT overview , subscribed....can't wait for more videos from you, you have a talent.

Ok...I hate when feminists condemn women for liking "girly" things, but I also hate when dudes say that women who don´t enjoy these "girly" things means they "act like men". Both statements are equally stupid, all women and men are different, we are all individuals. We shouldn´t force anyone to fit into what we think is a "true" man or woman. Aloy is a woman, maybe acts different to the majority of women you personally know...but she´s still a woman.

A few years late but man this game is 'feminist woke'.he's right the game is good,most men in the game are depicted as fools and alloy treats almost all of them condescending,the part where there's 2 women and 2 men on a barge on a beach,the men stay on the barge while alloy and vanessa push it into the water,not saying women can't do this but its usually men who push a broken car,it would be a dick move,game is good just a bit cringe

I miss the 1990s when female action heroes like Lara Croft were an intriguing exception of the rule. I think it should have remained like that. Today strong female characters are being confused with women who are physically strong and able to compete with men in combat. It's so bizarre and delusional.

This is the best conceptual explanation of the construction of gender I've ever heard. Glad you endorse gender fluidity and support transgender people.

Great video and all, but what did your wife say after you asked “what woman”? 😯 how did that conversation go?

Didnt know they added super powers in game!

Ten hours in the game I searched the phrase "Horizon Zero Dawn SJW". So far every strong male character is either dead or evil. The remaining ones (so far - ALL of them) are wining and complaining. The game is essentially a Witcher for girls, and i am enjoying it less and less with every hour :(

I agree with you 100%. Spot on dude.

When you needed your ''girlfriend'' tell you that Aloy is more a man than a women... than you know you're gay.

You failed to mention that Aloy was mainly raised by a man, I agree with you that Aloy is very masculine in her responses and beliefs but she has a feminine side too. There are a few male characters who I enjoy seeing and have a masculine feel to them as well, (an example of this would be Varl, very in control of his emotions or in the DLC Aratak a badass male character in the frozen wilds who stands up for his Werak and acts like a true leader) If I were to break up femininity and masculinity in one word I'd say femininity is caring and masculinity is discipline. Since Aloy was basically raised by a very masculine father (Rost) she is way more masculine than she is feminine so it would make sense, I like to see that Aloy believes in what she thinks is right but isn't afraid to learn something new and I also don't think that there is anything wrong is questioning someone else's judgement. Anyway I'm biased I love Horizon zero Dawn and the new Forbidden West and maybe I overlooked some stuff within the love I have for this game and how quickly I connected to the character. Loved the video! And have a good one!

Aloy acting more or less indistinguishable from a man makes sense to me, at first. She was raised as an outcast outside of society - even other outcasts were forbidden from talking to her, and she was raised by a male character. That would definitely skew her perceptions and personality. It could have been an interesting "character flaw", or perhaps a better term would be a contrast, if it weren't for the fact that every other female in the game is similarly designed. There is no apparent femininity, and no physiological or cultural or societal differences between the sexes. At best, they could have used this to create character development - maybe a bit of internal conflict, or even to make a statement on society and gender norms. But no... that's just how everyone is in this world. Also, notice how you never see any pregnant characters or NPCs? You see children, sure, but no women who are pregnant or having that pregnancy effect their lives or professions as warriors, guards, and laborers. At least the new Wolfenstein game provided us with the absurdity of a woman late in her third term of pregnancy ripping off her shirt and gunning down Nazi death machines while screaming and covered in blood like fucking Rambo. Say what you will about it being silly or cringey or unrealistic or irresponsible or whathaveyou. At least it's fucking memorable.

Great video brother I had the same point of view but sadly couldn't even discuss it with some women at work who are into gaming because I might have gotten fired

It would be cool if she had challenges as a woman and not just as a person

You know whats the best thing for a videogame developer to do? LET THE PLAYER CHOOSE THE GENDER OF THE MAIN HERO

Thank god I finished this game before knowing that this was a feminist game yet I still hardly recall any feminist remarks. Anyways I just had fun with gameplay the most

I think its the fact that in the first game they didn't make it a big deal that Alloy is a woman that made the game better.

Um... Senua from Hellblade? She is feminine and she is a strong female character who is not famous for her sexuality.

Aloy is a poorly written charectar

I just got my ps4 pro for ps exclusives, first consule ever (i am a pc gamer, da) and given the high recommendations for this game, it was the 2nd game i got (after god of war). Graphics is just breathtaking and the atmosphere is ingolfing but after Playing this game for about 4-5 hours while being a red pilled man, i found aloy to be a winy unattractive wamen. I noticed that the game protrudes all men i encountered as weak ,winey, hatefull jerks or just plain villans, while women are strong and manly leaders. Some of the conversation options were just unnecisarily toxic, and always only towards men. I realized This game is simply woke brainwash .After the trial scene i just Couldn't stand it no more. Game Uninstalled.

