HFW is a superb open-world game that is challenging, deep, and immersive. A complex storyline made easy to understand because many of the protagonists, like us, are in the dark about their past and struggle to understand the complexities of their world and their true place within it. In this respect, you learn alongside Aloy, giving you an appreciation for the tasks at hand, and the incredible backstory that comes with this game. Visuals are immaculate, gameplay smooth, and HFW keeps you moving and looking forward to that next step. Side missions are almost necessary to putting pieces of a puzzle together in an effort to understand this world and the tribes and cultures (and enemies) within it. Everything holds value in this game, and hours can be spent solving a puzzlr or defeating a side mission that in relation has little to do with the main campaign. This is satisfying for those who aren't looking for short thrills of your typical 1st or 3rd person shooter. TFW is an adventure in this way. If you're the type to skip the cutscenes, doesn't read the data logs, etc., then the gameplay alone may leave you wanting a little bit more, although the action is intense when you let it unfold and go in guns-a-blazin'.
Where HFW falls a bit short is being a little too immersive, especially in terms of Aloy's inventory, weaponry, outfits, catlogues of attack strikes, special powers (I like to call them purple powers), foods to eat (power-ups), skill point categories, and so on, and so on, and so on...The constant push and pull of what to wear, what weapon to include in your weapon wheel, what potions to craft, can bog down the gameplay, to the point where I seemed relegated to use my standard weapons and attack plan throughout most of the entire game, save for when I had an insanely hard time killing an enemy or machine-beast. This part of the game was overthought, and detracts from Aloy's brilliant world and the ecclectic mix of missions and tasks she is given. In this respect, HFW is probably one of the best open-world games of all time. In breadth of action it far exceeds HZD in scope and purists will likely appreciate the incredible and immersive array of activities to see and do.
If I could, I would give it a 9.5/10