Still think alloy is an interesting character

It's it really necessary to have her act a certain way? Sometimes it's just chill watching a badass female character like Ripley or Hitgirl. I do agree that if feminists are pushing Alloy as an icon then yeah not a really good one because her character didn't really struggle with her sex. But I think developers are within there right and shouldn't feel pressured to have their female characters push/engage deeply into the gender dynamic. Just like how many male protagonists are free to be badass for the sake of being so. Especially if it's just going to subtract from just visceral fun.

There's an alligory for A. I. rape in the Frozen Wilds.

I agree with many of your points, the plot feels contrived to fulfill an agenda. However there is some irony in the heaping of praise on this game by the media seeing that the plot is a reboot of Turok that eliminated the Native American protagonists.

She was raised by a man in the wilderness, not accepted by the tribe, training to hunt since she was a child, in a hunter-gatherer environment. What do you think she's gonna act like? Princess Peach?

obviously it’s important to finally have a women, a main character to who other women can relate too. it’s like the 1% of all games have a good female character. all women in the positions of authority did not feel fake or for gender balance, it’s felt very natural actually, but maybe if you live in a very male dominated, super patriarchal society, somewhere in the US, women in positions of power stand out more to you

It’s as if over 20 years of Tomb Raider has never existed. And I see the influence on HZD, especially TR: Underworld on much of the game’s mechanics. Apart from Lara Croft, or Bayonetta, and some of the Resident Evil characters, I’ve lost track of the number of action females in games over the years. So Aloy isn’t particularly remarkable in that respect, especially as Lara Croft was the original cold, aloof bad-ass - though for past decade she’s been mostly a somewhat weak whiney kid in the reboots. Despite TR’s success, it’s well-known Sony had reservations about a female lead in HZD, just as there were about a female lead in Tomb Raider back in 1996. Maybe that’s why Guerrilla played down Aloy’s femininity, or maybe it was a natural choice given her background. Either way, it doesn’t matter as women come in all shapes and sizes and temperaments, same as men, so it’s good to show that variety in fiction

The game is kind of ok (absolutely better than the lame botw), but it gets repetitive and boring real quick.

I don’t agree that she’s not feminine in character. Much of her characteristics are feminine. I do think that what you’re referring to is a big problem in the entertainment industry. Many films, comics and games have strong women by making them more masculine. And sure Aloy has masculine characteristics as well. But her feminine characteristics outweigh her masculine ones. I do agree that her gender doesn’t really play a role in the game, though I do think that the world feels more daunting because you’re a woman surrounded by mostly men. The game does set you on a path that you have to prove yourself to be strong through mental and physical strength.

verizon zero fun... cause i had no fun with it and constantly was frustrated with it

I just hated so many of the characters due to poor voice acting and horrible writing with so many one dimensional people. And fucking Aloy was irritating as hell, shes completely illogical self obsessed and emotionally driven yet is portrayed as super intelligent. How hard she finds it to understand stylens logic is proof of this. And it tries so hard throughout the plot to demonize all the men who who werent just mindless followers kissing Alloys boots. Loved the gameplay but the plot got progressively weaker as the game continued and it was full of cringe like the Elisabeth sacrificing herself after everyone had already agreed to sacrifice themselves and the listening to everyone praise her one after the other and then the crap at the end where a hologram of her turns into a blue light and literally floats over and destroys the red light. Overrated game if you ask me, fantastic gameplay, shit characters.

Aloy was a straight up bish the entire game.. Well actually idk about the “entire”, I couldn’t finish it.

Very intriguing critique.

Mary sue Reeeeyyyyyyy ......

LOL what's about the "softwares"? Gaia=good Hades, Hephestus = bad Apollo=good but useless and strangely they named the knowledge one after Apollo instead of Athena. and strangely they switched from Greek Names (Hades, Hepehstus) to Roman Names (Apollo) with no reason at all. it seems that actual Classic Mythology wasn't the favorite class among the developers. it was a nice storyline, not original at all (ie: you KNOW who Aloy is the exact moment they show you Elisabet and the plot smells PK Dick all along) but if one isn't completely blind after a few hour this game becomes ridicolous and predictable.

Yes true and i hate those games with feminist agend, playing as a female without having her attractive feminist is not working at all, for example bayonetta is a good game because you felle the real power of feminist

I only recently picked up this game, somehow it went completely under my radar, I think I just ignored it because I saw the box art and thought "nah". Only since playing the game through to near completion now have I picked up on the subtle sexism towarda male NPC's in this game, who with the exception of only maybe three: Nil, Rost, and the Carja Captain at the border gate, are either fools, weaklings, assholes, sexists, racists, or the bad guys. There are very very few male NPC's who are good/decent people, but they are either alway under the command of females, which isn't a problem at all, until they keep getting put down and belittled by the female NPC's. *None* of the female characters are like this, they are all awesome, strong, witty, cool, complex, good guy bad-asses. Let's look at the three sets of protagonists here: *main* Aloy vs Helis. Strong woman good, crazy man bad. *secondary* Elizabet vs Tim. Strong woman good, crazy man bad. *tertiary* Gaia vs Hades. Strong female AI good, crazy male AI bad. Gets pretty boring after a while, all the characters are very one dimensional, repetitive, and kind of insulting. Usually I'm all for the strong female character: Lara Croft, Elizabeth DeWitt, Emily Kaldwin, Amanda Ripley, Commander Femshep, Jill Valentine, Meryl Silverburgh... the list goes on. Point is its not difficult to get equality right. Guerilla really seem to be pining to feminists, again, if you want to make a game like that, more power to you, but this isn't the masterpiece that everyone is claiming it to be just for that reason. HZD characters just..... Suck. Elizabet vs Tim was the stories saving grace, their struggle to build the ZD project was spine chilling, fucking loved that. Aloy was kind of a self-centred miserable condescending arrogant bitch throughout the game (which nobody points out, they all praise her like she's the next Femshep, and yes even if she was male I'd be saying the same thing). Fair enough for her to start that way, but she didn't really grow as a person at all, which is shite storytelling, so... not really routing for her to succeed.

I honestly don't see anything wrong with Aloy with respect to her character. Most of the characters were pretty generic for the role they played in the story. The interactions of Aloy may be misconstrued to be "strong woman" type, but physically she was raised as an outcast hunter. Her conversational interactions with immature men were responded to by her own immature retorts. She was pretty basic as far as personality goes and they could have pushed harder on the downsides of human interaction after integration, but eh. I liked that they didn't make her a supermodel, not because of some feminist bent but because everyone was part of a hunter/gatherer type society. They should look kinda busted imo. To me, there really isn't anything wrong with how they portrayed males and females in the game. Arrogance, character wise, was spread around pretty evenly. The only problem with the game's feminism isn't the game, but feminism itself.

I personally don't think they meant anything in this game to portray feminism. Mainly because in the country this was made and I live in, feminism isn't really a big deal here. I think it was more that they wanted the main character to stand out and because of that the male characters seem weak. In my oppinion the story wouldn't work with a male lead. Because imo it wouldn't have the same impact. The fact that women are the only matriarchs I don't think they meant feminism with that either. But I can see why people see some feminism in this game and I get how you explained your points. You got a new subscriber with this vid tho :)

Feminists never knew what the Hell they were talking about.

You're so absolutely right. 🇧🇷

I'd never give this game a full 10 just because it's waay too PC-Influenced. How can one call a masterpiece something that's constantly trying to brainwash you with modern day beleifs of a particular society group.

It’s not a feminist game it’s just a regular game with a female lead.

Freya from The God of war series is the perfect representation of a strong woman. Why do feminists hate mothers

I don't think this game is meant to be feminist, but regardless, Aloy sucks. She isn't even mildly interesting and all other characters are more fun. Nothing sexist, just the writing for her character is horrible, and she lacks humanity even when compared to geralt who's a mutant barely capable of expressing emotions.

The most annoying thing about Aloy is that she knows she has been dropped into a video game and can behave like a sassy young teenager that has never encountered real problems. "Welcome stranger in our military fortress. That really evil looking massive guy over there who is military commander and suspected of committing atrocities during the war may know about the disappearance of the woman you mention.. " ... "I will talk to him!" Uhhh.... wait, little morsel. Maybe place a call to "Human Rights Watch Intertribal" first?

shit dude.. u only made one video???? are u still here??? let me know.. hope everything is ok.. and nothing weird happened to u after this video.

The way I view is it that I love Aloy not because she’s a strong female character, but because she is a good character. She has a set of core characteristics that define who she is. She’s curious, she wants to learn more about where she came from and by extension who she is, which leads her to becoming able to grasp things that she might not fully understand at first, which leads to her finding out the truth of the past and her role in it. She’s unyielding and determined. She won’t allow obstacles or traditions keep her from from doing what she needs to do or helping others. She’s confident, but at times brash and maybe even arrogant, which can lead her stumble in situations where this trait can work against her. She can be sometimes hurtful to others with her barbs, but usually only to those she doesn’t care for because of their attitudes, which go against her own values. Her last main trait is her compassion for others, no matter their tribal origins or beliefs. She is empathetic towards others and is willing to help them with their problems, even if they don’t necessarily benefit her. The problem i see with side quests in open worlds is the question of why should the main protagonist care about doing this side task instead of focusing on their own goal which is the main story. In the Witcher it’s done well because Geralt gets involved with these quests because he’s often a blade for hire, which still fits inside his character. For Aloy, she helps these people with their problems because she actually cares about their problems and wants to help, even if there is no reward for her. She doesn’t let tribal law/traditions stop her from helping others, which leads to why people give her so many titles, because she is willing to help others who might need it. Aloy’s core traits define her as a character, and can at times either aid her or hinder her, which is especially apparent in HFW, which is just as much about her own development as a character along with the main plot continuing the story. So while some may consider her a strong female character, I think of her instead as a well written character.